Posted on 03/03/2016 8:18:54 PM PST by Citizen Zed
In its campaign coverage on Thursday—one of the biggest days of the 2016 election—Fox consistently went out of its way to ensure that Trump had a smooth ride. Mitt Romney’s speech blasting Trump, which dominated news coverage all day, was covered skeptically on the network. Bill O’Reilly tried to get all of his guests to pledge support for Trump. Even Fox’s so-called establishment contributors, such as former Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino, spoke harshly about Romney’s speech.
When the actual debate began, it seemed as if the Fox strategy would continue as it had all week. Bret Baier, one of the moderators, went after Rubio on the second question, asking him, inanely, “How many jobs have you created?” Frank Luntz, whose ridiculous focus groups throughout the campaign have consistently boosted Rubio, tweeted out that this time, the group did not like Rubio’s attack on Trump.
But the pro-Trump strategy either fell apart or was never solid in the first place. The network’s moderators spent the middle hour of the debate slicing and dicing Trump: exposing the phoniness of his promises to cut the budget, confronting him with his past statements, playing sustained video clips of him flip-flopping. They offered his rivals an endless number of opportunities to attack him, which they did relentlessly. It became clear that the main purpose of the debate was to launch sustained and brutal attacks on the frontrunner. Kelly’s attack on his business practices went on and on—and Trump sputtered and sputtered.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Fox is Pro-Trump and yet Anti-Trump.
Maybe because Murdock has backed down on pushing Rubio and opposing Trump as hard as they have and they are still waiting for new marching orders?
Fox News DOES suck. However, Fox Business with Varney and Dobbs is terrific.
The only reason some people think they are anti-Trump is because they are using Trump's Reality TV formula: a bunch of fake feuds to drum up controversy and attention.
By all rights, Kim Kardashian should be his VP. She developed his formula.
Why does Slate care anyway? Funny that leftist blogs and networks care more about the state of the Republican Party race than they do about their own DemoRat race.
She got dat @ss though. I’d vote for her LOL
Even the left sees’ it.
Fox is dead to me.
” It became clear that the main purpose of the debate was to launch sustained and brutal attacks on the frontrunner. Kelly’s attack on his business practices went on and on.”
I think it’s funny that so many self-proclaimed “conservatives” are now bashing FOX News, mostly for not cheerleading hard enough for Trump. I couldn’t care less what slate thinks about anything.
” Funny that leftist blogs and networks care more about the state of the Republican Party race “
Because Rump the Con Man is one of them.
This 11th debate should have put the final nail in Cruzio’s coffin as far as a candidate, and I don’t see how Cruzers on FR could deny that. They have to face reality. This was an unmitigated disaster for Cruzio and Mario.
Fox doesn’t care. They’re just whores. Their bottom line is MONEY.
Fox dis themselves a disservice in hounding Trump about his off the record interview with the NYT.
When he told Kelly and Wallace that he had more respect for them than to make the tapes public, he was doing them a favor and giving them a hint that they should wake up.
Because if he violated the agreement that the meeting was off record and opened the door for others to do the same, public officials would refuse to grant off the record meeting to the news media. When asked to have off the record meetings, they would say something like “Off the record?” “Ha why would I meet with someone who will rat out on me in a few weeks?”
And as for his real estate school....it is interesting that the law firm suing him has as a senior partner a guy who spent time in jail for paying witnesses to lie in court.
Mix that with students who thought all they needed was a few lecture hours to be another millionaire.
It takes more than that.
Greta has been fair. Pirro is great. A few others also. After FOX found out that their boy Rubio leaked about the meeting to NYT and also that they might loose a bunch of viewers, they seemed to have become a great deal more mellow re Trump.
Hate FOX! Hate Cruz, Rubio and Romney! Kasich is a baffoon!
Just imagine if Fox and or the GOP had this much passion for destroying Obama and the Democrats.
We might not be in the pickle we are today.
I said Trump should boycott this thing and that Megyn would bring out the videos (she had from the last debate that Trump skipped).
Yeah, but they got the headline right.
It was a joke of an amateur event.
They effectively sought out personal animus, rather than asking about vision of the future.
The moderators lost total control of the debate. The whole thing turned into a shouting match. And of course hurling insults back and forth.
I like your insights. I think Fox let up a little this debate and I believe I could have answered some questions of Trump better than he did.
I would not be surprised to learn that he was worn out of perhaps coming down with something. But he did OK with the attack dogs on all sides.
It seemed to me that the moderators (who were somewhat ineffective) did try to be fair and in fact stopped some of the senators when they were non stop interrupting Trump.
Trump said to Bill your not really being fair to the Trump campign anymore .
Bill panicked and begged him to tell him what he did wrong and Donald said I have to go and then said maybe one day not now
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.