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MRC Alert Special: MSNBC's Liberal Agenda at Both Debates--5/7/2007-- Media
Research Center
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From: Media Research Center
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 15:23
Subject: MRC Alert Special: MSNBC's Liberal Agenda at Both Debates
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***Media Research Center CyberAlert Special***
3:20pm EDT, Monday May 7, 2007
Media Reality Check. The Two Debates: MSNBC's Liberal Agenda;
MSNBC's Matthews Emphasizes Liberal Questions at GOP Debate: Is Bill
Clinton Good for America?
Below is the text of a Media Reality Check, by the MRC's Rich
Noyes, which was faxed and posted this afternoon.
For the PDF version of the Media Reality Check which matches the
hard copy:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2007/pdf/fax0507.pdf
The HTML version:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2007/fax20070507.asp
Now, the text of the May 7 Media Reality Check:
The Two Debates: MSNBC's Liberal Agenda
MSNBC's Matthews Emphasizes Liberal Questions at GOP Debate:
Is Bill Clinton Good for America?
On Friday's Today show, MSNBC's Chris Matthews defended his ludicrous
decision to ask the GOP candidates if it would be good for America
to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House? Matthews
explained the sociological insight: They all sort of guffawed. Well,
that's a particularly Republican response. If I offered that same
question up to Democrats...they would be cheering like mad.
So Matthews proved that the ten Republican debaters are not Democrats
-- was there any doubt? The weird Clinton question was symptomatic of
how MSNBC and debate co-sponsor ThePolitico.com spent valuable time
asking the GOP candidates questions that reflected the agenda of far-
left bloggers, not the concerns of GOP primary voters. A week
earlier, while moderator Brian Williams did pose a few right-leaning
questions to the Democratic field, most of that debate reflected
issues that rate high with Democratic voters. In other words, both
debates were dominated by liberal agenda questions.
# The Democratic Debate: Brian Williams started off with a
conservative-oriented question to Hillary Clinton about Harry Reid's
statement that the Iraq war is lost: A letter to today's USA Today
calls his comments 'treasonous,' and says if General Patton were
alive today, Patton would 'wipe his boots' with Senator Reid. Do you
agree with the position of your leader in the Senate? But by the
time Williams reached Dennis Kucinich, his Iraq questions were
skewing left: Do you think one can be against the war and still fund
it?
On universal health care, Williams asked the candidates to explain
how they would pay for it, not challenging them on the need for such
a huge new government expansion. On gun control, Williams tried to
embarrass New Mexico's Bill Richardson as too far right: You are
currently, if our research is correct, the NRA's favorite
presidential candidate of either partyDid anything about the
massacre at Virginia Tech make you re-think any part of your position
on guns?
Most questions posed from e-mails were ideologically neutral, such as
What is the most significant political or professional mistake you
have made in the past four years? While Mrs. Clinton was hit with a
question from the right -- Would you defy the majority of American
citizens and offer a form of amnesty for illegal aliens? -- John
Edwards enjoyed this liberal-oriented question: Concerning the
astronomical windfall of major oil companies again in the first
quarter, why is gas still on the rise?
# The GOP Debate: Matthews posed some important questions from the
right, asking each candidate to mention a tax you'd like to cut,
and whether the day that Roe v. Wade is repealed [would] be a good
day for America? But much of the debate was spent posing hostile
questions from the left. Matthews at one point asked Jim Gilmore
about the Left's favorite whipping boy: Is Karl Rove your friend? Do
you want to keep him in the White House if you get elected
President? He challenged Romney about Roman Catholic bishops who
would deny communion to elected officials who support abortion
rightsDo you see that as interference in public life?
Many of the e-mailed questions used liberal catch-phrases: Will you
work to protect women's rights, as in fair wages and reproductive
choice? And several e-mailers hoped to catch candidates in moments
of ignorance, asking Rudy Giuliani to explain the difference between
a Sunni and a Shiite, and asking Tommy Thompson to say how many
Americans have been killed or wounded in Iraq.
At their debate, none of the Democrats faced questions aimed at
showing their lack of knowledge. That such an approach was taken with
the GOP
