BCT Editorial – 10/5/08

This page was last updated on October 5, 2008.

Preemptive strike; Editorial; Beaver County Times; October 5, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “Attacks on debate’s moderator were right’s politics as usual.”

You have to laugh out loud at this editorial.

The editorial claimed Ms. Ifill’s book “is no big secret” and “has been promoted for months.” That would be news to the Commission on Presidential Debates. One of the CPD co-chairs said the CPD didn’t know of Ms. Ifill’s book until the recent dustup. In any case, other than noting the obvious perceived conflict of interest, it probably wasn’t smart for some to make a big deal of it. As a reminder, all four of the CPD debate moderators (Tom Brokaw, Gwen Ifill, Jim Lehrer, and Bob Schieffer) this year lean to the left.

Finally, the Times conveniently forgot to mention the left’s attacks on debate moderators. You’ll recall Democrat candidates boycotted two primary campaign debates in 2007 (one sponsored by the Nevada Democrat Party and the other by the Congressional Black Caucus) simply because they were to be co-hosted by and broadcast on Fox News Channel. A quick search of editorials found the Times apparently had no problem with the boycotts since they weren’t mentioned. In contrast, Republicans didn’t boycott a primary debate though it was broadcast by MSNBC and moderated by Brian Williams and Chris Matthews.