Bull On Parade

Much as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann found his editorial voice attacking right-leaning politicians and their policies, CNN anchor Campbell Brown is making her name calling out campaign leaders and other newsmakers whose comments sound fishy.

Brown isn't relying on hyper-partisan rhetoric. In fact, she's making a painstaking effort to claim neutrality as her network seeks to find a middle ground between MSNBC and Fox News. Her YouTubular-rant directed at Sarah Palin's handlers for shielding her from the media? More of a show of solidarity with spurned reporters than anything else.

In Brown's "Cutting Through the Bull" segment that points out overstatements and debunks campaign ads, it's a Democratic tit for a Republican tat. It's setting the record straight on John McCain's role in the savings and loan scandal and explaining Barack Obama's relationship with violent antiwar protester William Ayers.

Brown's show is fairing well in CNN's 8 p.m. slot. According to The New York Times, the program drew an average of 826,000 viewers a night from March 10 through Sept. 28.

There's nothing wrong with a little fact checking on cable news. Pointing out absurdity has become a nightly ritual on The Daily Show. But Brown and CNN reporters don't use Jon Stewart's brand of satire -- or any humor for that matter. And therein lies the potential problem.

By rehashing the smear campaign of the day in such a serious setting, CNN runs the risk of perpetuating falsehoods. As The Washington Post reported last year:

"The conventional response to myths and urban legends is to counter bad information with accurate information. But the new psychological studies show that denials and clarifications, for all their intuitive appeal, can paradoxically contribute to the resiliency of popular myths."

It's not as if Brown invented the "fact checker" feature (newspapers have long run such columns around election season) or broke new ground by responding to puzzling sound bites. It's just that by adopting the "no bull" theme for her show, she is promising evenhanded public interest journalism in a format that rewards partisanship and quick-hitting reports.

Only time will tell if Brown's show has enough meat.