The Media Research Center served up its usual work-the-refs routine prior to the vice presidential debate — but afterwards, it was all rah-rah for J.D. Vance and atatcks on anyone who thought Tim Walz did well. Tom Olohan kicked off the Vance rah-rah:
When CBS News moderators harped on the events of Jan. 6, Republican 2024 vice presidential nominee JD Vance (R-OH) came out swinging, addressing a real threat to democracy: the assault by Big Tech and the left on Americans’ First Amendment rights.
During Tuesday night’s 2024 Vice Presidential Debate candidates Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) covered a host of topics including questions on immigration, abortion, child care, health care, immigration and Iran’s recent attack on America’s ally Israel. However, Vance also spoke up about the dire state of Americans’ free speech rights. “I believe we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country, but unfortunately it’s not the threat to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about,” Vance said. “It is the threat of censorship.
Vance proceeded to blast Harris and Big Tech companies for their abysmal pro-censorship record. “It’s big technology companies silencing their fellow citizens. And it’s Kamala Harris saying that rather than debate and persuade her fellow Americans, she’d like to censor people who engage in misinformation,” Vance said. “I think that’s a much bigger threat to democracy than anything we’ve seen in this country in the last four years in the last 40 years.”
Olohan didn’t explain how correcting lies and misinformation — which is what “Big Tech” is actually being accused of doing — is “censorship.”
Nicholas Fonadacaro predictably slid back into work-the-refs mode, whining that moderators (gasp!) fact-checked Vance:
While objectively not as bad a ABC’s presidential debate three weeks ago, which should go down as the worst debate performance by the moderators in U.S. history, CBS’s vice presidential debate Tuesday night didn’t fare much better. Liberal moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell were so desperate to make Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) look bad, that they repeatedly broke the rules of the debate to fact-check him. And their so-called fact-checks were so wrong that Vance had to call them out for it.
That’s not to mention the completely slanted and combative questions flung at the Republican vice presidential nominee.
[…]Things came to a head when Brennan delivered a dubious fact-check overlooking how the asylum process was being abused by illegal immigrants. Vance spoke up to lay out the real facts of how the system was being manipulated, ultimately leading to O’Donnell to cutting off his microphone [.]
Fondacaro refused to identify what, exactly, was “dubious” about that fact-check. Then, again, the MRC has heartily cheered Vance’s lies about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, which is what the fact-check was centered on. Instead, he concluded that “despite essentially going up against three opponents much like Trump did, Vance still seemed to have pulled off a W.”
Despite that predictable rah-rah from Fondacaro, Jorge Bonilla declared it “PREDICTABLE” that MSNBC praised Walz’s performance:
The easiest prediction to make in light of the last couple of days of Regime Media expectation setting and Harris talking point-echoing was that, after proclaiming Minnesota Governor and Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz would virtually soil himself on the debate stage, they’d turn around and proclaim him the winner.
This prediction was made tongue-in-cheek, but we turned out to be right.
MSNBC, the most Harris-sycophantic cable news outlet, came through. Here is MSNBC anchor and Russia Hoax disseminator Rachel Maddow doing her Regime Media best to prop Walz up:
Bonilla offered no specific example of Walz “virtually soil[ing] himself on the debate stage,” so his declaration to be “right” is more than a little faulty. Still, he ranted about “Regime Media spin and bootlicking,” as if he and Fondacaro aren’t engaging in bootlicking for the Trump regime they so desperately wish for.
Speaking of which, Fondacaro returned for more bootlicking:
As a recent NewsBusters study shown, ABC News was 100 percent in the tank for the Harris-Walz campaign. So, it was no surprise that during the network’s analysis of the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS on Tuesday, that their journalists would largely stay away from admitting that Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) had a pretty bad performance between his lies about being in Tiananmen Square, his gaffe about being friends with school shooters, and many more.
But without getting into those details, chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl admitted it didn’t go well for the number two on their Democratic ticket.
Clay Waters also whined that Vance was fact-checked:
Barron-Lopez embraced pro-Democratic journalistic “fact-checking” and defended the partisan fact-checking at last month’s ABC presidential debate, claiming “ABC’s way of doing it was a bit more beneficial to the American public.” She also fiercely defended CBS violating its own debate rules by breaking in twice last night to fact-check Vance.
After Vance had talked about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, moderator Margaret Brennan felt compelled to jump in.
CBS’s Margaret Brennan: “And just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, Temprary Protected Status.”
But when O’Donnell tried to pivot to the economy, Vance challenged Brennan on her fact-check, which he noted accurately was against the agreed-upon debate rules. So much for those rules.
This biased narrative-pushing continued throughout the MRC’s post-debate coverage:
- CNN’s Abby Phillip Admits Vance Landed Shots, Questions Walz’s Preparation
- ABC Gonna ABC: Declare January 6, Abortion Top Issues From VP Debate to Save Walz
- Bozell on Varney: CBS Moderators Tilted Severely to Left, Against Vance
- Media Take a Cue from Dems, Begin Whining About How ‘Slick’ Vance Is
- ABC Dehumanizes Vance, Claims ‘J.D.’ Stands for ‘Juvenile Delinquent’
- Halperin on VP Debate: ‘Vance Runaway Winner. Drubbing, Shellacking.’ Mods’ Bias ‘Disgusting’
- NewsBusters Podcast: J.D. Vance Confounds CBS with Civil Discourse
And, of course, Tim Graham whined that the moderators ignord the MRC’s biased questions:
Our expectations were pretty low when Alex Christy listed 30 questions the CBS moderators should ask Tim Walz and J.D. Vance. But they asked none of our suggested questions. The topics came up between the candidates, but no questions.
The closest they came was on the national debt, a topic usually too boring for network TV to consider. Alex suggested: “Since the last debate it was reported that interest payments on the debt topped $1 trillion per year for the first time. How do you and Harris plan to tackle the national debt without serious spending reforms?”
They did ask both candidates about their proposals “ballooning” the deficit. Norah O’Donnell asked Walz: “The Wharton School says your proposals will increase the nation’s deficit by $1.2 trillion. How would you pay for that without ballooning the deficit?”
[…]Moderators in both presidential debates focused on abortion, and it happened again in the VP debate. Why is this in every debate? Let’s guess because Democrats think this is a great issue for them. Alex suggested this framing to Walz:
Why did you sign a law that ended the requirement that babies who survived abortions be given life-saving medical care?
That’s way too severe a tone for Democrats. Margaret Brennan offered a version of that: “After Roe v. Wade was overturned, you signed a bill into law that made Minnesota one of the least restrictive states in the nation when it comes to abortion. Former President Trump said in the last debate that. You believe abortion, quote, in the 9th month is absolutely fine. Yes or no? Is that what you support? “
Graham also touted how “We suggested Vance be asked about Trump moderating the Republican platform’s abortion language for a federal limit on abortions” — but the MRC has largely refused to publicly denounce Trump for that moderation.
Graham touted his “list of Tim Walz lies about his biography,” but didn’t mention that his co-workers cheered Vance’s lies about Haitians in Springfield.