Tell CNN to stop discrediting the Asian American Vote

Please note that this petition is closed.  I created another petition site on Feb 10, 2008, and it later gained sponsorship from The 80-20 Initiative, arguably the most powerful Asian American Political Action Committee.  They utilized their vast email list to capture more tha 2,100 signatures and nearly 1,000 comments.  After negotiation, CNN and Gary Tuchman ended up doing a more balanced segment on the Asian American votes, and it featured the founder of The 80-20 Initiative, S.B. Woo.  The new segment aired on Feb 15, 2008, exactly a week later.

Aside from this effort being discussed in numerous blogs, below are two articles that spoke about the petition:  http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=44cb40c466e5c8e91f4d0e557ef911bc

and

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1714292,00.html

You may continue to leave comments, but the petition is closed and no more signatures will be delivered to CNN.

I do thank CNN -- they listened to our collective voice by airing a segment that is more reflective of our community.  Respectfully -Samson Fu
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Original Petition
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On February 8, 2008, CNN showed this segment on Anderson Cooper 360.  All in all, this segment discredits the Asian Pacific Islander American votes for Senator Clinton by saying they are either fearful of African Americans or fearful of change.  See for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFARVcHl3lk.

This is a two-minute piece by Gary Tuchman, who taped a majority of this piece in Seattle Chinatown.  Tuchman went to a local Chinese grocery store and asked the staff and customers who they support. Inexplicably, every single person interviewed had a thick Asian accent, and every single one chose Clinton (or in the case of one child, Tuchman made fun of his accent and indicated, "Lincoln").

Tuchman asked the interviewees why they chose Clinton, but seemed to edit out their answers.  Overall, either a language barrier or apathy on Tuchman's part left the segment scant on explanations as to why the Asian Pacific Islander American vote leans so heavily towards Clinton.  Tuchman did interview a fourth-generation Japanese American who supports Obama, but he was depicted as a minority, noting that other Japanese Americans are afraid to vote for a change from the status quo.

What was most clear to me was that this segment was a half-assed fluff pieced by a disinterested reporter. When Anderson Cooper asked for more details from Tuchman following airing of the piece, Tuchman launched into a description of the size of Obama's rally compared to Clinton's rally. No, not about Asian Americans, the focus of his segment. No, he talked about the size of the rallies. As if he really didn't care why Asian Americans support Clinton.

One thing is certain, Tuchman successfully spin the the Asian American support for Hillary as they hate blacks and are fearful of change.  By signing this petition, you find the CNN Asian American segment offensive, and you ask that CNN: (1) take this video off their website, and (2) issue an apology on Anderson Cooper 360 to the Asian American community of their misleading portrayal of the community.








Here's the entire transcript:

COOPER: Well, for Democrats, Washington caucuses are the single biggest contest this weekend, 78 delegates at stake there. Recent polls show Barack Obama with an edge, but hey, you know, what do the polls really mean, as we've seen before? He does have a weakness in Washington, though, a state with one of the highest percentages of Asian-American voters. It's not a block where the Illinois senator finds much support. So the question is why.

"Uncovering America" tonight, here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Chinese New Year is just underway. And in Seattle's Chinatown, people are buying festive provisions at the Awaja Maya (ph) grocery store and talking to us about the upcoming Washington caucuses, in a state that has the fifth highest percentage of Asian-Americans in the country.

(on camera) Who do you like for president?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clinton.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Clinton?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN: Who do you like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I do, too.

TUCHMAN: Clinton? Who do you like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lincoln.

TUCHMAN: Clinton. Does any -- Lincoln? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lincoln.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lincoln.

TUCHMAN: Abraham Lincoln? He's not running.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Jokes aside, that Abe Lincoln vote is one more than Barack Obama got in our unofficial store survey.

(on camera) As he campaigns in Washington state, it appears that Barack Obama has his work cut out for him when it comes to the Asian- American vote. In California he essentially broke even among white voters. But among Asian-Americans, our exit polling indicates that he lost by an almost three-to-one margin in the state that has the second highest percentage of Asian-Americans.

(voice-over) Hawaii, by the way, is the No. 1 state. So what's going on? Political scientists we talked with say many Asians and Latinos who recently arrived here are often more comfortable with what is familiar and are wary of one of the mantras in this campaign, change.

PROF. MATT BARRETO, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: They remember good times in the 1990s. There was a lot of benefits; not only the economy but other policies that benefited immigrants and, in particular, Asian-Americans that would cause them to remember the Clintons in fondness.

CLINTON: This is so amazing. I am so happy to be here.

TUCHMAN: Some people we talked with acknowledged that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her husband is, you know, ex-president of the United States. Maybe he can help Hillary Clinton.

TUCHMAN: Asian-Americans are a diverse group coming from countries ranging from Japan to India to the Philippines.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I personally think that Hillary is the candidate for the job.

TUCHMAN: But in this Seattle teahouse, a different sentiment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obama.

TUCHMAN: Travis Susaka (ph), a fourth-generation Japanese- American, offered this observation about why more Japanese-Americans don't support Obama the way he does.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd say a lot of Japanese Americans are very -- they don't like change, are kind of against change. So they would just rather vote for a Caucasian rather than taking the initiative to change what has happened in the past.

TUCHMAN: This woman actually refers to Hillary Clinton's skin color.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The white lady.

TUCHMAN (on camera): So do you like Hillary Clinton?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I like her.

TUCHMAN: Do you like Obama?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not really.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Obama had a large number of Asian- Americans at this huge Seattle rally but didn't appear to be near the percentage of the rally for the senator from New York. Advantage, Clinton.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Gary joins me now from Seattle. Are Obama's advisors concerned about this perceived lack of Asian-American support?

TUCHMAN: Well, Anderson, they're not happy about it. But they do think they will do better with the Asian-Americans here during the Washington caucuses tomorrow.

They're also very ecstatic that they got the endorsement of Christine Gregoire, the governor of Washington who made her endorsement at this big rally today.

I'll tell you, Anderson. There's no correlation between becoming president of the United States and the size of a rally. But Obama's rallies keep getting bigger and bigger. The key arena, where the Seattle Sonics play basketball, they wish they had crowds like this - more than 18,000 people outside. They say there are 3,000 people who couldn't get inside.

But I'll tell you, walk outside at one point, and there were hundreds of people just sitting on the stairs, listening to Obama talk on a loud speaker.

COOPER: All right. Gary Tuchman. Appreciate it, Gary.