Blitzer You Ignorant Slut

Update: Right on cue. Apparently CNN couldn't wait even one day before running what may well be the most demeaning piece of non-journalism I've ever seen on the youth vote.
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If you watched last night's Democratic debate, you probably threw-up a little in your mouth when the final question of the night featured a student asking Hillary Clinton whether she prefered Diamonds or Pearls. This was, of course, in the grand political tradition of infantalizing young voters by forcing them to ask demeaning questions such as "Boxers or Briefs" and "Mac or PC."

Marc Ambinder over at the Atlantic fills us in:

Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred "diamonds or pearls" at last night's debate wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

"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."

WTF?

The really outrageous part, is that at some point in the next few weeks, CNN will, utterly without irony, run a story about how young people don't vote, aren't interested in politics, and unknowledgeable on the issues to boot.

This is yet another reason that if I ever meet Wolf Blitzer, there's probably a 50/50 chance I will kick him in the teeth.