Posted on 03/26/2016 2:49:48 PM PDT by Kaslin
On Saturday, all three broadcast morning news shows talked about the National Enquirer allegations against GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz, allegations for which there is still no on-the-record source or any other supporting evidence.
CBS, which took the high road and skipped the tawdry allegations on Friday’s Evening News, this morning offered a 68-second item read by CBS This Morning: Saturday co-anchor Anthony Mason, which cast the matter as a “he said, he said,” between the two candidates.
ABC’s Good Morning America offered a full report from weekend political correspondent Devin Dwyer, in which Dwyer unfortunately cast both Cruz and Trump as guilty of soiling the campaign discourse: “On one of the most solemn days of the year for Christians, Good Friday, the Republican frontrunners descended into a battle over sleaze,” Dwyer fretted.
As she did on Friday’s Nightly News, NBC correspondent Hallie Jackson was the most thorough in explaining the many reasons to doubt the Enquirer story, listing the tabloid’s past boosting of Trump and the categorical denials of two of the women linked to Cruz in the story.
Unlike Friday, however, none of the networks on Saturday morning talked about the role of onetime Trump aide Roger Stone in promoting the Enquirer story to the media, although NBC’s Jackson showed viewers the spectacle of pro-Trump journalist Adriana Cohen hijacking a CNN interview on Friday to smear Cruz supporter Amanda Carpenter as a way to force the media to pay attention to the story.
Given that the Cruz story falls far below the normal journalistic threshold for covering such sensational claims, the only fair way to discuss it at all is to point out the evidence that it is, in all likelihood, part of a smear campaign from a political rival. NBC’s Jackson accomplished this in her report, but ABC and CBS limited themselves to merely running Cruz’s own condemnation of the story, juxtaposed with Trump’s Facebook declaration that he had nothing to do with it.
ABC’s premise that both “Republican frontrunners” had “descended into a battle over sleaze” does a disservice to Cruz, since Cruz — unlike Trump — did not attack his rival’s wife, while his attacks on Trump as “Sleazy Donald” are a reaction to what is by all journalist norms a false story being forced onto the national media by Trump supporters such as Adriana Cohen and Roger Stone.
ABC Scolds Both Cruz and Trump After Tabloid Smear
Here’s a bit more of how each of the three networks covered the Cruz story on Saturday morning:
CBS This Morning: Saturday:
ANTHONY MASON: The battle between Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz is escalating, fresh off their heated back and forth about each other's wives. Cruz spent much of Good Friday responding to a tabloid article that claimed he cheated on his wife.
[Followed by a clip of Cruz and reading of Trump’s Facebook statement]
ABC’s Good Morning America
DAN HARRIS: Back home now where the Republican race for the White House has become really a race to the bottom. Ted Cruz is now accusing Donald Trump of planting a very personal and potentially damaging story about him in a supermarket tabloid, with the candidates' wives at the center of an increasingly nasty fight We get the latest now from ABC's Devin Dwyer who is at the white house. Devon, good morning to you.
DEVIN DWYER: Yeah, good morning, Dan. You know, on one of the most solemn days of the year for Christians, Good Friday, the Republican front-runners descended into a battle over sleaze....This morning, explosive allegations from Senator Ted Cruz against Donald Trump — Cruz accusing Trump of planting a story in the National Enquirer, which claims political operatives are looking into rumors that Cruz had multiple marital infidelities....
NBC’s Today
HALLIE JACKSON: ...Arguing it’s tabloid trash, a furious Ted Cruz is firing back at the National Enquirer, denying its story claiming he had extramarital affairs.
SENATOR TED CRUZ: Let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.
JACKSON: Trump, who’s been endorsed by the Enquirer and wrote an op-ed in its pages, says in a statement, quote, “I had absolutely nothing to do with the story,” adding he also has “nothing to do with the paper,” again calling Cruz, “Lyin’ Ted.” Cruz creating his own nickname for his rival.
CRUZ: With this pattern, he should not be surprised to see people calling him “Sleazy Donald.”
JACKSON: All of it spilling over into a tense exchange on live TV between a Trump supporter and a Cruz backer.
Columnist ADRIANA COHEN (on CNN): Where we should move to is the National Enquirer story that has reported that Ted Cruz has allegedly had affairs with at least five mistresses, including — you’ve been named, Amanda.
Cruz spokeswoman AMANDA CARPENTER (on CNN): What’s out there is tabloid trash. If someone wants to comment on it, they should talk to my lawyer. It is categorically false.
JACKSON: Another woman who’s been the subject of speculation, a former Cruz ally and current Trump spokesperson, tweeting, “of course the National Enquirer story is 100% FALSE!!!”...
And to double down on sumb, Ted Cruz didn’t disavow it. His political skills are atrocious.
Dear God. Please tell me that Newsbusters hasn't joined in with the rest of the conservative establishment to stop Trump as well.
Thank You!!!!!!!
Another lame attack because I am not an original member.
You are insecure and want to suppress information unfavorable to Cruz.
You began attacking me after I posted unbiased factual election data results from the Greenpapers website.
You attack me again when I post Still’s video that was originally posted by FReeper Hoosiermama.
You must be FR’s designated PitBull -assigned to chase away newcomers.
ping to my post just above
Well said post #21
Actually this is just the kind of politics we've come to know from the Republican Primaries of past 40 years. And every time, you pull back the curtains and there's Bush/Rove hiding in the shadows.
They fight harder against anyone in the primary that they don't choose than they ever do against the Democrats
Oh please. Trump has never used surrogates to attack others; he tells it their faces himself.
OMG, it's a vast right wing conspiracy. Hillary, oops Heidi.
Jim,
Here is a link to today’s CTH post regarding the whole Rubio thing as well as the Amanda/Cruz tattoo issue complete with pics, time stamps and videos of cruz trying to explain where his coat is when Amanda is wearing it elsewhere...
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/03/26/day-3-ted-cruz-mistress-crisis/#more-114305
Does it mean anything? CTH says it could be innocuous and it might well be...time will tell. But the article is interesting.
Welcome to Free Republic. : )
There’s a few Trump haters here that want to make personal attacks instead of rebutting other comments or defending their own positions.
You just met one of them
Not protecting Cruz - they’re not interested in that.
FRiend House,
Here’s another one found here on Freerepublic.
What every voter needs to know about Ted Cruz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXcYCwaBKnQ&app=desktop
lyin’ Happy Rain.
Makes a lot of sense.
Delusional ! delusional ! Delusional!
Newsmax had a poll a few hours ago. I normally don’t get involved. I did. Trump came out 79%. Cruz 11% and Kasich was 8-9%. Now only about 40K had voted.
It was bad enough the first time. Get a grip on yourself.
“The anti-Trump, pro-Cruz PAC fired the opening round and I believe it was done in Cruz’s name whether he approved it or not.”
I read that brilliant, succinct line - then realized it was from the site owner ;)
Spot on. Cruz has yet to denounce it, I notice. Just like he never denounced talking about Carson quitting or anything else slimy that’s been done in his name.
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