Debates

This week, after CNBC's moderators assault the GOP candidates with a barrage of offensive attack questions, liberal reporters decry Republican complaints about the debacle: "This got a little revolting tonight," MSNBC's Chris Matthews sneered, while ABC daytime host Whoopi Goldberg advised the candidates: "Grow some nuts." And: CBS and PBS host Charlie Rose tells socialist candidate Bernie…

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius blasted the GOP presidential candidates for daring to complain about the biased questions asked during last month’s CNBC debate. Moderator John Dickerson teed up Ignatius by playing a clip of President Obama mocking the Republicans' debate complaints which prompted the Post columnist to declare the American public…

During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, National Review editor Rich Lowry dismissed the media obsession with Ben Carson’s personal biography and stressed that the constant attacks on the GOP presidential candidate will only serve to bolster his campaign. Lowry stressed that the media critiquing Carson is “going to help him” and pointed out that “in this Republican race that media coverage is…

Saturday Night Live used its cold opening to mock MSNBC’s Democratic presidential forum with cast member Cecily Strong portraying moderator Rachel Maddow. Strong described the forum as a “debate that no one watches.” After SNL’s Maddow briefly spoke to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, portrayed by Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon appeared on set as Hillary Clinton and the SNL cast member hilariously…

During an interview with the Charlotte Observer to preview MSNBC’s Democratic presidential forum on Friday night, host Rachel Maddow strongly downplayed criticism leveled against CNBC for its handling of the Republican presidential debate. 

It was like a mother trying to lead her naughty son through an apology . . .  Last week, Joe Scarborough predicted he would "get in trouble" for calling John Harwood's biased performance as debate moderator "embarrassing." On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski tried, in what seemed perhaps to be a pre-arranged mea culpa, to force Joe to say "I really respect everyone I work with." Joe didn't…

On Tuesday, all three network morning shows happily touted President Obama attacking Republicans at a Democratic fundraiser Monday night over GOP presidential candidates objecting to CNBC’s biased debate. At the top of NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “The Republican candidates, briefly unified, splinter again over their debate demands as President Obama takes a swipe, mocking…

Appearing on the Monday edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, New York magzine writer-at-large Frank Rich denounced the letter written by numerous Republican presidential campaigns to media organizations concerning the format of future debates as “fascistic” and written by “scared little children” but “seem[s] to have been drafted by Stalin.”

Those who hope that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin get to moderate a Republican presidential debate include Hannity himself, Ted Cruz, and Walsh. As they (almost) used to put it on Sesame Street, one of these persons is not like the others. Walsh, who recently joined The Nation after more than a decade and a half at Salon, argued in a Friday article that such a debate would benefit…

In a stunning display of arrogance on Monday, the cast of ABC’s The View not only refused to apologize for calling Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina “demented” following the latest GOP debate, but co-host Whoopi Goldberg actually further attacked Fiorina for criticizing the talk show over the vicious smear.

On Monday’s NBC Today, MSNBC political analyst Nicolle Wallace explained the Republican Party’s long-term distrust of the press: “At the core is a massive generational distrust with the mainstream media and it bubbled over in the debate last week.”

In the wake of the CNBC debate debacle, Joe Scarborough went on an epic rant on liberal media bias on today's Morning Joe. He summed things up this way, in challenging the panel: "you can't do it and nobody here can do it: name the single Republican that has hosted a Sunday show, that has been an anchor of a news network for the big three networks over the past 50 years: you can not do it." …

In the week when a new James Bond film is coming out, it’s fitting that two lefty writers are both shaken and stirred by recent Republican blasts at media bias. In a Sunday article for Salon, Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson charged that “since the 1950s, Movement Conservatives have fought the fair examination of their ideas. They embrace a worldview in which a few wealthy…

During an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday, disgraced CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather did his best to excuse the criticism of CNBC’s Republican presidential debate and instead chose to blame Republicans for fueling such hatred towards the press. While Rather briefly admitted that CNBC “didn’t do it perfectly” the liberal journalist quickly blamed the GOP presidential candidates…