The local veterans of California political reporting at Calbuzz are calling shenanigans on a recent article about likely Republican candidates for premium statewide offices -- Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO running for governor; and Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO likely running for senator.
Behold the snark when the local hacks get ahold of a story filed, and filed down, by carpetbagging New York reporters and editors from the "The Capitalist's Bible" Wall Street Journal:
What’s the evidence, for example, for the assertion that “The star power of both CEOs is likely to give them some momentum.”? Clearly the WSJ didn’t check the clips for the March Field Poll in which 17% of Republicans had a favorable view of Whitman, 11% unfavorable and 72% no opinion. Fiorina’s standing was 24% favorable, 17% unfavorable and 59% no opinion — also among Republicans. That’s not momentum or star power. To suggest otherwise is to swallow the swill peddled by Whitman and Fiorina spinners.
Touché!
It doesn't help that the Journal managed to misstate Fiorina's stance on a woman's right to choose (Fiorina is anti-choice).
The Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which makes no bones about the Republican slant to its coverage (while calling it "fair and balanced," naturally).
Calbuzz is the work of former San Francisco Chronicle managing editor Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine, a former San Jose Mercury News political editor -- both Democrats if their work about Dianne Feinstein and with Gray Davis, respectively, are any indication.
And they've clearly got the independent thing down, knowing that poking fun at multinational media conglomerates is a guaranteed pageview-turner.
Jackson West will do his best to not piss off the home team by keeping his eye on the ball, promise.
