If you’re a media outlet and don’t like when people accuse you of being an arm of the Democratic National Committee, you probably shouldn’t be asking DNC officials what questions to ask Republicans.
That’s what CNN did with the Democratic National Committee, according to new emails released by Wikileaks.
In an email to DNC colleagues on April 25 with the headline “Trump Questions for CNN,” a DNC official with the email username [email protected] asked for ideas for an interview to be conducted by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.
“Wolf Blitzer is interviewing Trump on Tues ahead of his foreign policy address on Wed. … Please send me thoughts by 10:30 AM tomorrow.”
The sender of the email would seem to be DNC Research Director Lauren Dillon, who was identified in previous reports of DNC emails released by WikiLeaks in July.
On Cruz:
A separate email from Dillon that same day said “CNN is looking for questions” for then-GOP primary candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and “maybe a couple on” former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.
It is possible CNN denies they inquired with the DNC about questions. They could say they get suggested questions from party officials all the time but the way these emails are written it’s almost as if Dillon was asked by somebody at CNN. Whether it was the show host or a producer matters little.
That a news outlet was asking Democratic party officials for questions to ask Republicans is absurd. Even if you get a good question, even if it seems like a reasonable move, you have to know it’s not going to look that way.
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