Debates

Appearing on the Monday edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, New York magzine writer-at-large Frank Rich denounced the letter written by numerous Republican presidential campaigns to media organizations concerning the format of future debates as “fascistic” and written by “scared little children” but “seem[s] to have been drafted by Stalin.”

Those who hope that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin get to moderate a Republican presidential debate include Hannity himself, Ted Cruz, and Walsh. As they (almost) used to put it on Sesame Street, one of these persons is not like the others. Walsh, who recently joined The Nation after more than a decade and a half at Salon, argued in a Friday article that such a debate would benefit…

In a stunning display of arrogance on Monday, the cast of ABC’s The View not only refused to apologize for calling Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina “demented” following the latest GOP debate, but co-host Whoopi Goldberg actually further attacked Fiorina for criticizing the talk show over the vicious smear.

On Monday’s NBC Today, MSNBC political analyst Nicolle Wallace explained the Republican Party’s long-term distrust of the press: “At the core is a massive generational distrust with the mainstream media and it bubbled over in the debate last week.”

In the wake of the CNBC debate debacle, Joe Scarborough went on an epic rant on liberal media bias on today's Morning Joe. He summed things up this way, in challenging the panel: "you can't do it and nobody here can do it: name the single Republican that has hosted a Sunday show, that has been an anchor of a news network for the big three networks over the past 50 years: you can not do it." …

In the week when a new James Bond film is coming out, it’s fitting that two lefty writers are both shaken and stirred by recent Republican blasts at media bias. In a Sunday article for Salon, Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson charged that “since the 1950s, Movement Conservatives have fought the fair examination of their ideas. They embrace a worldview in which a few wealthy…

During an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday, disgraced CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather did his best to excuse the criticism of CNBC’s Republican presidential debate and instead chose to blame Republicans for fueling such hatred towards the press. While Rather briefly admitted that CNBC “didn’t do it perfectly” the liberal journalist quickly blamed the GOP presidential candidates…

On Sunday’s State of the Union, fill-in host Dana Bash sat down with newly-elected Speaker of the House Paul Ryan about his goals for the new job but did her best to play up the supposed dysfunction among House GOPers. The CNN host played up the liberal line that members of the House Freedom Caucus are a major problem for Republican leadership and asked Ryan “How are you going to control the 40…

On Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, the liberal HBO comedian opened the show trashing GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson by not only including him in a joke about Bill Cosby's history of rape, but also by advancing false assertions that Dr. Carson claimed to be "cured" of prostate cancer by a controversial nutritional supplement when video shows Carson clearly did not claim the…

Friday's NBC Nightly News set aside just 34 seconds of air time to the Republican National Committee suspending its planned February 2016 debate with NBC. The evening newscast surrounded this coverage with over two minutes of reporting on other 2016 presidential campaign developments, focusing on the spat between Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. By contrast, ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening News…

In a letter to NBC News president Andrew Lack on Friday, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus informed the network “that pending further discussion between the Republican National Committee (RNC) and our presidential campaigns, we are suspending the partnership with NBC News for the Republican primary debate at the University of Houston on February 26, 2016.”

While much of the media ruled that Jeb Bush did not have a satisfactory debate performance on Wednesday, the sentiment stretched even into the late-night comedy shows as ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel panned the “embarrassing” Bush on Thursday for attacking Rubio on an issue “that literally no one outside of Florida cares about” concerning his Senate attendance record.

CNN’s senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, during Thursday’s AC360, lamented how Republican presidential candidates have often attacked the liberal media “to deflect tough, unwelcome questions,” arguing their conservative supporters have caused “more polarization” in the electorate by not trusting the media.

Friday's Morning Joe featured a discussion by the roundtable on the subject of the debates and the fairness needed for them. While Newsbusters previously discussed Morning Joe's discussion on the bias of moderators, Morning Joe also discussed their surprise and support of Dr. Ben Carson, who has come out leading the change to reform these debates.