Debates

On multiple occasions throughout CNN’s post-Democratic debate analysis late Saturday night, liberal CNN commentator and Atlantic writer Peter Beinart dared to step out and criticize Hillary Clinton for her debate performance on foreign policy and the Democratic Party as a whole for being “very vague” and “nonspecific” on an issue where “polls show people trust Republicans.”

After being pushed by The Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich during Saturday’s Democratic debate about his flip-flopping on Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal, socialist Bernie Sanders denied the idea that he had backtracked from his “damn e-mails” comment in the October 13 debate. Instead, Sanders attacked the notion as “media stuff” and emphasized that he’s “still sick and tired of Hillary…

Nearly a half-hour into Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate on CBS, Salon writer Joan Walsh and former Democratic Vermont Governor Howard Dean took to Twitter to blast moderator John Dickerson for merely asking legitimate questions of the candidates on foreign policy and whether or not the United States (and by extension, the West) is at war with “radical Islam.” 

Appearing as a panel member on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, comedian Jay Leno compared GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to Adolf HItler as the group discussed Trump's talk of requiring all illegal immigrants to leave the country before being considered for reentry.

On Friday's PBS Newshour, during the regular "Shields and Brooks" segment, the trio of Judy Woodruff, liberal Mark Shields and right-leaning Michael Gerson sitting in for David Brooks all suggested that, because of all the talk of deporting illegal immigrants, only a "moderate Republican" will be able to win the presidency for the GOP, and will need to "repudiate the idea of mass deportations."

According to Politico’s Hadas Gold and Annie Karni, Saturday night’s Democratic presidential moderator John Dickerson of CBS News met privately with each of the three campaigns for separate, private meetings to preview the debate and tried to innocently be billed as “informational in nature.”

As questions began to be raised regarding Hillary Clinton’s dubious claim that she once tried to join the Marines in 1975, on Friday, only NBC’s Today briefly noted the controversy, with co-host Savannah Guthrie warning: “Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is facing scrutiny about a story from her past that she repeated on the campaign trail this week, and it could come up at tomorrow's…

In promoting the upcoming Democratic presidential debate Saturday night on CBS with moderator John Dickerson, Stephen Colbert lamented during Thursday’s Late Show that Republicans have a reputation of “roughing up the referee in these debates, like the CNBC guys got slapped around a little bit by the Republican candidates” and wondered if he “expect[ed] the Democrats to do the same?”

Tuesday evening, Associated Press economics writers Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak attempted to "fact check" statements made by candidates at the just-completed Republican presidential debate. Claiming that "The fourth Republican presidential debate was thick on economic policy — and with that came a variety of flubs and funny numbers," the two writers botched at least half of the six points…

Appearing on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Wednesday night, MSNBC host Chris Hayes rejected the idea that the “mainstream media” is biased against conservatives. Hayes acknowledged he was part of the “mainstream media” but argued that “what people don't like is when they feel that there are biases at work that are unannounced. And I think the mainstream media is biased but not…

On Thursday’s CBS This Morning, reporter Nancy Cordes went to bat for “undisputed front-runner” Hillary Clinton and appeared dismayed that the GOP presidential candidates spent so much time talking about her during this week’s debate on Fox Business.

The Wednesday editions of ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News each provided their own wrap-ups of the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate from the night before, but the theme was predictably similar as both networks spun the event as illustrating “fierce opposition” and “dramatic divisions” within the GOP on apparently every issue.

Filling in for Scott Pelley on Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, Charlie Rose provided a wrap-up of Tuesday’s Fox Business Networks Republican presidential debate and seemed exasperated when he wondered to Face the Nation anchor John Dickerson “why” did the GOP candidates level “a lot of attacks on Hillary Clinton.”

Robin Williams’s first album was called Reality…What a Concept. More than one lefty blogger implied that Unreality…What a Concept would have been a fitting title for Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate.