Let us try to balance two similar episodes involving debate moderators.
Then we can wonder: Are we treating them in a “fair and balanced” manner?
In the 2012 debate between Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, Romney asserted that Obama failed to refer to the attack in September of that year on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as a “terrorist” event.
Moderator Candy Crowley of CNN corrected Gov. Romney, telling him at that moment that the president did make such a declaration.
Political conservatives went ballistic, saying Crowley had no business interjecting herself into a political debate.
Then last night, Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asked GOP candidate Donald Trump about statements he has made about women. She told Trump: âYouâve called women you donât like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”
Trump interrupted Kelly, responding, “Only Rosie O’Donnell,” to which Kelly said, “For the record, it was way beyond Rosie O’Donnell.”
OK, did Kelly interject herself into the debate in the manner that Crowley allegedly did in 2012? If so, where’s the outrage — from the right?
And, for the record, both Crowley and Kelly acted appropriately in both instances — in my oh-so-humble view — in setting the record straight.
Here’s the difference. Kelly, I assume, had the exact quotes and at whom they were directed in front of her and was defending her own question. So she was probably on solid footing (I haven’t seen her sources). Crowley got into parsing someone else words months after the fact on an impromptu exchange — something she was poorly equipped to do. The Washington Post’s fact checker Glenn Kessler (no far-right talker) gave four Pinocchios to Obama’s claim that he called the attack an act of terror, and by extension Crowley’s misguided support of his claim.
“But the presidentâs claim that he said âact of terrorismâ is taking revisionist history too far, given that he repeatedly refused to commit to that phrase when asked directly by reporters in the weeks after the attack. He appears to have gone out of his way to avoid saying it was a terrorist attack, so he has little standing to make that claim now.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-claim-he-called-benghazi-an-act-of-terrorism/2013/05/13/7b65b83e-bc14-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_blog.html