On Tuesday night’s Kelly File, MRC President Brent Bozell helped preview CNN’s Democratic presidential debate and demanded that the cable network treat the Democratic candidates the same as the Republicans were treated when Jake Tapper moderated CNN's Republican debate.
In response to CNN’s Anderson Cooper who claimed it will be hard to get the Democrats to actually challenge each other, Bozell stressed the CNN host doesn’t have “the right to in a solo way decide what he’s going to do on a network that has done just the opposite with Republicans.”
The MRC president argued that if “CNN has followed one tact with Republicans, CNN has a responsibility to do the exact same thing with Democrats. If they want to go Oprah with Democrats, go Oprah with the Republicans.”
After Bozell read a quote of Cooper defending the Democrats who allegedly want to have a serious debate in which the candidates actually talk about the issues, the MRC president pointed out that the CNN host was actually taking a swipe at the GOP:
So, what’s he saying? The Republicans aren’t a serious party, they’re not serious people, they don’t want to talk about serious issues. That just smacks of elitism.
When host Megyn Kelly asked what responsibility Cooper has to draw out distinctions between President Obama and the Democrats running to replace him, Bozell maintained that while tough questions are fine all he wanted was CNN to be consistent in how it treats both political parties:
All I’m asking, Megyn, is that both sides be treated equally and I don’t mean to be disparaging of Oprah but you know what I mean. If you’re going to have a conversation with one side, have a conversation with the other. If you’re going to be hard-hitting with one side, fine. Be equally hard-hitting--If you’re going to be Mike Wallace on one side, go Mike Wallace with the other. If you’re going to ask tough questions about your opponents, ask tough questions on both sides.
