Debates

Near the end of the first hour of the CNN Republican Debate, co-moderator Dana Bash fretted to numerous 2016 candidates about the possibility of a federal government shutdown over a conservative effort to defund Planned Parenthood that included her hounding Governor Chris Christie (N.J.) whether or not he would “support the shutdown.”

Closing out Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, liberal correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell played the role of Ronald Reagan biographer in using the late former president to attack the current Republican presidential field and ruled that Reagan’s “message was infused with sunny optimism” and represents “the flip side of today's angry rhetoric.”

The stage for tonight’s prime-time Republican presidential debate will be occupied by businesspersons, U.S. senators, current and former governors, and, in Jeet Heer’s words, a “genial fanatic,” whom you probably know better as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Heer opined in a Wednesday article that Carson “combines extreme ideas with a comforting, trust-inducing persona” and explained that…

During an appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night, CNN’s Jake Tapper pushed back against the idea that the media fueled Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and instead stressed that there “is a chicken and egg thing there.” 

A great many Fox News hosts and contributors publicly criticized Donald Trump’s latest Twitter swipes at Megyn Kelly. This raises a major pot-kettle issue, claims lefty writer Marcotte, in that these high-profile personalities who objected to Trump’s sexism work for a channel that disseminates one sexist message after another. “The position at Fox News and elsewhere in the conservative media on…

Just two weeks after the broadcast networks mourned “cultural icon” Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show, Friday’s NBC Today and CBS This Morning touted an online petition on the liberal Change.org website urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to select the left-wing comedian as a 2016 debate moderator.

Did Rush Limbaugh force Fox News, in the wake of the Donald Trump/Megyn Kelly dust-up, to back down and welcome Trump back on its network?  That's what New York Times reporter Nick Confessore suggested on today's Morning Joe. Asked by Mika Brzezinski who was the most powerful person in the media today, Confessore responded: "I think Fox or Rush Limbaugh [whose last name Confessore pronounced "…

On MSNBC’s The Rundown on Tuesday, fill-in host Frances Rivera touted Hillary Clinton slamming Florida Senator Marco Rubio for having “offensive and troubling” views on abortion and asked The Washington Post’s Anne Gearan: “So when you hear Hillary Clinton talk about that...how is this new war on women narrative, if that's what it's going to be called, play into Hillary Clinton's hands?”

Joe Scarborough began with a telling admission: that if he were running the Republican party, he wouldn't let MSNBC host a GOP debate.   But the Morning Joe host went on to make an interesting point today: that if an MSM network had hit Donald Trump with the same sort of gotcha questions that Fox News did during this past Thursday night's debate, the reaction from conservatives would be "…

For close to a hundred and fifty years, the elephant has represented the Republican party, but The American Prospect’s Meyerson suggests that these days, a more fitting choice for the GOP’s symbol would be an extended middle finger. In his analysis of Thursday’s prime-time presidential debate, Meyerson, who also writes a weekly column for The Washington Post, identified several of the candidates…

The New York Times is cranking up the old reliable "War on Women" weapon to target the crop of Republicans running for the presidency. Saturday's lead story by Patrick Healy and Jeremy Peters portrayed the aftermath of the GOP debate not as a tough, substantive debate but as yet another source for Democratic attack ads portraying the party as anti-woman: "Fear That Debate Could Hurt G.O.P.In…

If you watched Thursday night’s Republican debate and wished that a onetime Green Party presidential nominee had been asking the questions, then you agree with Washington correspondent John Nichols, who thinks Ralph Nader would be the “ideal prospect” to moderate presidential debates for both major parties. Spoilsports might argue that Nader’s fifty-year record of lefty activism would make him a…

Appearing as a guest on Friday's Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield, liberal CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill slammed GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson as having "racial amnesia and racial blindness" for not taking a left-wing, divisive view on race in Thursday night's Republican debate, as Hill accused the Republican base of being "race deniers."   The CNN commentator also sounded like he…

During the GOP debates, Hillary was hitting it up with Hollywood celebs.  At a fundraising event in talent manager Scooter Braun’s Los Angeles home, Clinton got together with Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Kris Jenner, Tom Hanks, Jessica Alba and other stars. The 225 supporters in attendance were required to contribute at least $2,700 to the Hillary for America fund.  According to The Hollywood…