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Was Neil Cavuto’s painful interview with a college student activist fair game?
Washington Post ^ | November 18, 2015 | Callum Borchers

Posted on 11/18/2015 7:45:22 AM PST by TroutStalker

By now, there’s a reasonable chance you’ve seen Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto’s interview with Million Student March organizer Keely Mullen. It was all over the Internet in recent days -- and particularly the right-leaning portion of said Internet, which delighted in a liberal college student struggling to explain how giving everyone free college would be paid for.

The exchange was, in a word, uncomfortable.

Cavuto began by giving Mullen the floor to lay out the demands of her group, which orchestrated student walkouts at 110 college campuses last Thursday. They were: free tuition at public universities, the cancellation of all student debt and a $15-per-hour minimum wage for all campus workers. Cavuto then asked Mullen how to pay for all this.

“Um, great question,” Mullen replied.

It was almost instantly apparent that Mullen was in over her head. She seemed flustered and unprepared. She seemed like, well, a kid.

Yet the interview continued for nine excruciating minutes. Cavuto, who had moderated a Republican presidential debate just a few days earlier, would ask a tough question, Mullen would squirm and fumble her way through a response, then they’d do it all over again.

Given the vocal role students are playing in national conversations about racial discrimination and, naturally, college debt, it’s likely that more media encounters such as this one are on the way. Which raises an important question: Should the press cut student activists some slack, recognizing that their reasoning — or, at least, their ability to articulate it — might not have caught up to their passion? Or should news outlets treat students like true activists and like the adults that they technically are, expecting them to hold their own against journalistic pushback?

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: callumborchers; demagogicparty; districtofcolumbia; leftwingnuts; meanmeme; memebuilding; neilcavuto; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: BookmanTheJanitor

What a limp-wristed, self-confident, self-assured but ignorant, frequently wrong but never-in-doubt jackass.


81 posted on 11/18/2015 9:04:50 AM PST by bkopto
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To: TroutStalker

So, let me get this straight, the press should not expect an activist leader, to be able to articulate why they believe what they believe? And expecting them to is unfair????

Sorry, but if you expect to make demands and fight for something and can’t even articulate your position, your position is one of emotion, not logic and should be destroyed by logic.

You don’t tolerate the illogical, this isn’t a democratic national debate.


82 posted on 11/18/2015 9:06:57 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: TroutStalker
Which raises an important question: Should the press cut student activists some slack, recognizing that their reasoning - or, at least, their ability to articulate it - might not have caught up to their passion? Or should news outlets treat students like true activists and like the adults that they technically are, expecting them to hold their own against journalistic pushback?

They demand money, on threat of 'something' - and always the implied threat of violence. They get no "slack". In fact, they should be absolutely beaten (rhetorically) with their own words until they can do nothing but stammer "uh, um, uh, erm - fairness - mommy?"

83 posted on 11/18/2015 9:07:55 AM PST by MortMan (I am offended by those who believe they have a right not to be offended.)
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To: TroutStalker

If the whole thing was reversed and it was a liberal journalist interviewing a Conservative student that could not factually defend their position would anyone at the washington compost give a rats ass?


84 posted on 11/18/2015 9:09:11 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: TroutStalker
I'll cut the author some slack: in the end he concluded that no, activists should be ready for journalistic level questions if they hope to use journalistic means of communication. I just cut him more slack by translating what he said into that.

These are not children and this is not playtime. They are voting-age adults who are attempting to redirect huge portions of an economy to which they have contributed nothing, and who think of ruining their opponents' educations and/or careers as some sort of a game. That isn't academic, it isn't a learning experience, it is a real adult action with real consequences.

Zero sympathy. None.

85 posted on 11/18/2015 9:09:31 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: TroutStalker

did the girl think, does this author think, that interview was supposed to be a free infomercial for the million student March?


86 posted on 11/18/2015 9:10:58 AM PST by uncitizen (Trump: Saying what we are all thinking)
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To: TroutStalker
"Which raises an important question: Should the press cut student activists some slack, recognizing that their reasoning or, at least, their ability to articulate it might not have caught up to their passion?"

Leftists like this reporter, the newspaper he works for, and the media overall treat High School and College students as the unimpeachable font of wisdom.

The truth is, that the majority of them are just what they appear to be: emotionally driven heads full of mush (as one of our conservative talk show hosts occasionally points out) who don't have the life experience or maturity to opine on most questions of substance.

Not all, to be sure, but most of them. And if they are leftists, they come armed with what they just heard in Political Science, Sociology, History, or Philosophy class from their leftist professors.

I would take care to say it is not all of them, and certainly, I will almost always give a nod of approval to the opinion of nearly any 19 year old combat veteran over that of a 19 year old college student anywhere.

But anyone who denies this observation about college students has either never been one, cannot view themselves honestly, or isn't paying attention.

The Left, however, sees those 18 year old college freshmen as the most valuable of resources. They have knowledge that, for them, is a mile wide, and to the rest of us, (including the Leftists to whom they are Useful Idiot cannon fodder) a nanometer deep. They can recite slogans and get passionate about things they have not even the slightest idea about.

I know irony is lost on liberals like this reporter who asks if they should be given some slack. What the reporter is really saying is "We should give them all the rights, responsibilities, and weight to advocate any leftist cause, but they shouldn't be asked to explain themselves."

