It didn’t take long for the lines to light up at CNN after Wednesday night’s YouTube debate. It seems that retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr is a volunteer on the Hillary Clinton campaign. He’s the guy who dropped that bomb when he told candidates he was gay and asked,
“Why do you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians?”
What Kerr and CNN didn’t say at the time was that the retired general is also a member of Clinton’s National Military Veterans Group. In the post-debate analysis, Anderson Cooper revealed the connection and told viewers that had he known, he would have reservations about using the question and certainly would have told viewers about Kerr’s connection immediately.
The calls to my phone started first thing in the morning after the debate. Of course I have more questions than answers. CNN yesterday admitted its process was flawed. Politico did a pretty good job getting the CNN response:
David Bohrman, a CNN senior vice president and executive producer of
the debate, later said: “We regret this and apologize to the Republican
candidates. We never would have used the general’s question had we
known that he was connected to any presidential candidate.”
Kerr told CNN that he had not done work for the Clinton campaign,
and CNN verified before the debate that he had not contributed money to
any candidate, the broadcaster said in a blog post after the debate.
Kerr told CNN he is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans and was representing no one other than himself, CNN said.
1. CNN says Kerr’s video question went through the same process as the other 5,000 questions. Are there more details about this? How did he submit it? Who at CNN contacted Kerr?
2. When CNN arranged for him to be in the audience, wouldn’t that naturally elevate the level of background checking? Didn’t they do a basic Internet search?
The thread on Politico goes on and on and on, most of it silly. But here’s one cogent post that gets to the heart of the matter. It comes from Lizzy, who identifies herself as a Republican from Nashville:
his question, bought his plane ticket, put him up in a hotel – and then
gave him the opportunity to go on-air in a big way. Yet, no one
bothered to do the most cursory Google-check? Checking the FEC database
is great but there is more to it than that.
Hillary’s campaign didn’t need this. It will never matter if the guy
told the campaign, or did not. He’s a Hillary supporter.
CNN didn’t need this. Hard to shake the “Clinton News Network” moniker
when they flub up like this.
And, the Republican candidates get to skip out on giving a real answer
– because the questioner was a Hillary guy.
Here’s a question: Do the Republican candidates think the troops are so
fragile that they couldn’t handle a policy change??? I resent the idea
that the troops are a bunch of homophobic partisans. Maybe Mitt &
Duncan Hunter and Tancredo are – but they don’t speak for every
Republican.
Sign Lizzy up to be a journalist. She identifies the holes in CNN’s process, but also gets back to the substance and purpose of the debate and the question at hand.
