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?”
Debates
By Tom Blumer | November 12, 2015 | 10:58 AM EST
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 they tried to make. Their most obvious economic error concerned the impact of minimum-wage increases (I will cover two others in a future post):
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 12, 2015 | 10:57 AM EST
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 in any partisan way. I think there are certain biases we have. We have bias towards spectacle.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 12, 2015 | 9:38 AM EST
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.
By Curtis Houck | November 11, 2015 | 9:58 PM EST
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.
By Curtis Houck | November 11, 2015 | 8:39 PM EST
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.”
By Tom Johnson | November 11, 2015 | 5:29 PM EST
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.
By Michael McKinney | November 11, 2015 | 4:49 PM EST
Veteran MSNBC watchers have surely noticed the Obama-loving network's extreme hostility to black Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. These attacks and the pressure against Carson, compared to other Republicans in the race, has been intense. As a black conservative, Dr. Carson has taken extreme criticism and scrutiny for his words.
By Kyle Drennen | November 11, 2015 | 1:07 PM EST
On Wednesday’s NBC Today, correspondent Peter Alexander actually attempted to discredit Marco Rubio’s rhetorical observation that “Welders make more money than philosophers.” Taking the comment literally, Alexander asserted: “That was one of the most memorable lines of the night, but it's also not true. Government statistics show that philosophers, philosophy teachers in this country, make on average almost twice as much as welders.”
By Kyle Drennen | November 11, 2015 | 10:45 AM EST
On Wednesday, all three network morning shows interviewed Florida Senator Marco Rubio following Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate and grilled him on GOP opposition to illegal immigration. On NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “One of the most heated exchanges...came over immigration, and Trump's vow to deport 11 million illegal immigrants. Some on the stage suggested that is a gift to Democrats....I asked him if he agreed that his party’s handling of that issue is alienating the Latino voters.”
By Mark Finkelstein | November 11, 2015 | 7:21 AM EST
Two days ago, as we reported here, Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace excoriated Ben Carson, accusing him of telling "one lie after another" and "bald-faced lies."
Today, it was Mika Brezinski's turn to denounce the good doctor. On Morning Joe, Mika said "there's this slipperiness to him that nobody will just say. He's slippery. He doesn't tell the truth, and he doesn't make sense."
By Curtis Houck | November 11, 2015 | 2:59 AM EST
Without a hint of irony, the most superficial network news show in ABC’s Nightline mocked Tuesday’s Fox Business Network Republican debate on their early Wednesday morning installment as nothing more than a “reality show” along the lines of The Bachelor and Survivor “where the stakes couldn’t be higher.”