The Republican guest mentioned all the concerns that we had about the ability of CNN to moderate a debate but said he was surprised about how "perfect" it was and that he had no complaints. What caused CNN to be relatively fair in the debate?
To quote OwlGore, "a leopard doesn't change its' stripes"
It's actually a good question, considering their history.
I think it has several moving parts:
- CNN has been struggling to break away from their past image of being a Democrat mouthpiece since firing CEO Chris Licht, including a minor revolt from the network talent. This debate was going to be a showcase for the new and improved "This... is CNN."
- Having CNN host Kasie Hunt kick Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt off the air three days before the debate because she brought up prior quotes of the CNN moderators left a stunning mark on the brand that was trying to rehabilitate itself with the debate.
- CNN, in my opinion, gave away exclusive rights to broadcast the debate (meaning ratings) by allowing ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Scripps News, Telemundo, Univision, BET, CNN en Español, HLN, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS to simulcast the debate. It was important to them that the maximum number of viewers got to see the new CNN product.
That last point may have actually been Biden's undoing. By conjoining CNN's need to be seen by the widest audience possible in order to showcase their new commitment to being "fair and balanced" with Biden's need to be seen as better than President Trump, both greatly miscalculated the impacts of their needs and resulting decisions.
CNN succeeded in meeting theirs, Biden failed at meeting his.
The Biden team failed to realize how CNN was going to use the Trump-Biden debate as a marketing tool to maximize total global viewership of the new and improved CNN product. What they got was a maximized total global viewership of the degraded and lied-about Democrat/Biden brand product.
-PJ