ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Dec. 06 2007

Debate offers new twist on same old bias
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

When CNN first partnered with YouTube to host a presidential debate in July,
Democratic candidates were reduced to taking questions from a snowman,
critiquing each others' wardrobes and waxing nostalgic about their fifth-grade
teachers.

The debate's frivolity made Republican frontrunners reluctant to submit to
similar humiliation. But CNN's rationale for this "people's debate" — that
ordinary folks and undecided voters, not just journalists and partisan
activists, should query candidates — finally won the day. The network and the
candidates agreed: The people would have their say.

Except that they didn't. At least, those who had their say in last week's
CNN/YouTube debate were not quite the ordinary folks and likely Republican
primary voters whose questions were supposed to be its raison d'être. Instead,
several were publicly declared supporters of Democratic presidential candidates
and one — retired gay soldier Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr — was an official adviser
to Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Sparking the mini-scandal now known as "Questiongate," Kerr asked the
Republican candidates why they support the military's "don't ask, don't tell"
policy on homosexuality — or, to use his loaded phrasing, "why you think that
American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with
gays and lesbians." Only three candidates had a chance to respond before Kerr —
who was flown to the debate in St. Petersburg, Fla., by YouTube and placed by
CNN in the live audience — was given the floor to lecture them about the error
of their ways.

The incident seemed odd, considering that the average Republican voter does not
share Kerr's outrage at the policy and that most would be more interested in
hearing how the candidates plan to stop activist judges from imposing gay
marriage.

Then came news of Kerr's ties to Clinton, which began circulating on the
Internet almost immediately after his cameo. As bloggers who typed Kerr's name
into the Google search engine quickly learned, he belongs to Clinton's
lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender steering committee. That fact would have
provided important context for Kerr's attack on Clinton's Republican rivals.
But CNN's researchers failed to unearth it — although they did manage to dig up
a 13-year-old quote to embarrass Republican Gov. Mitt Romney on the issue.

CNN also failed to note the passionate and public Democratic presidential
endorsements made by several other questioners. The man who asked a question
apparently on behalf of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization, already
has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama. The woman who posed the "gotcha" abortion
question that implied pro-life politicians want to prosecute women who have
abortions has pledged her allegiance to Sen. John Edwards. The man who implored
Rep. Ron Paul to run as an independent has said that he favors Gov. Bill
Richardson — and he hardly qualifies as a fresh face on CNN, since the network
had used one of the man's video questions during its Democratic debate.

In CNN's defense, executive David Bohrman has noted that his staff had 5,000
questions to review and could not research every questioner. That excuse would
sound less feeble if Bohrman had not insisted earlier that his staff — not the
public — must choose the final few debate questions because only CNN's
expertise and objectivity could prevent political partisans from planting
questions and fringe interrogators from dominating the debate.

In fact, that's just what happened. Republicans concerned about health care,
education and judicial appointments were not represented among CNN's
questioners. Instead, candidates were grilled by a mix of Democratic partisans
and bogeyman embodiments of conservative stereotypes thumping Bibles,
brandishing guns and flaunting Confederate flags.

Perhaps that looks like balance to media elites at CNN. But to many Americans,
the CNN/YouTube debates look like populist packaging on the same old liberal
bias.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.