The YouFool debates

The "CNN/YouTube" debates were billed as a coming of age Internet event--'ordinary, average Americans' directly posing questions to the major candidates. The moderators kept going out of their way to emphasize the participation by "undecided voters."

What a load of absolute crap. This is how contemptuous the corporate media is of the American public--a significant number of the "average, undecided voters" asking questions were activists for various organizations, some with direct ties to some of the candidates!



For the Republican version, at least one of the planted questioners was so obvious CNN was challenged on it almost immediately, and hastily edited out the segment in the rebroadcast of the debate only a few hours after the original airing. Orwell's memory hole lives!

I'm not just CNN bashing. Most, if not all the major media outlets seem to engage in this kind of blatantly manipulative or partisan behavior. The press is granted extraordinary freedom in our society under the assumption it's necessary to act as a check on official power. When they themselves abuse the public trust, playing games like this, there ought to be a mechanism for their accountability (besides mere loss of viewers/subscribers). I don't pretend to know the best solution, but a budget-wrecking fine by the Federal Elections Commission or the Federal Communications Commission might be a good start.

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Update: Glenn Reynolds has a few thoughts as well.