IT certainly seems so, as she used it to deflect criticism that she has trouble saying a simple YES or NO.
It's SOP for CNN! Planting questions, and the recent showing of the questions to candidates HAS TO STOP! This is ridiculous. CNN admitted they showed the questions beforehand to the candidates at the YouTube debate and now the Diamonds or Pearls Question is a repeat of not only the "boxers or briefs" question but also this 2003 plant on "Mac or PC":
What viewers at home did not know, however, is that Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked about this wanted to pose an entirely different question — but CNN “encouraged” her to go with the “diamonds or pearl” question.
Marc Ambinder reports on Luisa’s comments in response to criticism she received after the event. Apparently, she wanted to ask about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, but CNN pushed her in a different direction.
“Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN,” Luisa writes. “I was asked to submit questions including “lighthearted/fun” questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance.” <…>
“CNN ran out of time and used me to “close” the debate with the pearls/diamonds question. Seconds later this girl comes up to me and says, “you gave our school a bad reputation.’ Well, I had to explain to her that every question from the audience was pre-planned and censored. That’s what the media does. See, the media chose what they wanted, not what the people or audience really wanted. That’s politics; that’s reality. So, if you want to read about real issues important to America–and the whole world, I suggest you pick up a copy of the Economist or the New York Times or some other independent source. If you want me to explain to you how the media works, I am more than happy to do so. But do not judge me or my integrity based on that question.”
It’s probably worth noting that CNN has played fast-and-loose before. Remember this one from 2003?
A college student who asked the Democratic presidential candidates at a debate whether they preferred the PC or Mac format for their computers says the question was planted by CNN.
The news network acknowledged Tuesday that a producer went “too far” in telling Brown University student Alexandra Trustman what to ask.
Josh Marshall concludes, “Can we just close down CNN?”
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13619.htmlHere is CNN's confession and apology for 2003:
CNN says it went 'too far' in framing student's question
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- A college student who asked the Democratic presidential candidates at a debate whether they preferred the PC or Mac format for their computers says the question was planted by CNN.
The news network acknowledged Tuesday that a producer went "too far" in telling Brown University student Alexandra Trustman what to ask.
CNN televised the debate, co-sponsored by the nonprofit Rock the Vote organization, last week. It was billed as an event geared to the interests of young people.
CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said the cable network regrets the producer's actions. She would not identify the employee.
"In an attempt to encourage a lighthearted moment in this debate, a CNN producer working with Ms. Trustman clearly went too far," she said. All of the other questions from the audience originated from the person asking them, she said.
In an editorial written for the Brown Daily Herald, Trustman said she was called the morning of the debate and given the topic of the question CNN producers wanted her to ask.
Trustman said she was "confused by the question's relevance," and constructed her own question "about how, if elected, the candidates would use technology in their administrations."
But when she arrived in Boston for the debate, Trustman wrote, "I was handed a note card with the Macs and PCs version of Clinton's boxers or briefs question" and told she couldn't ask her question "because it wasn't lighthearted enough and they wanted to modulate the event with various types of questions."
She referred to a 1992 student forum where Bill Clinton was asked what kind of underwear he preferred.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/11/cnn.question.ap/