The manipulative endeavors of CNN and CNNi are legendary – but this one is actually funny.

Producers at CNN apparently thought viewers  wouldn’t notice that anchors Nancy Grace of HLN/Headline News and Ashleigh  Banfield of Newsroom were standing no more than 30 feet way from one another as  they manipulated the footage and placed Grace on Banfield’s right instead of her  left.

The blatant visual gimmick aired  Tuesday  morning as the two correspondents reported on the latest details behind the  horrific Cleveland kidnapping story and pretended they were  conducting a remote  interview, as the Atlantic  Wire pointed out soon  after.

At a glance the morning segment on CNN might  have seemed like a real satellite Q&A as Banfield feigned to interview  Grace, a leading commentator on deviant crime, from a separate  location.  (continue reading)