Debates

On Friday, NBC’s Today tried to spin Republicans objecting to CNBC’s disastrous debate moderators as a problem for the GOP. Co-host Matt Lauer declared: “Grand old problems. Republican candidates reportedly planning to meet about changing how future debates are organized...”

A Media Research Center analysis of the questions posed by moderators John Harwood, Carl Quintanilla and Becky Quick at CNBC's Republican presidential debate found nearly two-thirds (65%) hit the candidates with negative spin, personal insults or ad hominem attacks. In contrast, all of the questions posed by CNBC personalities Jim Cramer, Rick Santelli and Sharon Epperson focused on policy…

When this NewsBuster began preparing today's item, the focus was going to be on Joe Scarborough's statement on today's Morning Joe that "90% of the people in our business vote for Democrats and Democratic primaries." Not that it was something we didn't already know [though query whether even 10% of MSMers are Republicans], but refreshing to hear it so starkly stated. But preparing the video clip…

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen admitted that GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio "had a point" during the debate in calling out the media for ignoring Hillary Clinton's "clear inconsistency" in her Benghazi story, conceding that he had also joined in the media chorus focusing on "praising her performance." But the CNN…

As one of the few liberal outlets willing to stand up for CNBC and its three moderators after Wednesday’s atrocious Republican presidential debate, Gawker and writer Hamilton Nolan tried on Thursday to take conservatives to task by lamenting that exposing the liberal media “is the most popular refuge of the scoundrel” showing that the GOP field is neither “honest” nor “wise.”

New York Times political reporters Nicholas Confessore, Alan Rappaport, and Maggie Haberman live blogged the third GOP debate, and while the NYT didn't have a problem with the slanted questions from CNBC, they were quite perturbed over the counterattacks from the candidates, a pile-on jump-started by a lengthy and detailed off-the-cuff condemnation by Ted Cruz: "...candidates whine about media…

In the second of three segments on Thursday reporting on the fallout from Wednesday’s CNBC Republican presidential debate, NBC Nightly News touted an editorial by The New York Times calling on Governor Chris Christie (N.J.) to drop out of the 2016 field. 

Appearing on the Thursday edition of FBN's Risk & Reward with Deirdre Bolton, Media Research Center founder and president Brent Bozell hailed how the GOP presidential candidates spontaneously banded together and "made mince meat" of the biased moderators conducting the debate.

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio put media bias on the front burner at CNBC’s Republican presidential debate, but conservatives and liberals differed sharply on whether what was in the pot smelled appetizing. Several lefty bloggers turned up their noses at the idea that in last night’s event and in general, the media favor Democrats.

While conservatives have almost uniformly denounced CNBC for its biased and sloppy questioning throughout Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate, even left-wing website Salon has joined in panning the network’s poor performance: "There’s no getting around it: The network did a terrible job. From the moment people tuned in at 8 p.m. and saw a bunch of barely articulate anchors jabbering…

On Thursday's New Day on CNN, after host Chris Cuomo charged that GOP presidential candidates had gone "a little bit too far into pandering" in attacking the media during the CNBC presidential debate, Florida Senator and GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio shot back by recalling the dominant liberal media heaping praise on Hillary Clinton after her Benghazi testimony, in spite of evidence she…

Despite the incredibly biased performance of the moderators of CNBC’s Republican presidential debate, on Thursday’s NBC Today, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd portrayed his business network colleagues as victims of a GOP plot: “Look, in many ways this was a premeditated attack. There had been some leaked ideas that, you know, beforehand, they were going to go after the moderators and say, ‘…

Following Wednesday’s CNBC Republican presidential debate, View co-host Whoopi Goldberg defended the network from criticism and told the GOPers on stage to “grow some nuts” rather than complain about a lack of substantive questions. After Goldberg initially asked “who answered one substantive question” last night before she lectured the Republicans who complained about the biased moderators: “So…

During an appearance on Fox & Friends Thursday morning, Senator Marco Rubio slammed CNBC’s Republican presidential debate, specifically the moderators who “can't wait for their chance to show off in front of their buddies by asking some question they think is going to embarrass, especially Republicans.”