Bill prefers briefs. Hillary prefers both diamonds AND pearls. CNN considers itself a news agency.

Deja vu. The heat on Hillary Clinton is building. Every move her campaign’s made over the past few weeks has been ridiculed, slandered, and scrutinized by every reporter, pundit, and blogger under the sun.

Most recently we saw “DiamondsorPearlsGate” at the Democratic debate on November 15. This is one of the more interesting events in the primary season to date, for a couple of reasons.

We had the Clinton campaign threatening that Blitzer better not “Pull a Russert” at the debate. Blitzer claimed he was not pressured by anybody to act one way or another at the debate, but who knows. What should be a flashing red light that the Clinton’s people probably did exert some kind of pressure him is the fact that the campaign came out and congratulated Blitzer for doing such an “outstanding” job.

Now, down to the issue. Clinton was asked by an audience member whether she preferred diamonds or pearls. She rolled with it and said she likes both. A softball question, without a doubt. What makes it interesting is that Bill Clinton was asked a question along the same lines during the MTV “Rock the Vote” campaign in 1992: “Boxers or briefs?”

Here’s the problem. Clearly, CNN was not unaware of the dramatic symmetry between the questions and the two Clintons, separated by 15 years. They had to be aware of what they were doing, there’s simply too much staging that goes on for it to be a theatrical coincidence.

But when it happened in 1992 it was on MTV. CNN is now taking journalistic cues from MTV? A so-called “trusted” television news outlet is mimicking the network that produces Laguna Beach?

A softball question in response to “pressure” from the Clinton campaign? Maybe.

A PR stunt? Yup.

Bad journalism? Absolutely.

It reminds me of the time when Jon Stewart went on CNN’s Crossfire, and thrashed Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson for being the political hacks that that are, and for “hurting America”. It’s one of my fondest and proudest moments in television history. It shook up the CNN producers quite a bit, and eventually lead to the show’s cancellation. The best part about the interview was the mere fact that at one point, the Crossfire hosts, who are supposed to be the “real” journalists, grilled the guy on a Comedy Central show about why he, the comedian, wasn’t asking the guests on his show tougher questions.

Such astounding irony only reveals itself in such humorous ways once in a blue moon.