Anyone who watched the latest Republican debate had to be exasperated. To be clear, rarely do the presidential candidates answer the questions being asked: They simply use the time allotted as an opportunity to say their piece. It's the moderator's responsibility to hone in on the answer, and call out the candidate when given a non-answer. This, of course, is rarely done.
The Republican presidential candidates made mincemeat out of the CNBC moderators, using every opportunity to call them out for their questions. It did not help that instead of asking serious questions in a fact-based manner, the moderators sometimes asked leading questions, a la Fox News.
Ted Cruz had one of the longest and most effective outbursts against the media as he played the aggrieved victim in perfect form.
"Senator Cruz, congressional Republicans, Democrats, and the White House are about to strike a compromise that would raise the debt limit, prevent a government shutdown, and calm financial markets that fear another Washington-created crisis is on the way," said CNBC's Carl Quintanilla. "Does your opposition to it show that you are not the kind of problem solver American voters want?"
Cruz was prepared for an attack on the media. "You know, let me say something right at the outset," Ted Cruz said. "The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. This is not a cage match. And you look at the questions— 'Donald Trump are you a comic book villain,' 'Ben Carson can you do math,' 'John Kasich will you insult two people over here,' 'Marco Rubio why don't you resign,' 'Jeb Bush why are your numbers falling.' How about talking about the substantive issues people care about. ... The questions that are being asked shouldn't be trying to get people to tear into each other. It should be what are your substantive solutions to people who are hurting."
As a partisan, it's easy to love the leading question. However, the question was more drama and posturing than actual probing. The question should have been something to this effect: Why oppose or threaten a shutdown, when past experience was a failure that cost American taxpayers billions? Instead, Quintanilla's framing left the door open for Ted Cruz to grandstand. His criticism was effective because all the questions asked during the debate were amateurish. Then again, CNBC has become the bastion of misleading financial information, so this type of questioning should be expected.
The traditional mainstream media has become a joke. But ironically, the party that has complained the most about the state of the media is most complicit in dumbing it down. Read on to find out why.
The traditional mainstream media was derelict as it gave plausibility to Ronald Reagan's voodoo economics. The impossibility of dramatically lowering taxes while dramatically increasing military spending and not substantially cutting major programs was never examined and presented accurately to the American people.
The traditional mainstream media also allowed the Bush administration to use them as a propaganda arm. Had they done the job of journalists as opposed to allowing unfettered influence from the neocons, Americans would have never allowed the war in Iraq.
The traditional mainstream media did not effectively challenge Bill Clinton's repeal of Glass-Steagall in the 1999 Financial Modernization Act. Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan did and his prediction was proven correct with the 2008 recession.
The traditional media allowed right-wing lies to weaken what the Affordable Care Act should have been by being the cheerleaders of nonsensical statements like "throw grandma under the bus," "death panels," and many others. They allowed Republicans to get on air and lie about healthcare systems in other countries that are much more effective than ours. Had Americans heard the truth, they would have forced their politicians' hands.
Ted Cruz and the rest of the cast on the debate stage were correct: The moderators asked leading questions. The candidates were not asked enough probative questions. In fact, many times the questions asked were silly.
But while Republicans complain the most about the traditional mainstream media, it is they who effectively made Fox News' methods the American media template, which makes their righteous indignation is nothing but grandstanding. It is they who provide the traditional mainstream media channels with an unending stream of misinformation the media is perfectly happy to present to Americans.