Debates

Salon: GOP Will 'Miss George Stephanopoulos' As Debate Moderator
May 17th, 2015 5:22 PM
In the wake of the furor over his gifts to the Clinton Foundation, George Stephanopoulos has taken himself out of the running to moderate a Republican presidential debate set to air on ABC next February. That development gave Salon’s Jim Newell a peg for his Friday argument that GOPers are off-base in their recent push for conservatives (or at least non-liberals) to moderate their party’s debates…
NYT's Surprise Front-Page Stephanopoulos Story Focuses on 'GOP Doubts'
May 15th, 2015 11:34 AM
ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, who helped President Bill Clinton juggle various scandals during the 1992 campaign and as White House communication director, has apologized for failing to disclose a total of $75,000 in donations to the controversial Clinton Foundation, even before grilling Peter Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash. The New York Times ran a surprising front-page…

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CNN Touts Stephanopoulos as 'One of the Biggest Stars' on TV
May 14th, 2015 5:46 PM
On Thursday's CNN Newsroom, Brian Stelter asserted that George Stephanopoulos is "one of the biggest stars on all of television," as he reported on the ABC anchor's $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation. Stelter later claimed that Stephanopoulos has "done a lot to earn people's respect and trust. He's one of the most well-respected anchors at ABC." During his report, the correspondent…

UPDATE: Stephanopoulos Admits Donating $75K to Clinton Foundation
May 14th, 2015 2:53 PM
ABC's George Stephanopoulos acknowledged his tens of thousands of dollars of donations to the Clinton Foundation in a Thursday interview with Politico's Dylan Byers. Byers reported that "Stephanopoulos...said that, contrary to earlier reports, he has given a total of $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation." The Good Morning America anchor also announced that "he will not moderate the ABC News-…

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Morning Joe Face-Plant: The Nation's Eric Alterman Stumped On Syria
April 6th, 2015 9:21 AM
Last week, NewsBusters brought you "Stumped," as April Ryan struggled to cite a single foreign policy success by her super-fave, President Obama. In the best Hollywood tradition, this morning we bring you a sequel--Stumped II: Syria!
On today's Morning Joe, lugubrious lefty Eric Alterman of The Nation mag was stumped when Joe Scarborough asked him what the US should do about Syria. After humming…

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Rick Perry: Chuck Todd Will 'Not Be Invited' to Moderate 2016 Debate
November 20th, 2014 3:18 PM
During the Republican Governor's Association conference on Wednesday, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd spent more than half of an hour-long panel discussion grilling several GOP governors on illegal immigration and President Obama's upcoming executive order to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. The Republicans pushed back hard against the NBC host.

Press Covers For Crist Excuses For Florida's Jobs Freefall In His Era
October 22nd, 2014 8:40 PM
At their debate Tuesday night, former Florida governor (2007-2010), former Republican (1974-2010), former independent (2010-2012) and current Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist got out the crying towel over why the Sunshine State's economy was so bad on his watch. He also refused to acknowledge that incumbent Republican Governor Rick Scott deserves any credit for the state economy's…

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AP Ignores Shaheen's Refusal to Answer Whether She Approves of Obama
October 21st, 2014 11:40 PM
The Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, appears determined that there not be any more reported embarrassments of Democrats who refuse to directly that they support President Barack Obama.
One such embarrassing moment occurred in tonight's debate in New Hampshire between Republican Scott Brown and incumbent Democrat Jean Shaheen, who has reportedly voted as Obama would prefer 99…

Arizona's Dem Candidate For Gov: Child Shouldn't Need Consent to Abort
October 19th, 2014 11:16 PM
To the relief of sex offenders throughout the state, Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Fred DuVal, during a Tuesday forum at Redemption Church in Gilbert, said that, in the words of an unbylined Washington Free Beacon story, "he is opposed to mandating parental consent for a girl as young as 14 years old to get an abortion."
This is a non-story in the establishment press, which made it…

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Clinton Speechwriter: Bush 43 'Was Inarticulate Off the Cuff'
October 13th, 2014 10:58 PM
Apparently the folks at Vocativ, who took a look at over 600 presidential speeches going all the way back to George Washington, were a little reluctant to document what their "scientific" analysis of those speeches told them about this nation's two most recent chief executives.
After finding that there is very little difference between the "sophistication" of speeches made by President Obama and…

At Politico, Walker's 126,000 Jobs Added Is 'A Little Over 100,000'
October 11th, 2014 2:26 PM
In covering the latest debate between incumbent Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Mary Burke, the Politico's James Hohmann significantly understated the number of jobs added in the Badger State during Walker's tenure.
Hohmann wrote that "Burke attacked Walker for his 'broken promise' to create 250,000 private sector jobs during his first term. He’s now at a…

Exercise in Fantasy: AP's Ludicrous Story on Davis-Abbott Debate
September 23rd, 2014 9:18 PM
This morning (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis's awful performance in Friday's debate with Republican aspirant Greg Abbott was predictably ignored by the Politico, the New York Times, and the Associated Press's national site.
The AP did have a story it apparently limited to distribution within Texas. As I also noted this morning,…

RNC Spokesman: It's Time for Conservative Journalists to Moderate Some
May 11th, 2014 5:33 PM
Someone in the GOP is starting to listen to our refrain of "Say No to Feisty Liberal Moderators." On Friday, RNC spokesman Sean Spicer talked to Newsmax TV host Steve Malzberg after the RNC voted to change the rules to include more conservative moderators in the primaries.
Spicer noted the obvious: “ For too long, it’s been the media that’s decided when we’re going to debate, who is going to…

David Gregory Frets About Whether ‘Democracy Is For Sale’ Followin
April 6th, 2014 7:22 PM
Last week, the Supreme Court eliminated limits on how much money individuals can donate to all campaigns in any two-year election cycle and NBC’s David Gregory lamented how “American democracy is for sale.”
Appearing on “Meet the Press” on Sunday April 6, Gregory asked Shaun McCutcheon, the plaintiff in McCutcheon v. FEC: “How do you have candidates in the future now going to the wealthiest…