{"id":30841,"date":"2016-02-05T22:27:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T06:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=30841"},"modified":"2016-02-05T22:35:10","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T06:35:10","slug":"really-fox-news-thinks-rachel-maddow-is-too-biased-to-moderate-a-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=30841","title":{"rendered":"Really? Fox News Thinks Rachel Maddow Is Too Biased To Moderate A Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Howard Kurtz, host of MediaBuzz on Fox News, wrote a column today that might have consumed the world’s supply of chutzpah. In the column Kurtz took MSNBC to task for having the audacity to let their biggest star, Rachel Maddow, co-moderate a Democratic debate. Of course, that’s something that Fox has done itself with their hot property, Megyn Kelly, but never mind that. Kurtz is very upset.<\/p>\n

\"Megyn
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

The headline of the article asked this pressing question: “Why did MSNBC put Rachel Maddow on the debate stage?”<\/em> The question was apparently so easy to answer that Kurtz managed to handle it all by himself.<\/p>\n

Kurtz:<\/strong> Rachel Maddow did a pretty good job in questioning Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at MSNBC\u2019s Democratic debate last night. (…) She is smart and passionate, a Rhodes scholar with a deep knowledge of the issues. She did not roll over for Clinton during a recent interview on her prime-time show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, with a track record like that she should never be allowed anywhere near a candidate debate. The last thing Fox would want is a smart, knowledgeable, fair person to facilitate a political discussion. That certainly isn’t the way they do it. Fox has taken great pains to make sure that all of their presenters are cut from the same moldy conservative cloth. And yet, Kurtz can still pose this scenario as if it weren’t utterly oblivious to reality:<\/p>\n

“Imagine the reaction on the left if the Fox News moderators at a debate were Bret Baier and Sean Hannity, an unabashed conservative. The criticism of Fox for fielding such a team would have been intense.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, the truth is that Fox’s moderators are unabashed conservatives, which I’ll get to in a moment. But first it is important to note that Kurtz couldn’t simply praise for Maddow without qualifying it by insisting that, despite her evident skills “she shouldn\u2019t have been on that stage as a moderator,”<\/em> and that “she should not have been put in that position,”<\/em> because “she is an unabashedly liberal commentator who rips the Republicans every night on her program.”<\/em><\/p>\n

If that is their criteria for choosing debate moderators then Fox has some explaining to do. Their own debate moderators have included relentless liberal bashers like Megyn Kelly, one of the most stridently partisan purveyors of propaganda on the Republican PR channel (aka Fox News). She spreads more lies about Benghazi than any of her Fox colleagues (and that’s saying something). She was caught<\/a> leading a discussion that was based on a series of \u201cFox Facts\u201d<\/em> that were cribbed directly from a Republican National Committee press release. She made a point of informing her viewers that it was a fact that both Jesus and Santa Claus were white.<\/p>\n

Media Matters did a survey<\/a> a couple of years back that showed that Kelly \u201chas hosted conservatives (56%) significantly more often than progressives (18%) and has surpassed even Fox\u2019s Hannity in its divide between guests on the left and right.\u201d<\/em> That’s the same Hannity that Kurtz used in his imaginary scenario about unabashed conservatives. And in March she will host her third debate on Fox News.<\/p>\n

Also moderating for Fox was Neil Cavuto, the Glenn Beck of business news<\/a>. His first question in the debate he moderated asked the candidates which of their economic plans God would endorse. He has made it his mission to castigate low-income Americans as sponges and leeches who are actually living the good life at the expense of the one-percent. He is a committed climate-change denier. And he frequently has segments about alleged government waste that usually turns out to be completely bogus (like this on about the famous shrimp on a treadmill<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
\nFox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a>
\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With blatantly biased moderators like this on Fox, Kurtz has the gall to complain about Maddow, even as he admits that she has all the qualifications for a moderator and that she acquitted herself well. What more does he want? His complaint obviously doesn’t have anything to do with Maddow’s ability to perform with proficiency and fairness, so the only thing left to explain why he would devote a column to this whining is his own bias and partisanship. Or perhaps he was ordered to do it by his boss, Roger Ailes, as a slap at Megyn Kelly’s time period competition. Expect to see more of this Maddow bashing on his Sunday morning program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howard Kurtz, host of MediaBuzz on Fox News, wrote a column today that might have consumed the world’s supply of chutzpah. In the column Kurtz took MSNBC to task for having the audacity to let their biggest star, Rachel Maddow, co-moderate a Democratic debate. Of course, that’s something that Fox has done itself with their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152,1,684],"tags":[33,297,429,22,135,120],"class_list":["post-30841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election","category-general","category-media-bias","tag-fox-news","tag-howard-kurtz","tag-megyn-kelly","tag-msnbc","tag-neil-cavuto","tag-rachel-maddow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/megyn-kelly-gq2-550px.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-81r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41775,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=41775","url_meta":{"origin":30841,"position":0},"title":"Hannity Attacks Maddow and Winds Up Admitting that He and Fox News are ‘Fake News’","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/12\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"MSNBC just announced that their panel of moderators for the first Democratic primary debate will include Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Jos\u00e9 Diaz-Balart, Chuck Todd, and Rachel Maddow. And as might be predicted, the last name on that list has already stirred some controversy. Rachel Maddow is unambiguously opinionated. Her program\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity, Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/maddow-hannity-sad-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/maddow-hannity-sad-foxnews.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/maddow-hannity-sad-foxnews.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11496,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11496","url_meta":{"origin":30841,"position":1},"title":"Rachel Maddow Beats Fox News – Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/10\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For the second time this year, Rachel Maddow pulled off a weekly ratings win against Fox News in the critical 25-54 demographic that advertisers prefer. Available now on Amazon: Fox Nation vs. Reality. Get it today. MSNBC has been enjoying a bit of boost with daily breaking coverage of Chris\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ratings"","block_context":{"text":"Ratings","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/maddow-3x1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25909,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=25909","url_meta":{"origin":30841,"position":2},"title":"Despite Their Own Conceit, Fox News Is About As Scary As Honey Boo Boo","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/1\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As America's number one network for extreme, right-wing political bias and propaganda, Fox News relishes every opportunity to disparage their ideological foes and to sanctimoniously exalt themselves as protectors of their twisted versions of the truth. 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