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 Sanders that none of his plans are "radical," while foul-mouthed Kathy Griffin unleashes on Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio.
John Harwood
By Mark Finkelstein | November 5, 2015 | 7:21 AM EST
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 play along with the script but did ultimately mutter "of course I do" before quickly moving on.
Moderators at CNBC, Which 'Graded' Debaters' Speech Patterns, Scored At or Below Every GOP Candidate
By Tom Blumer | October 30, 2015 | 9:34 PM EDT People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. And people who ridicule the level of others' speech patterns should check theirs first.
CNBC didn't do that. Instead, on Thursday, as I noted in a previous NewsBusters post, it childishly rushed out a grade-level evaluation of the Republican presidential candidates' speech patterns during the first three debates, including the Wednesday train wreck it rudely hosted, and created a graphic with the title, "Are you smarter than a GOP candidate?" Payback is sweet (bolds are mine):
By NB Staff | October 30, 2015 | 9:53 AM EDT
A Media Research Center analysis of the questions posed by moderators John Harwood, Carl Quintanilla and Becky Quick at CNBC's Republican presidential debate found nearly two-thirds (65%) hit the candidates with negative spin, personal insults or ad hominem attacks. In contrast, all of the questions posed by CNBC personalities Jim Cramer, Rick Santelli and Sharon Epperson focused on policy matters and were phrased in a constructive, respectful tone.
By NB Staff | October 29, 2015 | 6:09 PM EDT
Appearing on the Thursday edition of FBN's Risk & Reward with Deirdre Bolton, Media Research Center founder and president Brent Bozell hailed how the GOP presidential candidates spontaneously banded together and "made mince meat" of the biased moderators conducting the debate.
Bloggers Blast GOP Presidential Candidates' Media Criticism: ‘Reality Has a Bias Toward Journalists’
By Tom Johnson | October 29, 2015 | 5:38 PM EDT Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio put media bias on the front burner at CNBC’s Republican presidential debate, but conservatives and liberals differed sharply on whether what was in the pot smelled appetizing. Several lefty bloggers turned up their noses at the idea that in last night’s event and in general, the media favor Democrats.
By Scott Whitlock | October 29, 2015 | 4:52 PM EDT
With the liberal bias of CNBC’s debate being so obvious that even Carl Bernstein and the left-wing Salon acknowledged it, debate moderator John Harwood appeared on CNBC, Thursday, to spin. Referring to Marco Rubio, Harwood huffed, “He, like other candidates, went after the media, which is a popular thing to do in a Republican primary.” He condescended: “As I said, he [Rubio] and other candidates, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, they got a lot of mileage with Republican primary voters by going after us.”
CNBC Rates Grade Level of GOP Candidates' Speech Patterns; Childish Moderators Not Taken Into Account
By Tom Blumer | October 29, 2015 | 3:50 PM EDT It would appear that CNBC isn't going to take the criticism of its debate panelists' awful conduct last night lying down.
In what appears to be an all too predictable immature response to the dressing-downs several Republican presidential candidates administered to certain of their moderators as a result of their juvenile behavior and insulting questions — particularly John Harwood and Carl Quintillana — the network has rushed out ratings of the top ten GOP candidates' speech patterns during the first three debates, with an obvious undertone: Ignore these candidates; they're just a bunch of dummies.
By Mark Finkelstein | October 29, 2015 | 8:29 AM EDT
Tuning into Morning Joe today, the question on this NewsBusters' mind was whether—given that MNSBC and CNBC are corporate cousins—Joe Scarborough would have the guts to go after John Harwood. He did.
In at least three segments this morning, Scarborough criticized Harwood for what he called his "embarrassing" performance as moderator of the GOP debate last night. Scarborough's repeated criticism on Harwood's blatant anti-GOP bias led Joe at one point to ruefully observe "I'm sure I'll get in trouble for saying this."
By Curtis Houck | October 29, 2015 | 3:14 AM EDT
Just a few hours after their atrocious performance in the third Republican presidential debate, two of the co-moderators from CNBC joined MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to double down on their liberal stances with John Harwood refusing to admit he lied regarding Senator Marco Rubio’s tax plan while Sharon Epperson trashed Carly Fiorina and how Republican candidates supposedly “don't really care about the facts.” Harwood snidely dismissed criticism: "That’s life in the big city."
By Tom Blumer | October 29, 2015 | 1:41 AM EDT
The competition for the worst moderator moment of Wednesday night's GOP debate is fierce. John Harwood's rephrasing of an old and discredited charge that Marco Rubio's tax plan disproportionately benefits the top 1 percent has to be in the running.
That's especially true because Harwood himself had to back away from a simialr contention two weeks ago, yet still brought up the same issue with a similar dishonest assumption Wednesday night. After Rubio refuted Harwood and pointed out that the CNBC hack previously had to correct himself about the substance of the Rubio-Lee plan, a finger-wagging Harwood still insisted he was correct (bolds are mine throughout this post):
By Ken Shepherd | October 28, 2015 | 8:39 PM EDT
As I noted earlier this evening, in an early question in the undercard GOP debate tonight, CNBC's John Harwood pressed Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) on his staunch opposition to tax hikes. Well, later in the same debate, Harwood hit Jindal from the other side of the ledger as regards spending cuts, and the $1.6-million shortfall that the state treasury saw earlier this year. It, by the way, has since been closed.