If you happened to watch last night’s CNN Democratic presidential debate from Las Vegas (and made it through the entire thing), you’ll know that the event ended with a UNLV student asking whether Hillary Clinton preferred diamonds or pearls.

Clinton said she wanted both, and after an awkward silence, the debate was over.

Now, those of you who read Saturday’s Political Notebook know that we’re not above finding humor in politics or highlighting the lighter side of candidates. But after CNN’s Campbell Brown spent time grilling Clinton on whether she was using the “gender card,” the question seemed a bit out of place—especially following an emotional question from the mother of an Iraq serviceman.

Well, today the internet is going wild over an allegation by the student that the question was “planted.”

From Maria Luisa’s Myspace profile:

“CNN ran out of time and used me to “close” the debate with the pearls/diamonds question. Seconds later this girl comes up to me and says, “you gave our school a bad reputation.’ Well, I had to explain to her that every question from the audience was pre-planned and censored. That’s what the media does. 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.”

To read what CNN has to say about the whole thing, go here

It doesn’t really seem problematic for the network to screen questioners ahead of time, especially if they want to make sure the questions touch on a range of subjects.

But if the network did purposely step-up the jewlery question, just who’s playing the gender card now?