So That's Why All The Debate Moderators Are Liberals

As public perception of liberal media bias grows, people are becoming perplexed that the presidential debates are all moderated by liberals. This is a long time pattern, but the high stakes in this year's race and the media's virtuallyunprecedented love affair with one cvandidate highlight the issue.

I had assumed the candidates had some input or veto power over the process, but apparently they do not. An article in The Daily Caller lays it out pretty well. Basically six out of nine members of th eCommission are either liberal or very liberal, and several have close personal ties to obama.

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The moderators for the nation’s 2012 presidential debates were picked by a progressive panel of Washington establishment figures, dubbed the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The four debates are important because they can shape opinions among the late-deciding voters whose ballots will likely decide the election in swing-states, including Florida, Virginia and Ohio.

Each of the chosen moderators work for establishment media outlets or for government-funded media operations.


The establishment journalists are CNN’s Candy Crowley, ABC News’ Marth Raddatz and CBS’ Bob Scheiffer. Jim Lehrer works for PBS, which is supported by the government.

The locations were also chosen by the progressive-skewed commission.

Three debates will include President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney. One debate will feature Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan.

The commission’s nine-member board include Antonia Hernandez, a former president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Eduction Fund and a member of the progressive American Constitutional Society, and Howard Buffett, the son of billionaire Obama-booster Warren Buffett.

The group also include Richard Parsons, a former chief of Citigroup and a long-standing friend of Obama, and John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame who invited Obama to speak at the university in 2009 despite a firestorm of criticism from orthodox Catholics.

The commission’s members also include Dorothy Ridings, president of the progressive-leaning Council on Foundations, and Newton Minow, the progressive-leaning former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

The two most prominent Republican members of the board are both social liberals — former Sens. John C. Danforth and Alan K. Simpson.

The executive director is Janet H. Brown, a former White House official.

The two co-chairs are Michael D. McCurry, the former spokesman for President Bill Clinton, and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, the current president of the casino trade group, the American Gaming Association.

Fahrenkopf was chairman of the Republican National Committee a quarter of a century ago, from 1983 to 1989.

Both Fahrenkopf and McCurry work for lobbying firms.

Romney’s campaign declined to comment about the political tilt of the reporters. “Debate moderators are selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates,” said a statement from Ryan Williams. “You should check with them for questions.”

Commission director and spokeswoman Janet H. Brown declined to respond.

Lehrer will moderate the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, from Denver. CNN’s Crowley will moderate a town-hall style event on Oct. 16 in the very blue state of New York and CBS’ Schieffer will run the third debate on Oct. 22, from Florida.

Raddatz will moderate the vice presidential debate on Oct. 11, from Danville, Kentucky.

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Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/13/p...ators-for-presidential-debates/#ixzz28uEJxg7n

 

I suppose the next question is how the members of this commission get appointed. To me, the whole thing illustrates how dumb republicans are. Why would they ever go along with something so biased? They didn't even object to the obvious bias of the moderators.

The first debate went well only because Lehrer was commatose for most of it. Even then, he steered it away from the sorry state of the obama economy and directed it at issues like romney's tax plan.

 

That's interesting. I too think the GOP must be ignorant to go along with this liberal scheme. Obama even attended the wedding of the moderator for the V.P. debate. How biased must she be?

http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/10/a...s-attendance-at-vp-debate-moderators-wedding/

 

Turns out tomorrows debate moderator invited Obama to her wedding, im sure we will get a fair performance out of her.

 

I did some cursory research. The article I quoted accurately describes the Commission. It remains unclear to me how the Board of Directors is chosen and why it would be so heavily skewed to the left.

 

I don't look at it as negatively as you do. To me, if all the moderators are known to be liberals, and the Republican candidate wins the debate like Romney did, then it is even more powerful an argument that the Republicans are on the right side of the issues. Can you imagine the media whining if the debate moderators were folks like Sean Hannity?

Remember: Liberals cannot win if Conservatives focus on the issues. If Conservatives instead get hung up on the labels and mud slinging, then they have given Liberals the advantage - because no one can label someone else better than the left.

 

She didn't just invite Obama, he attended. I wonder if she'll be honest enough to disclose it before the debate.

 

I would've liked to see a selection for at least one debate from the following list;

Anderson Cooper
Wolf Blitzer
Brian Williams

 

LOL

You left off Al Gore.

 

I'm not sure what the political affiliations of the moderators and panel members are but I'm not prepared to impugn their professional integrity. However, if your premise is granted then your complaint is essentially that you want a moderator with a conservative bias.