[don-o]

Not a big fan of vanities. But most of the threads are going around in the same circles.

Let's get some discussion on the current buzz word.

[NorthMountain]

Have you stopped beating your wife yet?

[NorthMountain]

Yes, that’s intended as an example of an unfair question.

[BigEdLB]

On your knees Megyn

[PROCON]

Irrelevant and unfair are in this case about the same:

"What's your opinion on the theory of evolution?"

[catnipman]

“What is an unfair question?”

Mr Cruz, when did you stop beating your wife?

[CptnObvious]

One is "How often do you beat your wife"?

And "Why are you so Unlikeable?"

These Gotcha questions permeate the news now. So much so that they are mostly Unwatchable. I watch BBC news and Canadain news about the US. It is much more objective and informative.

[discostu]

Trap questions, gotchas, and misquotes. Or really, the way modern media works, pretty much any question that isn’t a fawning softball. They really don’t do useful questions anymore, they’re either trying to score points for themselves, or trying to help out the person they’re supposedly grilling.

[TigersEye]

Life isn’t fair. Fairness is an abstract invention of the human mind. It only applies to games invented by people. For real life it’s necessary to grow up.

[bgill]

When it’s an intentional rude slap down that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

[oldbrowser]

unfair is something that is against the rules. It is often used by people that are unhappy but have no legitimate recourse.

[MeganC]

Many of Megyn Kelley’s questions are not questions at all, they’re statements.

Any statement is an unfair question.

[Bob434]

[[What is an unfair question?]]

That was unfair of you to ask that question!

[mrsmith]

In the case of a debate.
A question of a character noticeably different than the others debaters are asked.

[Jane Austen]

Kelly’s question to Cruz about God in the first debate. It was unfair and mocked God.

[Blackirish]

Cheapest shot I ever saw was George Stephanopoulos asking Romney about contraception.

[Billthedrill]

Broadly, I'd say it's a question that contains premises that are are either debatable or deliberately leading. (This is what "begging the question" actually means). It also refers to questions that force a candidate to waste valuable time countering a charge that the moderator wants to make, such as, "Mr. Trump, many say that you're despicable to women. What changes do you plan on making to improve that?" or "Mr. Cruz, can you cite a single legal decision that would allow a Canadian citizen such as yourself to run for President?" There are others that are simply silly, such as "how does magnetism work?" that have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with trying to manipulate the candidate into embarrassing himself or herself.

Sometimes it isn't quite so cut-and-dried. For example, I'd have to say, "Yeb!, what in God's green earth are you doing at that podium?" is a fairly legitimate question...

[Vanders9]

An unfair question is one that carries an assumption of impropriety or guilt, as in the famous example already quote "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

I'd also class as unfair a question that calls for a value or moral judgement on sitations without sufficient information.

[Migraine]

“Is that any way for a president to speak about women?”

Totally gotcha, totally rhetorical, superficial, and self-serving (serving the self of the narcissistic harpie).

“By show of hands, how many of this panel will vow to support the eventual nominee of the R party?”

Again, totally singling out Trump for a gotcha moment, right at the outset of the debate, both questions. No one can tell me that was not intended to knock Trump off his horse.

[upsdriver]

I don’t know if I would say unfair questions as much as I would say irrelevant or inane questions. The questions should be about issues that the president elect would face such as foreign policy, economic policy, etc.

However, an example of an unfair question would be ones about abortions or homosexual perversity asked six different ways to a GOP candidate while a Democrat gets a total pass on these topics.

[Albion Wilde]

One of the reasons Megyn’s question about womyn was unfair is that she took two things that Trump said to two individuals in two very different circumstances and lumped them together under the idea “you hate women”, and then cited the Democrat tagline, “war on women.” She took a Marxist/collectivist stance that generalized outward to “all” from “two.”

So, in a court of law, the opposing council would have said, “Objection! Counsel is testifying!”