Debates

Just hours ahead of Tuesday’s 2016 Democratic presidential debate on CNN, the network was already in spin mode for Hillary Clinton down to the most minute detail as senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny marveled during The Situation Room at the sight of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin surveying the stage for Clinton to gather “a sense of what this evening is going to be.”

On Tuesday night, CNN will host the first of six Democratic presidential debates, and one top official from the Democratic National Committee will not be allowed to attend yet the “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks have so far ignored the story on both their morning and evening broadcasts. 

Ahead of Tuesday’s first Democratic presidential debate, NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America happily parroted campaign talking points declaring Hillary Clinton to be a great debater.

Rush Limbaugh likes to facetiously refer to Hillary Clinton as "the smartest woman in the world." Today's Morning Joe brought us three people who might actually believe it. Previewing tonight's Dem debate, Mike Barnicle led off the love-in, fantasizing about people coming away from the debate saying "wow, there is a prepared, thorough, knowledgeable candidate. All the Benghazi stuff goes out the…

On Monday, CBS This Morning did its best to play up how the current battle among House Republicans to pick their next Speaker could do lasting damage to the party’s 2016 White House chances. Co-host Anthony Mason introduced the segment by declaring “there is new concern that the Republican disarray on Capitol Hill could hurt the party's presidential chances.”   

Apparently, the establishment press is waiting for its marching orders on how to handle what an Investor's Business Daily editorial has already called a "scandal." This one's a joint effort involving Hillary Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, a recently deceased former CIA operative named Tyler Drumheller who worked with Blumenthal — and CBS News. As Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard reported…

CJ Pearson, the 13-year-old conservative social-media star, could use a few good role models, suggested TNR’s Brian Beutler in a Monday article. After noting that Pearson has been “revealed as the perpetrator of a number of hoaxes,” Beutler mused that such behavior isn’t surprising given the ideological company the youngster keeps. “He's coming of age in a movement that often treats reality as…

Good ol' Mike Barnicle dutifully carried Dem water this morning, maintaining a straight face while calling Hillary Clinton a "strong" candidate.  But also on the Morning Joe set was Nicolle Wallace, who reported that "Democrats think she's terrible. I hope [Biden] doesn't run, because he's better than her." For good measure, Mark Halperin opined that Biden might want to wait until February, on…

During an interview with former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, John Heilemann called out the Obama official for using a “strawman argument” to defend the Democratic Committee’s decision to only have 6 presidential debates. The With All Due Respect host challenged Dunn over her assertion that the hypothetical number of debates would be either 6 or 25 and wondered why Chairwoman…

Appearing on Wednesday’s NBC Today, new Daily Show host Trevor Noah described his eagerness to mock the Republican 2016 field: “Yeah, a great gift, the campaign. Great gift, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, these are all gifts, these are beautiful – I couldn't ask for more.”

During an appearance on Fox News’ MediaBuzz on Sunday, Republican commentator Mercedes Schlapp compared the recent GOP presidential debate on CNN with that on Fox as being like a “Montessori school” that was “unstructured.”

A common allegation against Ronald Reagan during his White House years was that he confused movies with the real world. According to Chauncey DeVega, the current Republican presidential candidates do somewhat the same thing, and have added video games and a bit of Comic-Con to the mix. “Wednesday night’s CNN debate showed the American people an alternate reality where Chuck Norris movies are the…

Even after undercover tapes showed Planned Parenthood engaging in morally reprehensible and legally questionable practices with aborted babies, the New York Times is still using abortion as a wedge issue to use against "hard-right" Republicans, demonstrated by hostile, label-heavy stories in Friday's edition, including two on the front page. Elsewhere there was the usual defense of Planned…

On Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “Hillary Clinton hitting back at another Republican candidate, Carly Fiorina. She went after Clinton several times during the debate.” In the report that followed, correspondent Andrea Mitchell noted how Fiorina “lit up the debate stage by partly targeting Hillary Clinton, the most famous woman in American politics.”