First it hired Erick Erickson, the editor of the far-right RedState.com, an embarrassing move to say the least. After all, it was Erickson who just a year ago posted on his Twitter profile that then-Supreme Court Justice David Souter was a “goat fucking child molester.”

Fear not though, Erickson made his way to CNN's Reliable Sources for an interview with Howard Kurtz in which the right-wing blogger claimed to have “grown up” since making that and other hateful and incendiary comments.

It's nice to see a grown man mature so quickly in just a single year!

Then, just days after his interview with Kurtz, he was back to his old self. Pulling the political equivalent of a Benjamin Button, Erickson reverted back to his previous non “grown up” state claiming on his local radio show: I'll "[p]ull out my wife's shotgun" if they try to arrest me for not filling out the American Community Survey.

Well, CNN has apparently only just begun its efforts to court the likes of Erickson and his friends in the conservative blogosphere.

Mediaite's Tommy Christopher writes:

Newsbusters credits CNN for what it considers to be “one of the first to offer fair coverage of the Tea Party movement outside of Fox News,” while bringing up the infamous Susan Roesgen report from a Tea Party last year.

At the same time, they wonder why CNN is pushing the story so hard to conservative blogs, illustrating this with emails from CNN's PR department. This one was reportedly sent to Michelle Malkin:

“Hi there, I thought this might be an interesting post for you- a behind-the-scenes piece about the Tea Party and how the stereotypes don't tell the full story. Let me know if you need anything else!”

There's nothing all that sinister here. This kind of email is pretty standard PR promotion.

However, this next email, sent to Brent Bozell of Newsbusters parent Media Research Center, sets up a decidedly non-neutral, us-vs.-them dynamic between CNN and “the left:”

“Clearly our critics from the left don't think we should be covering the Tea Party movement in the way we are and clearly CNN thinks it's a legitimate and important story.

If anyone from Newsbusters is interested in this angle - let me know.”

I'm guessing the CNN checklist looks something like this:

Hire Erick Erickson? Check.

Heap coverage on the Tea Party movement? Check.

Get in touch with Michelle Malkin? Check.

Drop a line to Brent Bozell? Check.

What's next, Andrew Breitbart hosting a very special Conservative in America?