More plants at CNN/YouTube debate…
Michelle Malkin has found what she considers to be two more plants from last night’s CNN/YouTube debate. The first one, David Cercone, was a declared Obama supporter so I can’t dispute that one. The second however is a little more of a stretch. LeeAnn Anderson may be an activist with a union organization that’s declared support for Edwards but Malkin of all people should know that the Unions don’t always speak for all their members (that’s always been a point of contention for Republicans in general and Conservatives in particular regarding Unions and political activism). So simply having her be part of the Union is not reason to automatically make her suspect in my book.
Update: After looking over Malkin’s writing a bit more, the ties to the Union are stronger than they first appeared to me so I would now consider Anderson to be another plant.
Update 2: Malkin shows a third person who had another YouTube video where she’s wearing a John Edwards shirt.
As a Republican, the plants don’t bother me that much. These candidates should be able to handle any type of questioning no matter who is asking. They should be facing tough questions. Republican candidates have shown that they are not afraid of this, unlike their Democrat counterparts who are scared to death to be questioned by a Fox News reporter. If you’re running for president you should be willing and able to answer ANY type of question. What the plants do show, if they are indeed plants, is that CNN is not to be trusted to be fair and reputable, that they are indeed biased way to the left, and that their credibility has now sunk to immeasurable depths.
Comment by PF — November 29, 2007 @ 10:54 am
PF, your right. This should be heavily pushed by the GOP that their candidates are willing to answer a question by anyone, but yet the dems are scared of fox. This also gives CNN a huge black eye. Didnt know? They knew to research a quote years back with Mitt Rommney, but didnt know the plants? One word:google
Comment by JVelez — November 29, 2007 @ 11:09 am
^but the left will ignore this and still shriek that Brit Hume is a greater threat to democracy than plants, shills and ambushes.
CNN made Olbermann look professional, and that is sad.
Comment by eddiebear — November 29, 2007 @ 11:11 am
I agree with PF, all candidates should be able to answer any and all questions from everyone. The only thing though is if it were a democratic candidate and a repub. was planted, all my gosh what a field day the networks and liberal media, newspaper would have had. No wonder Msnbc and Cnn are not and i mean NOT growing audience wise. We have been wise to both networks for a long, long time.
Comment by Cathy — November 29, 2007 @ 11:38 am
I would like to take a moment and shroud CNN’s “political unit” with a BLANKET OF SHAME!
Comment by Terance — November 29, 2007 @ 11:47 am
We should not be surprised that CNN has a “green thumb”.
Comment by Julie — November 29, 2007 @ 11:55 am
#3 Terance-That’s the point CNN has no SHAME!Wake up Terance! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Comment by SHANE — November 29, 2007 @ 12:31 pm
Terance… I could have used that blanket in college. But, I little shame, so maybe not.
Anyway, I agree that the Republican candidates should be able to answer questions (provided they’re not goofy loaded BS questions), no matter who is asking them. However, this just continues to strengthen the “Democrats are wimps for not going on FOX” argument. If the Republicans can go on CNN, an entity seen by some for being somewhat unfriendly to their point of view, debate, and then get questions from planted guests… haven’t they just done what the Dems are too afraid to do?
Comment by ImNotBlue — November 29, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!
Wasn’t it CNN that had all the political plants during the DEM debate a few weeks ago? Only difference is they were ’soft ball’ plants for Ms. Clinton and her friends.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why everyone thinks CNN and MSNBC etc. have a leftward slant. Personally, I can’t see it.
Sure, they cover the DEMs roughly 80% to 20% REP. But what does that really prove?
Sure, they put in ’softball’ plants at their sponsored debates for the DEMs and ‘happen’ to have political operatives asking questions of the opposition party (when it’s the REP being asked the questions) and, I can’t see the bias.
So to all of you loony right wing nut jobs out there, I think you can now put to rest the belief that CNN is biased.
Comment by Zakk — November 29, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
Why is a member of another party considered a “plant”? The YouTube submission rules only asked for name and town. CNN never insinuated that the questions were only from Republicans or the “undecided”. I’m a Democrat and I ASSUMED that some of the questions were from Republicans during our YouTube debate. I submitted a question for the Republican debate and didn’t consider myself a “plant”.
Cripes.
Comment by Karen — November 30, 2007 @ 4:39 am