After a broadly criticized Republican presidential debate the night before, CNBC staffers were told on Thursday to move on from coverage of event, according to a report Friday from a competing news channel.
In a post-mortem from CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, unnamed CNBC staffers said they were “shell shocked” after the debate, which caught nearly universal ire for the moderators’ lack of preparedness and supposed “bias.”
From CNN:
As the day went on, there was less and less talk about the debate on CNBC. According to one of the employees, producers were given internal guidance to move on.
At CNBC’s sister news outlets MSNBC and NBC News, producers were advised not to “pile on” the moderator controversy, according to people there.
During the primetime event – which netted 14 million viewers, making it the network’s most-watched program ever – moderator Becky Quick failed to produce the source for a question on Donald Trump’s immigration policy, which viewers gleefully pointed out was on the candidate’s official website.
The questions were pointed enough to give Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) an opening to grandstand about the network trying to make the debate into a “cage match,” and provided endless fuel for Republicans’ to decry the divisive event as emblematic of liberal media bias.
CNBC issued a one-line statement after the debate that said candidates for President “should be able to answer tough questions.”
In this hyper-information age, there’s no excuse for not having follow up info at hand or at least moments away. One thing these scoundrels have relied upon was their ability to lie and even contradict what they said before and get away with it. The only follow up would be much later at a time when no one was watching; following up in real time would make it impossible for these guys to get away with it. “No Sir–it’s on your website. Let’s put it up for everyone to see.” And the air starts to leak out. “Actually, Mr. Rubio, here’s the public filing on your foreclosure.” Boom!
All voters should ‘move’ on the Republican candiates…as in move over to the winning Democratic team!
Bwahahah!
Good thinking. Unless they had a good all-purpose response that would satisfy both right and left, then it is best to shut up.
I’m often surprised how much traction Republicans get with their criticisms and manufactured outrages. CNBC ain’t exactly “the Daily Worker” or “The Appeal to Reason.” Lest we all forget, they were the ones credited with creating the TeaParty.
To me all of this press criticism comes off as petulant whining. So why does it play so well to the masses?
And the three-year-olds will continue to stamp their feet and scream until they are given control over the menu. Cupcakes and ice cream all around! The party and media will be pondering “Where did we go wrong?”