Is part of that inertia a top-down phenomenon as well? Are top-level Democrats giving preferential treament to CNN over other news channels and shows? That's seeming more and more to be the case.
Earlier today, the Barack Obama campaign which sent a text message to supporters urging them to"watch Barack debate John McCain tonight at 9pm Eastern on CNN."
Had the McCain camp done the same thing but with Fox, you can bet we'd never heard the end of it from the left-wing blogosphere and their slightly more sophisticated journalistic pals.
Full text of the message is below:
Watch Barack debate John McCain tonight at 9pm Eastern on CNN. Also, remind friends to register to vote at VoteForChange.com. Please forward this message.
After the Obama campaign flub was reported on Huffington Post and TVNewser, a revised message was sent out:
Watch Barack debate John McCain tonight at 9pm ET on any of the major networks or cable. REPLY to this msg with your 5 digit ZIP CODE for local Obama updates.
Hat tip: dbo
This was not the first time during this campaign season that powerful Democrats have given CNN the inside track. Back in August at the Democratic National Convention, the Ted Turner-founded network was given a highly desirable camera shot exclusively until FNC and MSNBC got word and complained.
Is the feeling partially mutual? CNN was the number one network with correspondents who are registered Democrats in a NewsBusters study of cable news personalities' party registration.
Update 23:05. I couldn't help but notice that Joe Biden made CNN his network of choice to make his first post-debate appearance.
