Conservative Internet commentators were buzzing Thursday with accusations that producers had skewed the CNN-YouTube presidential debate by allowing Democratic partisans to pose tough questions to the Republican contenders.
Several bloggers said CNN had betrayed a liberal bias by selecting questions designed to put the eight presidential candidates on the defensive. But executives at the cable-TV network said they were proud of Wednesday night's debate and had simply chosen 33 questions -- from nearly 5,000 submitted by videotape -- that would prompt a spirited and substantive discussion.
A review by the Los Angeles Times of the debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube four months ago found that the Democratic presidential candidates also faced queries that seemed to come from the conservative perspective. At least two of the citizen-interrogators had clear GOP leanings.
"We were looking for people who were interested enough in the process to ask a question," Sam Feist, CNN's political director, said Thursday. "We didn't inquire about people's ideological beliefs, and that wasn't relevant. . . . We were looking for questions that would make for an interesting debate."
Feist said that the high number of viewers who watched the two-hour session was proof that the network and the video- sharing service YouTube had achieved that goal. Nearly 5 million people tuned in, a record audience for cable television coverage of a primary debate, CNN said.
Controversy over the content of video questions began almost as soon as the broadcast ended, when Republican former Education Secretary William J. Bennett said on CNN that one of the questioners had ties to the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, who is gay, had asked the candidates why gays and lesbians shouldn't be allowed to serve openly in the military. Kerr is a member of a steering committee for Clinton on gay and lesbian issues.
Although the retired military man and Clinton's camp said the Democratic candidate had nothing to do with the question, CNN apologized. David Bohrman, executive producer of the debate, said the network wanted to avoid "gotcha" questions from clear Democratic partisans and would not have allowed the query if it had known of Kerr's ties to the Clinton campaign.
