The biggest scandal from last night’s Democratic presidential debate has nothing to do with driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, universal healthcare or Pakistan.

Instead, everybody’s talking about Maria Luisa, the student who used the debate’s precious final question to ask Hillary Clinton if she prefers pearls or diamonds:

This is obviously a ridiculous question—but turns out it wasn’t the one Maria wanted to ask. Several of the questions she submitted to CNN were approved, and she was going to ask Clinton about the Yucca Mountain Repository, but CNN employees chose the diamonds/pearls question and pressured her to ask it to close the debate.

So even though she submitted the dumb question, at least Maria had her priorities in order until CNN got its claws in her. And I have to say, her self-defense message on MySpace is a pretty bad-ass takedown of CNN:

See, the media chose what they wanted, not what the people or audience really wanted. That's politics; that's reality. So, if you want to read about real issues important to America--and the whole world, I suggest you pick up a copy of the Economist or the New York Times or some other independent source. If you want me to explain to you how the media works, I am more than happy to do so. But do not judge me or my integrity based on that question.