On Wednesday’s The View, the panel discussed the upcoming presidential debates and what the roles of the moderators should be. The discussion started with agreement that moderators should fact-check each candidate throughout the debate and how that was helpful for viewers who may not be “political junkies.” Behar then brought up 2012 debate moderator, Candy Crowley and insinuated that she was punished for fact-checking Romney.
BEHAR: Remember Candy Crowley when she corrected Romney in the last debate with Obama, they called her out for that and two months later we didn't see her on CNN anymore. Coincidence? I don't know.
SARA HAINES: But she was right, right?
WHOOPI: Yeah, she was right.
HAINES:--what she brought up?
BEHAR: Yeah, but she's gone.
HAINES: [sadly] I know.
Bila jumped in to add that it wasn’t the actual “fact-checking” that was the problem in Crowley’s case, but how she went about doing it.
BILA: The way it came off to certain people was that she was echoing a talking point of the Obama campaign. So you have to be careful.
Behar added that in 2014, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd said that sometimes the candidate won’t come back on your show if you push too much with “fact-checks.”
Apparently the panelists at the View conveniently forgot when “righteous” Crowley admitted that she treated Romney unfairly during the second presidential debate, and even Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler defended Romney’s statement on Libya which Crowley harped on.
Perhaps then her biased performance during the debate was the reason her journalistic career deflated afterwards, and not the actual act of “fact-checking?”
