Via the New York Post, we learned socialists were upset with CNN for failing to disclose the Democratic Party and lobbyist ties of its town hall questioners at the Bernie Sanders town hall on Monday night in prime time. CNN likes portraying the questioners as average Joes, and that's not always true. They especially freaked out over a question about Sanders tolerating sexual harassment from aides during the 2016 campaign.
The questioner, Shadi Hamid, was listed on screen as an “American University Student,” but she also interns for the Democrat lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates. She threw a hardball quoting Sanders as "you were quote, a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case to be elected as president?"
Cenk Uygur, a former MSNBC regular who hosts The Young Turks talk show, cried foul:
“Some of you will say that’s too large a coincidence that someone … interning at the lobbying firm happens to ask the one that is the number one talking point against Bernie Sanders framed in exactly the way that an opponent would ask that question,” said host Cenk Uygur.
“Is it at a bare minimum relevant that she’s interning at a lobbying firm in DC? Bernie Sanders’ agenda would obviously not help lobbying firms in DC, so there’s a whole range of options as to how that question got onto the stage in the first place, but there’s no question CNN should’ve revealed her other attribute,” he added.
Why so touchy about Democrats not being identified as Democrats or lobbyists? Isn't Sanders running as a Democrat? "Uygur noted that CNN contributor Donna Brazile slipped town hall debate questions to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 primary against Sanders."
CNN gave this statement to Mediaite: “Though we said at the beginning of the Town Hall that the audience was made up of Democrats and Independents, we should have more fully identified any political affiliations.”
Paste Magazine started the fracas with an article headlined "Did CNN Stack the Audience Against Bernie Sanders at His Town Hall?"
In addition to Hamid, CNN described Yunjung Sao as a "George Washington [University] Student" when she also interns at the consulting firm the Katz Watson Group. Baltimore County Democratic Party chair Tara Ebersole was listed as a “former biology professor,” and Charles County Democratic Central Committee chair Abena McAllister was merely “an active Democrat.”
It should be said that CNN has a habit of under-baking their questioner IDs. I noticed during the Kamala Harris town hall that Green New Deal questioner Cameron Van Kooten Laughhead was identified on screen as "Runs Iowa nonprofit." Googling showed he was associate director of "Room for All," which works at "Supporting, educating and advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Reformed Church in America."
But this isn't half as disingenuous as CNN's presentation of hostile questioners to Republican candidates! As part of its Republican debate with YouTube in November 2007, CNN failed to disclose that retired general Keith Kerr, who announced he was gay after his retirement from the Army and pressed the GOP on gays in the military, was a member of Hillary Clinton’s "LGBT Americans For Hillary Steering Committee."
So the Bernie Bros might want to consider it could have been worse.
