EDITORIAL: CNN gets it right on Carly, wrong on solution

Is CNN interested in helping registered Republicans choose a presidential nominee, or is it committed to protecting the establishment candidates who are so unappealing to a substantial part of the party's base?

It increasingly appears that the latter holds true. Before Tuesday, fast-rising Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the GOP field and the undisputed winner of last month's so-called "Happy Hour" debate in Cleveland, appeared unlikely to qualify for the cable network's Sept. 16 debate between the 10 top-polling candidates, even though she's polling among the top 10.

That's because CNN had planned to select the 10 candidates based on an average of selected national polls since mid-July — three weeks before the little-known Ms. Fiorina dominated the undercard debate and moved into the top tier of Republican candidates. Her polling numbers were dismal before the Aug. 6 event.

Like Donald Trump and retired Dr. Ben Carson, Ms. Fiorina is a political outsider in a field awash with current officeholders, and American voters aren't especially attracted to incumbency right now. Recent polls have Ms. Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a breast cancer survivor, among the top five candidates in both New Hampshire and Iowa, the first two states in the nominating process. So Ms. Fiorina rightly raised a stink over her potential exclusion from the big debate. The qualification standards clearly were written to guarantee spots for Republicans who already enjoy some name recognition.

On Tuesday, CNN changed its qualification standards to ensure Ms. Fiorina has a spot in the main event Sept. 16. But instead of simply selecting the top 10 candidates from polling conducted a week or so before the debate, CNN, with the blessing of the Republican National Committee, announced it would include any candidate who ranks in the top 10 in polling between Aug. 6 and Sept. 10. That means the debate likely will include more than 10 candidates, even though 10 already is too many, as voters learned from watching the Aug. 6 Fox News debate.

Putting that many people on a stage in a glorified question-and-answer session is a disservice to voters, because candidates don't have enough time to distinguish their policy priorities. But it's a great service to marginal Republican candidates, whose campaigns will be at less risk of dying before year's end.

CNN has corrected one wrong with another.