CNN is complicit in the Repub RDF
Thursday, December 17, 2015 by Dave Winer

Why didn't the CNN moderators ask the Republican debaters about climate change and gun violence?

I try to imagine their answer, here are some of the choices.

  1. We had to agree to only ask questions about terrorism or the Repubs wouldn't do the debate.
  2. We figured they would just tell us there is no such thing and we need to worry about mental illness first.
  3. We have a deal with the NRA and the oil companies.
  4. We are owned by the NRA and the oil companies.

One thing is for sure, they aren't even keeping up a pretense at being journalists. This was ostensibly a debate about foreign policy. The climate conference just finished in Paris with a historic agreement. Surely the would-be future President of the US has something to say about that? And they are singling out one act of gun violence in the US for scrutiny and fear-talk. What about the others? We passed the fourth anniversary of Sandy Hook, the day before the debate! What do they have to say about that?

I think the Republicans don't want to talk about gun violence and climate change because it would show their voters who believe gun violence and climate change are huge problems that they are sold out to the gun industry and oil companies. It might snap them out of their reality show trance and realize there is a lot at stake in this election, and these actors are not taking it seriously.

PS: RDF is an acronym for Reality Distortion Field. The term was invented to describe Steve Jobs, but it applies to Trump equally well.

PPS: I addressed this question to Brian Stelter on Twitter. He's the closest thing CNN has to a public editor, as far as I know.