CNN Planted a Question at Rock the Vote debate

[realFedUp]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cnn11nov11,1,4836184.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

CNN Planted a Question for Debate, Student Says
From a Times Staff Writer

November 11, 2003

NEW YORK — CNN, which has marketed itself as an outlet for serious news, planted a question about computer preferences at last week's debate of the Democratic presidential candidates, according to the student who posed the query and on Monday wrote about it in an online forum of Brown University's Daily Herald.

During the debate, cosponsored by the nonprofit Rock the Vote organization, Alexandra Trustman asked the candidates whether they preferred the PC or Mac format for their computers.

Trustman wrote Monday that she was called the morning of the debate and given the topic of the question the CNN producers wanted her to ask. She wrote that she was "confused by the question's relevance," and constructed what she thought was a "much more relevant" question.

But when she arrived in Boston for the debate, she wrote, she was "handed a note card" with the question and told she couldn't ask her alternative "because it wasn't lighthearted enough and they wanted to modulate the event with various types of questions."

continued

[pitseleh1]

1. Covert Advertising

So, the implication here seems to be that this question was injected into the debate after some marketing money coming in from one of the major computer companies. Doesn't seem too unlikely a suggestion to me. Have a look at this report on the growing filed of covert marketing.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

2. I would've loved to see a question like this:

"Which online loan service do you prefer--Ditech.com, or another lower-quality lending company?"

I mean, this is politics, you might as well get some corporate sponsorship in the debates!

[granolagirl]

3. And on the other hand...

I think you're missing the point. This isn't about marketing -- this is about CNN deliberately controlling what was supposed to be a healthy, objective debate between presidential candidates.

Is anyone else outraged?

[pitseleh1]

4. Missed Point?

You say this isn't about marketing? I think this is absolutely about marketing. CNN deliberatly altered the supposedly open debate, true. But they altered it in order to transform open political dialogue into thinly-veiled sales pitch.

I think the question to ask is why CNN would plant this question. The answer, if you ask me, is that they are dependent upon advertising revenue in order to broadcast. Therefore, CNN alters the content of their programming in order to pander to those companies that provide them with that revenue.

I am certainly outraged by this story, and what I find most outrageous is that open political dialogue among political candidates (not to mention journalistic integrity) was once again subverted by CNN in order to plug their sponsor.

[Roses_R_Red]

5. As bad as it is

It looks even worse to the casual observer, like the debate was rigged....

Bad move

[SeveneightyWhoa]

6. I know its not about marketing PC's or Macs.

I was just going along with what the poster above me said.

It was just a stupid, stupid question, period. The candidates answers to such a meaningless question said NOTHING at all about them. It would've said even more about the candidates if they had been able to answer a question like, "where do you shop for clothes?". At least that provides a tiny bit of insight into their personality (or at least fashion sense).