CNN Pressured College Student to Ask Hillary Insulting "Diamonds or Pearls" Question

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 11:00 AM on November 16, 2007.

This post, written by Steve Benen, originally appeared on The Carpetbagger Report

The very last question in last night's debate for Democratic presidential candidates was probably the dumbest of the year.

MALVEAUX: Maria, would you stand, please? Give us your full name.

Q: Maria -- (inaudible) -- and I'm a UNLV student. And my question is for Senator Clinton. This is a fun question for you. Do you prefer diamonds or pearls? (Laughter.)

CLINTON: Now, I know I'm sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice. I want both. (Laughter.)

MALVEAUX: Do we get to ask any of the other candidates or, I suppose, just Senator Clinton? (Cross talk.)

Q: It's the only thing shiny up there.

MALVEAUX: Okay, thank you so much.

BLITZER: All right, so on that note, diamonds and pearls, I want to thank all of the Democratic presidential candidates for joining us....

Now, as regular readers know, I'm not a prude when it comes to frivolous questions. Sometimes, off-the-wall inquiries can force candidates to be creative on the fly, and think quickly on their feet.

But this was just dumb. Worse, it was insulting -- the first credible woman presidential candidate in U.S. history is fielding a question about her preferences in jewelry? Please.

What viewers at home did not know, however, is that Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked about this wanted to pose an entirely different question -- but CNN "encouraged" her to go with the "diamonds or pearl" question.

Marc Ambinder reports on Luisa's comments in response to criticism she received after the event. Apparently, she wanted to ask about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, but CNN pushed her in a different direction.

"Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN," Luisa writes. "I was asked to submit questions including "lighthearted/fun" questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance." [...]

"CNN ran out of time and used me to "close" the debate with the pearls/diamonds question. Seconds later this girl comes up to me and says, "you gave our school a bad reputation.' Well, I had to explain to her that every question from the audience was pre-planned and censored. That's what the media does. See, the media chose what they wanted, not what the people or audience really wanted. That's politics; that's reality. So, if you want to read about real issues important to America-and the whole world, I suggest you pick up a copy of the Economist or the New York Times or some other independent source. If you want me to explain to you how the media works, I am more than happy to do so. But do not judge me or my integrity based on that question."

It's probably worth noting that CNN has played fast-and-loose before. Remember this one from 2003?

A college student who asked the Democratic presidential candidates at a debate whether they preferred the PC or Mac format for their computers says the question was planted by CNN.

The news network acknowledged Tuesday that a producer went "too far" in telling Brown University student Alexandra Trustman what to ask.

Josh Marshall concludes. "Can we just close down CNN?"

Tagged as: election08, cnn, hillary clinton, democratic debate

Steve Benen is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report. In addition, he is the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, and the Guardian.