Michael Gaynor
Fox News prime time debate moderators: unfair and unbalanced
By Michael Gaynor
"Can Trump ever be derailed? Fox 'News' and Roger Ailes sure seems to be trying."
On August 6, 2015, Fox News presented two debates involving seventeen Republican presidential hopefuls.
The way the debates were moderated was striking.
Bill Hemmer and Martha McCallum moderated the debate among the seven hopefuls who did not make the top ten, based on polls.
It was an interesting debate in which Carly Fiorina shined and Hemmer and McCallum lived up to the Fox News "fair and balanced" slogan.
Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace moderated the prime time debate among the top ten.
They were NOT fair or balanced.
They seemed to be on a search and destroy mission targeting Donald Trump.
Baier began by asking a question to which he and anyone paying attention to the race knew the answer: would everyone pledge to support the 2016 Republican presidential nominee and not become a third party presidential candidate.
The only feasible third party presidential candidate is Trump.
The only Republican presidential hopeful who has not agreed to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee is Trump, and he had said he would support the nominee if he is treated "fairly" (which Trump would determine).
Baier did not elicit any news in asking a question apparently designed to depict Trump as the odd man out in the group and turn the audience against him.
As soon as she could, Kelly targeted Trump by quoting insulting remarks about some women that Trump allegedly had made, presumably to portray him as a misogynist.
Kelly offered no context.
Then, after Trump joked "only Rosie O'Donnell," with whom Trump had feuded years ago, attorney Kelly testified that was not true.
Kelly may have been campaigning herself for the Candy Crowley award for a presidential debate moderator who makes herself the determiner of the facts and skews a presidential election.
If Kelly's tactic did not win her an interview from the Democrat presidential hopeful beating the War on Women drum, then Hillary Clinton is just too ungrateful to be President of the United States.
Conservative attorney David Limbaugh tweeted less than 30 minutes into the prime time Republican Presidential hopefuls' debate: "It's one thing for a moderator to ask a pointed question, it is another for them to try to bias the jury pool."
Exactly!
Baier and Kelly should be ashamed.
Dick Morris, no longer with Fox News, was blunt (www.dickmorris.com/gop-debate-winners-trump-cruz-huckabee-christie-losers-fox-news/):
"The other big loser was Fox News.
"Their anti-Trump bias was obvious. The questions were way too negative and often too personal. The network, which is built on being fair to conservatives, was manifestly unfair to them tonight."
Upon further reflection, Morris added a disconcerting speculation (www.dickmorris.com/fox-news-seeks-to-satisfy-mainstream-media-not-its-viewers/#more-16115):
"In its GOP primary debate coverage, Fox News' recent desire to be accepted into the fraternity of leftist leaning journalists was on full display. Having built its audience by being fair to conservatives, its anchors now seek to pivot to the left in order to satisfy their professional peers.
"It is very revelatory that CNN praised Fox News for its handling of the debate.
"Fox News couldn't care less what the audience or the Republican candidates thought of them. It was trying to make it in the journalistic cocktail circuit. That's why they pummeled Trump with such personal attacks and treated all of the other candidates like enemies.
"Megyn Kelly was especially partisan, her bias showing through her questioning of Trump. You can bet she'll never be as tough on Hillary as she was on the Donald last night and certainly won't be asking her personal questions.
"Fox News showed an arrogant contempt for its audience in its leftist bias and was, in effect, telling them that they have no other place to go.
"The network's choice of who got to answer questions was just one of the many ways it showed a bias. Conservative Ted Cruz had to wait for 25 other responses before he was finally asked a question – and that one was about God.
"Conservative newcomer Ben Carson was ignored for so long by the Fox News anchors that he even commented that he was wondering if he would ever get the chance to speak.
"Fox News could have shown that it could be fairer than any other station. Instead its liberal bias rivaled that of George Stephanopoulos."
Radical Brad Friedman, in his August 7, 2015 email promoting his BradCast (http://bradblog.com/?p=11302), celebrated the targeting of Trump:
"Can Trump ever be derailed? Fox 'News' and Roger Ailes sure seems to be trying."
They sure seem to be sacrificing "fair and balanced" in the process of targeting Trump.
