# CNN: Do some better background checks, will ya?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [November 29, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205 "2007-11-29T18:51:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@El\_Gui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Gui)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/41 "2007-12-01T01:03:59Z")
Interesting.
So something very similar occurs during the [Democratic YouTube debate sponsored by CNN back in July](http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-youtube30nov30,1,4823606.story):
> [@](#):
>
> But, CNN’s Feist said, conservative commentators did not complain when questioners who shared their political ideology had videos aired during the Democratic forum in July.
>
> During that session, one video questioner asked the candidates to choose between raising taxes or cutting benefits in order to save Social Security. Another demanded to know whether taxes would rise “like usually they do when a Democrat comes in office.” A third featured a gun-toting Michigan man, who in an interview Thursday said he had voted twice for President Bush, who wanted to know if the Democrats would protect his “baby” – an assault rifle he cradled in his arms.
>
> Another questioner from that forum who seemed to have clear conservative credentials was John McAlpin, a sailor who asked Clinton: “How do you think you would be taken seriously” by Arab and Muslim nations that treat women as “second-class citizens”?
>
> McAlpin’s MySpace page features pictures of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Republican presidential candidate.
>
> It depicts Fox commentator Bill O’Reilly as a friend, while offering a caricature of a bearded, turban-wearing “Borat Hussein Obama” – a derogatory reference to Obama, the Democratic candidate who as a youth attended a Muslim school.
yet a media firestorm didn’t materialize then?
What a bunch of fucking whiners.
“Liberal” media, my fucking ass.
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### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/42 "2007-12-01T01:33:32Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23]
Asked a question about the same issue? I think so. I’m only guessing, but I would be surprised if nobody else did.
That’s a false dichotomy. It’s a legit question, but that doesn’t make the identity of the person asking it a non-issue.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, but, if it’s a legit question, then the only “issue” I see that then pops up, is this being spun (by either side when it happens to them) into a “dirty tricks” charge.
That still doesn’t negate the legit label re the pertinent question and it’s answer’s relevance to the campaign, nor, therefore, create a dichotomy, false or otherwise, that matters.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/43 "2007-12-01T01:44:37Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting]
Yes, but, if it’s a legit question, then the only “issue” I see that then pops up, is this being spun (by either side when it happens to them) into a “dirty tricks” charge.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, and that’s bullshit. The debate about CNN’s error shouldn’t stop people from considering the question or the candidates’ answers.
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### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/44 "2007-12-01T01:53:02Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23]
Yeah, and that’s bullshit. **The debate about CNN’s error shouldn’t stop people from considering the question or the candidates’ answers**.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed (only on the bolded part). But is this always (ever) the case? What was your disagreement about who the questioner is being a non-issue? What _would_ be the issue with regard to an otherwise legitimate question, in this case?
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### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/45 "2007-12-01T02:00:48Z")
**Marley23** , disregard my second sentence. It was a reference to the fact that some people might disregard the question and answer by saying the candidate was being unfairly picked on, but that would be done only by someone with the smallest of minds and narrowest of views.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/46 "2007-12-01T02:08:59Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting]
What was your disagreement about who the questioner is being a non-issue? What would be the issue with regard to an otherwise legitimate question, in this case?
[/quote]
I think the questioner’s identity as a person connected to the Clinton campaign is an issue. His connection to that campaign is the only problem I have with this situation. Like I said earlier, when you host a Republican debate and then let somebody involved in a Democratic campaign ask a question, you’re tactitly criticizing the Republicans yourself. Which, as a news organization, you shouldn’t do. While the question is asked in a “have you stopped beating your wife?” way, I don’t think there should be any ban on that. And I don’t think there should be any rule against questions that are critical of all the candidates. But people who have a vested interest in making the GOP look bad shouldn’t be given a platform in a debate like this.
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### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/47 "2007-12-01T02:28:09Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23]
I think the questioner’s identity as a person connected to the Clinton campaign is an issue. His connection to that campaign is the only problem I have with this situation. Like I said earlier, when you host a Republican debate and then let somebody involved in a Democratic campaign ask a question, you’re tactitly criticizing the Republicans yourself. Which, as a news organization, you shouldn’t do. While the question is asked in a “have you stopped beating your wife?” way, I don’t think there should be any ban on that. And I don’t think there should be any rule against questions that are critical of all the candidates. But people who have a vested interest in making the GOP look bad shouldn’t be given a platform in a debate like this.
[/QUOTE]
That’s a quite reasonable position to take and I appreciate the answer. You’re probably right.
I guess I just saw it as a way to spice up things, a way to expand the, shall we say, stringency of all pertinent questions that could be asked of the Republican candidates. In any setting, even a debate, a group usually self-selects, in this case, in support of the Republican Party (as would be with Dems). Deliberately adding some spice could be useful but, then again, I could be wrong about CNN’s aims.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cnn-do-some-better-background-checks-will-ya/428205/48 "2007-12-01T02:44:50Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting]
Deliberately adding some spice could be useful but, then again, I could be wrong about CNN’s aims.
[/QUOTE]
Even if they asked a question from a Democrat, I’m fine with it - just not somebody in another campaign. And if they ever got the Republican and Democratic nominees to do a YouTube format, I think I’d be okay with questions from anyone - even excluded third party candidates - as long as they didn’t misrepresent themselves.
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