Crush Liberalism

UPDATES AT THE END THIS POST.

Shrill-ary, Shrill-ary, positions contrary, how does your garden grow?

Not only has Her Highness had a problem by planting questions at her own debates, but now she’s resorted to using plants at the other party’s debates.  From Townhall:

It turns out that Keith Kerr, retired Colonel., U.S. Army; retired Brigadier General, California National Reserve, who submitted a YouTube question about gays in the military, is actually a member of Hillary Clinton’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual Americans For Hillary Steering Committee.  He’s also part of a film production crew trying overturn the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

CNN’s retort?

In the final seconds of the post-debate coverage, Anderson Cooper acknowledges that CNN messed this up and states that CNN did not know that Kerr has a position within the Clinton campaign and that had they known, they would have disclosed the association. 

Uh-huh.  Just an honest mistake, I’m sure.  It’s not like CNN has been embarassed before for not “weeding” before debates.  Oh, wait…yes, they have.

CNN’s “vetting” process allowed many more “undecided” questioners in.  By “undecided”, I mean “people who are already campaigning for Obama or Edwards”…you know, that kind of “undecided”?  Nope…no liberal media bias!

UPDATE (11/30/2007 – 07:39 a.m. EST): This thing keeps getting progressively (pun intended) screwier and humiliating for CNN.  We’re now seeing that a CNN producer last week swore that the GOP debate would have leftist plants weeded out, and that he wanted the debate to be a debate of the GOP party…which, as Allah puts it, would “explain the six different Democrat questioners”, right?  Yep…two more Democrat plants!

As if that weren’t bad enough, CNN then admits that they never should have used General Limpwrist’s question (on account of him working with the Shrillary campaign).  But if they really felt that way, why then did they get defensive thusly?

“It’s interesting to see our critics really focusing on the questioners, but not really focusing on the questions. You haven’t heard them say that these were not useful questions.”

Dude, make up your freakin’ mind, already!  If the questions are legit and the questioners irrelevant, why say that you never should have used General Cornholer’s question?

As to the question of “Does it matter who asks the questions, if the questions are legit?”,  Allah puts it best:

As I said, it matters when they’re affiliated with a campaign and the affiliation isn’t disclosed because then you’re left to wonder (a) if they were there secretly at the campaign’s behest to try to force an issue into the other party’s nominating process for political advantage, and (b) what CNN’s motive might be in not vetting and disclosing the affiliation. All they had to do with Kerr was mention he was with the Clinton campaign. 

But why would they want to do that?  That would require journalistic competence and integrity, both of which are sorely lacking at CNN.  No wonder Fox News continues to kick their pinko #sses.

UPDATE (11/29/2007 – 01:35 p.m. EST): Byron York makes an excellent point here.  Remember when the Dems refused to debate on Fox News due to charges of bias?  If anyone should have boycotted a network’s moderation of a debate due to bias, it should have been the GOP boycotting the Clinton News Network…

Democrats would not even appear for a debate on Fox News, where they would have been questioned by experienced and respected journalists like Brit Hume and Chris Wallace.  But Republicans went ahead with the CNN/YouTube show, where they were questioned by…well, some questionable characters.

As Ace quips:

It made for sharp questioning and good drama. But if that’s the name of the game, let me suggest to CNN that they allow a paralyzed veteran with limbs missing due to an IED attack similarly grill the Democratic candidates on whether they support the Democratic Congress’ determination to choke off all monies needed for the military’s anti-IED program. Give him the mic, live, and let him harangue the Democrats on the viciousness of IEDs, and the viciousness of them putting soldiers’ lives, and limbs, in jeopardy to appease their netroots base.

UPDATE (11/29/2007 – 12:30 p.m. EST): How about this?  This queer general (Kerr) that CNN supposedly didn’t know was part of the Hillary camp was flown to the debates, put up in a hotel room, and given free transportation to and fro…by CNN!

According to General Limpwrist, Kerr told FOX News that CNN “never asked” him if he is a Clinton supporter so he “never told.”  I thought dude was against “don’t ask, don’t tell”?

I agree with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough: CNN’s contention that they “didn’t know” about Kerr (or any of the other plants) is “total crap”!