© Michael Gaynor
August 8, 2015
"Can Trump ever be derailed? Fox 'News' and Roger Ailes sure seems to be trying."
On August 6, 2015, Fox News presented two debates involving seventeen Republican presidential hopefuls.
The way the debates were moderated was striking.
Bill Hemmer and Martha McCallum moderated the debate among the seven hopefuls who did not make the top ten, based on polls.
It was an interesting debate in which Carly Fiorina shined and Hemmer and McCallum lived up to the Fox News "fair and balanced" slogan.
Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace moderated the prime time debate among the top ten.
They were NOT fair or balanced.
They seemed to be on a search and destroy mission targeting Donald Trump.
Baier began by asking a question to which he and anyone paying attention to the race knew the answer: would everyone pledge to support the 2016 Republican presidential nominee and not become a third party presidential candidate.
The only feasible third party presidential candidate is Trump.
The only Republican presidential hopeful who has not agreed to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee is Trump, and he had said he would support the nominee if he is treated "fairly" (which Trump would determine).
Baier did not elicit any news in asking a question apparently designed to depict Trump as the odd man out in the group and turn the audience against him.
As soon as she could, Kelly targeted Trump by quoting insulting remarks about some women that Trump allegedly had made, presumably to portray him as a misogynist.
Kelly offered no context.
Then, after Trump joked "only Rosie O'Donnell," with whom Trump had feuded years ago, attorney Kelly testified that was not true.
Kelly may have been campaigning herself for the Candy Crowley award for a presidential debate moderator who makes herself the determiner of the facts and skews a presidential election.
If Kelly's tactic did not win her an interview from the Democrat presidential hopeful beating the War on Women drum, then Hillary Clinton is just too ungrateful to be President of the United States.
Conservative attorney David Limbaugh tweeted less than 30 minutes into the prime time Republican Presidential hopefuls' debate: "It's one thing for a moderator to ask a pointed question, it is another for them to try to bias the jury pool."
Exactly!
Baier and Kelly should be ashamed.
Dick Morris, no longer with Fox News, was blunt (www.dickmorris.com/gop-debate-winners-trump-cruz-huckabee-christie-losers-fox-news/):
"The other big loser was Fox News.
"Their anti-Trump bias was obvious. The questions were way too negative and often too personal. The network, which is built on being fair to conservatives, was manifestly unfair to them tonight."
Upon further reflection, Morris added a disconcerting speculation (www.dickmorris.com/fox-news-seeks-to-satisfy-mainstream-media-not-its-viewers/#more-16115):
"In its GOP primary debate coverage, Fox News' recent desire to be accepted into the fraternity of leftist leaning journalists was on full display. Having built its audience by being fair to conservatives, its anchors now seek to pivot to the left in order to satisfy their professional peers.
"It is very revelatory that CNN praised Fox News for its handling of the debate.
"Fox News couldn't care less what the audience or the Republican candidates thought of them. It was trying to make it in the journalistic cocktail circuit. That's why they pummeled Trump with such personal attacks and treated all of the other candidates like enemies.
"Megyn Kelly was especially partisan, her bias showing through her questioning of Trump. You can bet she'll never be as tough on Hillary as she was on the Donald last night and certainly won't be asking her personal questions.
"Fox News showed an arrogant contempt for its audience in its leftist bias and was, in effect, telling them that they have no other place to go.
"The network's choice of who got to answer questions was just one of the many ways it showed a bias. Conservative Ted Cruz had to wait for 25 other responses before he was finally asked a question – and that one was about God.
"Conservative newcomer Ben Carson was ignored for so long by the Fox News anchors that he even commented that he was wondering if he would ever get the chance to speak.
"Fox News could have shown that it could be fairer than any other station. Instead its liberal bias rivaled that of George Stephanopoulos."
Radical Brad Friedman, in his August 7, 2015 email promoting his BradCast (http://bradblog.com/?p=11302), celebrated the targeting of Trump:
"Can Trump ever be derailed? Fox 'News' and Roger Ailes sure seems to be trying."
They sure seem to be sacrificing "fair and balanced" in the process of targeting Trump.
© Michael Gaynor
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(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
