On Wednesday's Cuomo Prime Time, during a discussion of a study finding Democrats who use Twitter are further to the left than average Democrats, CNN host Chris Cuomo admitted that "the media vibes so much off Twitter," tacitly admitting that the far left, or "progressives," have substantial influence over what the dominant media give air to.
He even suggested that journalists use sources from Twitter who may not even be who they pretend to be.
At 9:47 p.m. Eastern, Cuomo began the "Let's Get After It" segment by describing the Democratic party as having an "identity crisis" featuring "moderates versus progressives." He then referred to a new study by The New York Times:
The Democratic electorate online is not the actual Democratic electorate. In fact, all those outspoken Dem-leaning voters are outnumbered by just about 2-1 by more moderate, more diverse, and less educated groups of Democrats who do not typically post political content online.
The CNN host then brought on fellow CNN host Don Lemon for their regular banter, and Lemon was dismissive of the Twittersphere as he commented that "the loudest voices aren't necessarily the majority," called it "an outrage machine," and admonished Cuomo for responding to Twitter users too much.
Lemon went on to argue that there is a "lesson" for both the media and conservatives: "We'll start with the conservatives -- it says that this party is not the group of socialists you're making it out to be. For the media, it means you should pay less attention to the loud voices and the criticism from online."
He added that Democrats "should be more concerned about your traditional Democratic center-left candidates."
Cuomo then spoke of Twitter influence over the media as he responded: "You know what, though? Because the media vibes so much off Twitter -- and let's be honest about why they do it. They do it because it's easy. Why dig for real sources when you can just get some guy on Twitter whose face may or may not be his own as a source for your reporting?"
