Fashion collusion: CNN journalist picks jacket for Dem candidate Harris & sparks ethics debate

A CNN reporter covering Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has posted a video of herself helping Harris do shopping – drawing anger from some of her media counterparts and reigniting a debate on impartiality.

CNN National Political Reporter Maeve Reston posted a video of Harris trying on a patchy jacked that made the Senator look like a human disco ball at a local store in South Caroline, where the 2020 Democratic hopeful was touring small businesses as part of her campaign activities on Saturday.

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In a caption to the video, Reston wrote: “We kind of forced @kamalaharris to try on this awesome oversized rainbow sequin jacket…She snapped it up.”

While Reston was playing Harris’s personal stylist, she was accompanied by a motley crew of liberal media journalists documenting the Senator’s shopping trip. CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns also posted footage from the store with the hashtag #campaignfashionreport.

The scoop on Harris’ bold fashion statement did not go unnoticed on Twitter. Some contended themselves with simply poking fun at the gaudy garment's ‘Mardi Gras’ aesthetic, comparing it to Rubik’s Cube and ridiculing Reston's fashion sense.

Many, however, took the issue far more seriously, accusing the CNN and CBS reporters of failing to abide by basic journalist standards with this “hard-hitting news.”

“Embarrassing - journalists use to hide their love of the Democrats, now you just do it for the whole world to see.  And you wonder why we don’t trust your reporting?” one commentator wrote.

Others accused the reporters of fangirling and essentially volunteering as spin doctors instead of doing their actual job of vetting the candidates. The rhetoric echoed that of US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly denounced CNN and the liberal media as a whole as “fake news.”

Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume also took aim at the report, calling it “embarrassing.”

Responding to the avalanche of criticism, Reston stood by both her fashion and political choices. Huey-Burns said that the shopping trip was only a small part of Harris’ tour, which also included “ two gaggles with reporters” where she got grilled on immigration, the green new deal and other issues.

Huey-Burns argued that the trip was not merely a shopping spree but was intended as an encouragement to women “who faced serious hardships growing up and see entrepreneurship as a way out and up.”

She noted that the shop they visited provides clothes for “disadvantaged people” on their road to success.

Fellow liberal journalists came to the CNN and CBS reporters’ defense. NBCNews’ Kasie Hunt argued that nobody had seemed to object to covering former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney riding jet skis or Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s shooting exploits, and everybody's beef with Harris was a case of sexism.

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