For CNBC, the rest of the mainstream media, and the Democratic Party, Wednesday night’s debate may have turned out to be a nightmare. For everyone else, it may very well be a dream come true, or a “fantasy,” to use an oft-repeated word of the night. The moderators couldn’t even get the candidates to bow to their desperate whims of going after Donald Trump, or any other GOP candidate for the most part.
Leading up to his criticism of the media, Ted Cruz called out the moderators specifically for unfair questions:
That was just the beginning. Trump was asked if he had a “comic book version of a presidential campaign” during one of the very first questions.
Later in the evening, Huckabee also refused to go after Trump. John Hardwood evoked Huckabee’s role as “preacher as well as a politician,” and how Huckabee “know[s] that presidents need the moral authority to bring the entire country together.” Huckabee was then basically asked to take into question Trump’s “moral authority.”
Instead, Huckabee called Trump “a good man.” He also mentioned that “Trump would be a better president every day of the week and twice on Sunday, rather than Hillary.” And, Huckabee remarked “I’m wearing a Trump tie tonight. Get over that one, OK?”
These candidates were not merely sucking up to their frontrunner, in hopes of becoming his vice-president or for a spot on the cabinet, as some would suggest. Rather, they were showing the moderators, and the country, that they don’t need to attack each other. The goal is not so much to beat each other as it is to beat Hillary.
To hear Trump complain about unfair treatment or “not very nicely asked questions” is nothing new. But, as he stood composed on the stage Wednesday night, such a complaint actually had a point other than to serve as an eye roll inducer.
While the bias from the mainstream media was not unexpected, Wednesday’s was particularly potent. And it was so refreshing then to see it as widely acknowledged.
If CNBC wished to serve as a representative of the mainstream media and evoke its true bias, then they won the night, hands down. The Hill noted that many were expecting the debate to be unfair. In that case, CNBC certainly did deliver.
The most memorable moments of the night involved multiple candidates calling the moderators out. And they weren’t the only ones to do so.
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, had particularly strong words to say about the debate in a statement:
The CNBC debate will go down in history as an encyclopedic example of liberal media bias on stage. The audience roared its disdain for these so-called ‘journalists,’ and all of America heard it. CNBC should be embarrassed for their pitiful display of partisan liberal media bias and apologize to the GOP candidates and the American people.
The Republican National Committee has circulated a petition which at 2p.m. has over 12,000 signatures to “Put the Mainstream Media on Notice.” The number has been growing rapidly, as about an hour before it had over 8,000 signatures.
In his own fundraising pitch, Cruz mentions that he is “declaring war on the liberal media.” Cruz was also all too happy to share tweets from Frank Lutz of Fox News about his focus group’s response to Cruz’s remarks on the media to further add to boost fundraising.
.@TedCruz scored the best line of last night’s #GOPDebate and the best line my focus group has ever heard.
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) October 29, 2015
Join the #CruzCrew: https://t.co/9frTn08K6J #CNBCGOPDebate https://t.co/d7K9pAW4s8
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 29, 2015
Fran Coombs penned an analysis for Rasmussen titled “GOP Wins, CNBC Loses Last Night’s Debate.” In it, Coombs begins by mentioning that the “debate was a textbook example of the media bias voters have complained about in surveys for years.”
It goes without saying that the candidates faced bias and unfairness while on the stage Wednesday night. Now that it’s all over, they may actually want to thank CNBC. For candidates, this type of attention may very well turn out to be their political “fantasy.”
