GOP debate and Fox “moderators”: Unfair and Unbalanced

cartoon credit: thethinkinggaill.com

Cleveland Tea Party does not endorse any of the four remaining candidates for the GOP nomination, but whether you support Cruz, Kasich, Rubio, or Trump, you were probably appalled at the conduct of the Fox News moderators at last Thursday’s debate. Even if you can’t stand Trump, the bias against him was obvious. If you thought the 2012 Candy Crowley-Mitt Romney moment was bad, take a look at John Nolte’s analysis of the debacle over at Breitbart: 

Another Fox News debate, another two hours of proof that the “fair and balanced” network is nothing more than a super PAC for

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who, by the way, had a terrible night. In their naked pursuit of Donald Trump’s scalp, moderators Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, and Megyn Kelly used every cheap trick in the book.

None of the other candidates faced dramatic graphics. Trump did.

None of the other candidates faced video of past statements.* Trump did.

Trump was never asked to attack his rivals. On at least three occasions, Trump’s rivals were invited to attack him.

. . .

On a number of occasions, Wallace and Kelly tossed off their roles as moderators to actually debate Trump, in the hopes of tripping him up or cornering him. As bad as the mainstream media has been to Republican presidential candidates over the years, I have never seen anything like this.

. . .

There were two unbelievable moments even lower than that. The first came from Kelly, who used leaked reports and unsubstantiated rumors surrounding an off-the-record interview Trump supposedly had with the left-wing New York Times. 

Apparently, the Times leaked information about the off-the-record interview to the left-wing BuzzFeed, who in turn, without hearing the audio, launched a McCarthy-ite attack against Trump, accusing him of saying one thing to the Times and another to the voters regarding immigration.

BuzzFeed then demanded Trump prove he’s not a communist liar.

There is nothing more sacred in journalism than an off-the-record situation. This is supposed to be inviolable. To see the New York Times and BuzzFeed behave in this way is one thing. To see Megyn Kelly and Fox News use a sacred off-the-record conversation to launch a relentless McCarthy-ite attack, was beyond disgraceful.

. . .

This is Fox News going way beyond anything we’ve seen in the past from CNBC’s John Harwood or ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

In the future, any Republican stupid enough to talk to the New York Times, BuzzFeed, or Fox News in an off-the-record capacity, deserves whatever knife he or she gets in the back.

. . .

Fox News’s brand and reputation is already in freefall. Thursday night, in service to Marco Rubio and the Republican Establishment, Fox News stooped lower than NBC News or CNN — something many of us never thought possible.

*To justify singling Trump out with graphics and videos, Fox News announced at the beginning that the other candidates had faced these in the debate Trump boycotted.

Read the rest (including transcripts of some of the more egregious set-ups) here.  

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