On the night of the most recent debate, a lot of Kossacks noted the incredibly slanted round of questions "selected" from YouTube by CNN for the purpose of framing the debate.
Now the LA Times has called CNN on the real reason why:
So, why did CNN make immigration the keystone of this debate? What standard dictated the decision to give that much time to an issue so remote from the majority of voters' concerns? The answer is that CNN's most popular news-oriented personality, Lou Dobbs, has made opposition to illegal immigration and free trade the centerpiece of his neonativist/neopopulist platform. In fact, Dobbs led into Wednesday's debate with a good solid dose of immigrant bashing. His network is in a desperate ratings battle with Fox News and, in a critical prime-time slot, with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. So, what's good for Dobbs is good for CNN.
In the heat of the primary season, we partisans tend to leap on political slant as the reason for media bias. This story demonstrates what tends to be more true: it's all about the corporate self-interest of the big media companies.
There is no "liberal" media and there is no "conservative" media. There are only corporate massifs vying with each other for ever-smaller slices of a decreasingly valuable pie.
As we've seen at MSNBC, the politics of a cable news station can change drastically depending on what garners higher ratings and increases advertising revenue. Olbermann is doing well as the political winds have shifted leftward, so now every prime-time show on MSNBC is trending in a leftward direction. Not just at night, either -- seen "Morning Joe" lately? Checked out Tucker? They're all singing a very different tune than they did four years ago...
I also enjoy the irony of this story appearing in the LA Times, which has largely been shrinking itself and becoming less and less relevant for exactly these corporatist reasons.