Debates

As many leading pundits in the media pointed out, last night’s debate was probably Donald Trump’s last major opportunity to turn the tide of the campaign. Though Trump was the winner on points, he was nowhere near close enough to the decisive knock out he needed to gain the initiative. 

At NewsBusters late Wednesday afternoon, Tim Graham observed that many news outlets, including the Associated Press and most of the nation’s major newspapers, had not yet covered "the Project Veritas videos exposing Democratic operatives talking about voter fraud and inciting violence at Donald Trump rallies."

While Fox's Chris Wallace has drawn near-universal praise for moderating the final presidential debate, the Hollywood trade paper Variety carried the contrarian headline: "Final Debate: Wallace Misses." TV critic Sonia Soraiya wrote Wallace’s questions “provided some of the most heartfelt responses from her [Hillary] , such as her articulate, emotional statement of purpose on abortion.” She…

Fox News’s Megyn Kelly on Wednesday night absolutely grilled Donna Brazile over a WikiLeak revelation that she gave a primary debate question in advance to Hillary Clinton. A flustered Brazile seemed to have no response and appeared totally unprepared for handling the issue. This is a question that most mainstream journalists have showed little interest in pursuing. 

Appearing on Thursday’s NBC Today, special correspondent Tom Brokaw dismissed Donald Trump’s accusations of liberal media bias: “His complaints have been, apparently, that he thinks there’s a media conspiracy of some kind. The media conspiracy consists of The New York Times printing his tax returns...”

On Thursday morning, journalists on CBS and CNN were aghast at Donald Trump bluntly and accurately describing Hillary Clinton’s support for partial-birth abortion. Attempting to fact-check the Republican nominee on CBS This Morning, former Face the Nation moderator Bob Schieffer falsely asserted: “...no woman carries a child for eight and a half months and then decides she wants to have an…

How many more broadcast bust-ups will it take before America finally decides to make its presidential election debates tolerable again? I can't take it anymore. Can you? For the past three cycles -- 2008, 2012, and 2016 -- I've chronicled the depressing, systemic bias of left-leaning partisans whom the Commission on Presidential Debates routinely installs as "moderators."

Three of the late-night comedy programs went live to react to Wednesday’s final presidential debate and the assembled hosts and guests offered vulgar jokes comparing Donald Trump to a sex toy, phone sex operator, and man who needs breast feeding while dubbing Trump debate guest “Sarah Palin is the HPV of American politics.”

Never one for understatement, ex-Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Wednesday night accused Donald Trump of having “casual contempt” for 225 years of American democracy. Regarding Trump’s refusal in the final debate to commit to accepting a loss on Election Day, Fineman contended, “It wasn't just what he said that was shocking, it was the way he said it. There was a casual contempt in Donald Trump…

Aside from the barrage of coverage following Wednesday’s final presidential debate concerning Donald Trump’s non-commitment to accept November’s election results, there were a few instances where that wasn’t discussed and ABC used their precious airtime to inform us Latinos “were crying” over Trump’s “hombres line” and assured viewers that “Hillary clearly won” the face-off.

CNN political commentator Van Jones brought the news outlet’s political commentary to a new low following the final presidential debate Wednesday. “You know, this is a really sad night. I’m just going to say it. This is a very sad night for the country. You can't polish this turd,” bemoaned the leftist as he slammed Donald Trump's performance. That’s right, Jones resorted to being a proverbial…

The hosts at MSNBC got out the knives on Wednesday night, dismissing Donald Trump’s debate performance as like that of an “old man in the park feeding squirrels.” (And that was from the network’s official Republican representative.) Chris Matthews scored the debate a “win” for Hillary Clinton and Lawrence O’Donnell saw a “romp” for the Democrat. 

Following the final 2016 presidential debate on Wednesday night between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell issued the following statement about the debate and Fox News moderator Chris Wallace: 

Previewing Wednesday’s final presidential debate, MSNBC’s Joy Reid dismissed concerns about voter fraud as nothing more than those “who feel that black people are stealing our elections.” Reid appeared on a Hardball panel and attacked the issue as a “dog whistle to the far right.” She sneered, “It is feeding the Breitbart people who feel that  black people are stealing our elections. That's all…