Did I Miss a Purge?

If CNN is to be taken as a credible news source, and that's far from a given, don't you think they should avoid saying things like this?

Connecticut Democrats voted Lieberman out of the party in August, opting for vehement antiwar candidate Ned Lamont. Lieberman, running as an independent candidate, defeated Lamont in the general election.

In no election in the history of this country, save one, has it ever been perceived that not nominating somebody to represent your party in a general election is the same as kicking that person out of your party. In 1976 the Republicans nominated Gerald Ford as their Presidential Candidate. Funny, I must have missed the headlines at the time decrying how the Republican voters threw Reagan out of the party. Lieberman ran as an Independent because he chose not to accept the will of the Democrats of Connecticutt. They rejected him as a candidate. They didn't kick him out of the party, though. I would think that an organization with the stature, deserved or not, and resources of CNN could make that distinction. But then, as with so many things, I'd be wrong.