What a load of horse crap.

87 posted on 11/18/2015 9:14:56 AM PST by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: BookmanTheJanitor

Wow. I wrote my post at #87 without seeing that picture of the author.


88 posted on 11/18/2015 9:16:23 AM PST by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: pepsionice
This young gal is a bit naive and just felt that she could show up.....talk for five minutes and get a fair shake with no stupid questions. Well, Neil asked a couple of stupid questions, and she really couldn’t handle that, period.

Stupid questions? What was stupid about them?
If she was treated as an adult, which she is, and capable of causing the same damage to society as stupid/arrogant/ignorant other adults, perhaps she should just start learning and STFU!

No slack here!

89 posted on 11/18/2015 9:16:45 AM PST by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW! evil ignorant stupid or crazy-doesn't matter!)
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To: Cowgirl of Justice

Hahahahahahahaha! That was a brilliant mental image you painted! Made me laugh out loud...:)


90 posted on 11/18/2015 9:18:16 AM PST by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: pepsionice

“she’s still at the 12th grade level as far as I’m concerned.”


12th grade level? I have a 6th and 8th grader still at home that understood this better than she did....but they are homeschooled :)


91 posted on 11/18/2015 9:19:26 AM PST by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject")
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To: loveliberty2

Perhaps hers is a government school background, which would partially explain her apparent lack of understanding of how things get paid for which politicians promise and “progressives” advocate in order to get votes and power.

Nope, she went to a 50K a year boarding school in Chicago. Father recently purchased a 1 million dollar home.

Yeah, working class poor my butt...


92 posted on 11/18/2015 9:25:42 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
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To: stars & stripes forever
The only answer for them is JESUS.

I totally agree with you!

Sort of...

93 posted on 11/18/2015 9:25:42 AM PST by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW! evil ignorant stupid or crazy-doesn't matter!)
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To: spodefly
Yep. If you have the stomach (and I am sure you do!) read this piece critical of Cavuto's questioning at: Opinion: Neil Cavuto's Million Student March interview was shameful (from a college newspaper

If it wasn't so hilariously ironic, the intellectual disconnect would be nearly frightening.

Here are a few excerpts, and there is no doubt that the VAST majority of leftists (especially on college campuses) would agree with the writer for this school newspaper:

"...News flash Neil Cavuto: We don’t want everything handed to us for free. What we want is to afford a degree, which is now a necessity to successfully contribute to society..." (bold is mine. They sure do educate them at an early age to be elitist, don't they?)

"...However, Cavuto’s interview was tactless and insensitive. His interview style is suitable for a presidential candidate with experience fielding tough questions and a bit more knowledge about how the world works. His manner of questioning was not acceptable for an idealistic young college student without a solid grip on the facts..." (The poor girl! She was an organizer of a major leftist event that aims to change policy and tax allocation, but...we just can't expect her to know the "complicated stuff"...hilarious!)

"...Mariah Manuel is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Lake Charles, Louisiana. You can reach her on Twitter @mariah_manuel..." (And there you have it!)

94 posted on 11/18/2015 9:32:33 AM PST by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: publius911

[Sort of...]

Many of today’s college students suck up godless liberal ideology like a sponge. Without taking time to analyze the errors in their ‘new found’ wisdom; they expound, discarding any reasoned dissent as fallacy.


95 posted on 11/18/2015 9:34:12 AM PST by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.)
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To: SoftballMominVA

See the first of the three excerpts in my post at#94...there are a lot of people who see this exactly the same way. Almost all of them, leftists.

For a group that mouths platitudes about how valued, critical, and important the “hands of the working class” are, they don’t have a very high opinion of them when you hear unfiltered words exit their holes.


96 posted on 11/18/2015 9:37:11 AM PST by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: pepsionice

Which questions were stupid?


97 posted on 11/18/2015 9:39:51 AM PST by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: TroutStalker

It was quite painful to watch, seeing that she has zero grasp of reality and is old enough to vote.


98 posted on 11/18/2015 9:47:23 AM PST by RedWhiteBlue (Mama tried)
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To: fatima

I got into a discussion with my skull ‘O mush neice once. My mom was in the room.

At one point, she looked at my mother and said “grandma, make uncle Cyclotic stop arguing.”

My mom said “He’s not arguing, he’s answering your comment, you started it. “

She didn’t speak to me for years after that.


99 posted on 11/18/2015 9:52:20 AM PST by cyclotic (Liberalism is what smart looks like to stupid people.)
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To: vette6387

Don’t laugh. This is who is/are/will be, running our country.

There are “these” types. The ones who think they know what is the best for everyone, and that’s what we are gonna do. And you will like it. Or else.

And then there are the 70% of real men. Who stay out of everyone’s business. Who get a job. Raise their kids. Pay taxes. To pay for “these” people. Layabouts who think that it is somehow patriotic, some noble cause, to lead the ones who actually pay for everything to Utopia.

Of course Utopia never materializes. Not because of anything they have done wrong. THey just didn’t have quite enough of everyone’s money. Just a little more....These types have been around pretty much forever. They just have an enthusiastic media shilling for them now.


100 posted on 11/18/2015 10:04:07 AM PST by saleman
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