What do we do at NewsBusters when the GOP debate moderators skip the gotcha questions? The NBC debate was fine. We predicted it might be like John Harwood's CNBC snark festival in 2015, but it wasn't anything like that. None of the questions were unfair or silly... like "Which of your fellow candidates would you 'vote off the island'?" The only question that drew some negative attention was Lester Holt suggested you couldn't make any policy move that could quickly change gas prices.
Associate editor Nick Fondacaro joined the first part of the show to discuss the debate and the spin that came afterward. Fact-checking "in real time" was a mess, especially NBC's Jane Timm performing the usual pounce when Sen. Tim Scott implied the Democrats support abortion "until birth." Their odd rebuttal is to say third-trimester abortions are "rare," which isn't really a rebuttal. NBC drew intense criticism for claiming it was "Half True" than Gov. Ron DeSantis helped fly 700 Americans out of Israel and back to Florida.
Brad Slager of RedState also joined the show to discuss the debate, as well as how CNN and other "mainstream" news organs were caught using freelancers who looked very cozy with Hamas terrorists. One picture displayed by the pro-Israel media watchdog Honest Reporting showed CNN's freelancer being kissed on the cheek by the Hamas commander in Gaza. This is too often the background of freelance journalists hired by Western media outlets -- they're incredibly hostile to Israel and claim they are guilty of "apartheid" and "genocide." Who needs fact checkers now?
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
