NBCCCP Debate Moderators Bombard Republicans with Questions from the Left

Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Thursday September 08, 2011 @ 08:59 AM ET

1. NBC Debate Moderators Pepper Republicans with Questions from the Left
NBC's Brian Williams and Politico's John Harris peppered the NBC News/Politico debate inside the Air Force One pavilion at the Reagan Library with questions from the left, repeatedly pressing the Republican presidential candidates with liberal talking points and Democratic agenda items. That's time which could have been better spent advancing issues and concerns of Republican primary voters interested in differences amongst the candidates, not in forcing the candidates to defend conservative positions despised by MSNBC viewers and hosts. Williams hit Texas Governor Rick Perry from the left on his state's poor economic indicators ("no other state has more working at or below the minimum wage") , chastised him for cutting education funding and, citing how "your state has executed 234 death row inmates," demanded to know whether he's "struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?"

2. Brokaw Panders to Perry Fears of Liberal Today Show Viewers
Tom Brokaw, on Wednesday's Today show, welcomed Rick Perry into the GOP race for president by trying to scare that show's liberal viewers with the Texas governor's views on Social Security and the Supreme Court. The former NBC Nightly News anchor predicted that Republicans at the NBC News/Politico GOP presidential debate will "take a whack" at the new frontrunner, adding that they will be "looking at a book he wrote...called Fed Up." Brokaw then listed, what he viewed, were controversial points in the book: "He describes Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. He said that the Supreme Court is an oligarchy with a two-thirds vote. He talked about succession [sic]."

3. Chris Matthews' Warped History: Ronald Reagan 'Wasn't a Social Conservative'
MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday offered up bizarre, revisionist history, insisting that Ronald Reagan "wasn't a social conservative." In an attempt to denigrate the goals of the Tea Party movement, the Hardball host inaccurately asserted that the 40th president "accepted Roe V. Wade." Matthews, who fancies himself a presidential historian, appeared on the Martin Bashir show and asserted that Reagan wouldn't be comfortable in the "church tent" of today's GOP. He spun, "Although [Reagan] would address the pro-life rallies every year in Washington, for example, he would do so through public address. He never showed up." Matthews added, "He accepted Roe V. Wade under the Constitution."

4. George Stephanopoulos Pesters Rove: How Can Republicans 'Blow' Election?
Despite all the bad news for Barack Obama, George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday eagerly wondered just how the Republican Party can "blow" the 2012 election. The former Democratic operative turned journalist probed front-runner Rick Perry for limitations, wondering if the candidate will have to "disavow" parts of his 2010 book. Talking to GOP strategist Karl Rove, Stephanopoulos quizzed, "You've also said President Obama is likely to lose next year and I guess my question is, how could the Republican Party blow it?"

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