From Greg Sargent:
Okay, this is interesting. I’ve just learned that CNN has told top Dem strategists James Carville, Paul Begala, and Robert Zimmerman — who are CNN mainstays but are all Hillary supporters — that they will not be doing any more political analysis on the network until the Democratic primary has reached a conclusion. […]
Sam Feist, CNN’s political director, also confirmed the decision to me. “As we got closer to the voting, we made a decision to make sure that all the analysts that are on are non-aligned,” Feist said, adding that the decision had been made around the start of December. “Carville and Begala are two of the best analysts around and we look forward to seeing them on CNN plenty of times in the future, once the nominating process has ended.”
Feist pointed out that a few other analysts aligned with campaigns of both parties had been told the same, and added that aligned analysts would only be appearing in contexts where they were acting as campaign surrogates. Carville did appear on Larry King on Jan. 9 as a surrogate.
Hardly a surprise that a political analyst is “aligned”. What is surprising is that CNN has done the right thing.
Unfortunately, one doubts Carville and Begala (and the unnamed others) will be miraculously returned to impartiality after the primaries have finished. Maybe CNN thinks that’s different, eh?
Added: Speaking of the media, TMV has an explosively funny clip from a Jon Stewart show.