Megyn’s Cheap Shot

Rush: 'Orders from GOP donors to take out Trump', Talk-radio giant drops bomb: 'We all made a mistake', by Garth Kant, 8/7/15    

WASHINGTON – Who won the great debate? According to the mainstream media, the winner was … Fox News. According to Rush Limbaugh, the loser was … Fox News. At least, in the sense that the network may have blown its credibility with conservatives.
And Limbaugh said he saw it coming. “Everybody should have known this was gonna happen,” he said. “This is presidential politics, and Republican candidates are where media people score their points. It’s where they build their careers. It’s where they establish their credentials.”

The conservative talk-radio giant saw another motivation for the moderators’ attack-dog tactics. He said GOP bigwigs ordered Fox to take out Trump.

On Friday, he began by telling listeners how, on the day of Thursday’s debate, he had learned “that big-time Republican donors had ordered to take out Donald Trump in the debate last night.” “We all made a mistake,” he explained. “We assumed that the orders went out to the candidates. But the candidates did not make one move toward taking Donald Trump out. The broadcast network did; the candidates didn’t.”
Rush said it was clear that Fox News had it out for Trump when his colleagues refused to pile on, even when given multiple opportunities to bash the front-runner.
“Not one of the remaining nine candidates joined Megyn Kelly in taking the shot at Trump. Not one. Yet we have been told that there were orders from Republican donors to take Trump out.”
If, in addition to targeting Trump, Fox News was indeed looking to get some love and respect from the left and the establishment media with its relentless attacks on Republican candidates in the Thursday night’s debate, it’s mission was accomplished.
The media and much of the rest of the left raved about the performance of Fox moderators Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace.

• Washington Post: Columnist Richard Cohen declared, “The only winner I feel confident in naming is Fox News. Political analyst Chris Cillizza declared Fox a winner, calling the moderators “outstanding.” Aaron Blake praised Fox’s “tough” questions and chided conservatives for being mad at Fox, saying “they shouldn’t be.”

• New York Times: Op-ed columnist Frank Bruni gushed, “It was riveting. It was admirable. It compels me to write a cluster of words I never imagined writing: hooray for Fox News.” And, “This was an inquisition. On this night, the network that pampers Republicans provoked them instead. It was great television, and even better politics.”

• MSNBC: Andrea Mitchell tweeted, “So far the clear winners are Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace for their q’s.” Former MSNBC host Abby Huntsman tweeted that Kelly “is pretty darn bad a–.”

• CNN: Brian Stelter cited the “almost unanimously positive reviews” of Fox’s “tough debate questions” by both the media and liberal commentators.

• BuzzFeed: Editor in chief Ben Smith called Fox News chief Roger Ailes “clearly the winner of this. This is really good TV.”

• Glenn Greenwald: The liberal journalist tweeted: “Credit where due: these questions from the Fox moderators are almost all quite good.”

• Scripps News: Washington Bureau Chief Ellen Weiss gave “kudos” to Fox for “asking each candidate tough questions on their weak spots.”

• Foreign Policy Magazine: managing editor Yochi Dreazen said tough Fox questions left some candidates looking “shell-shocked.”

• American Public Media: Public radio host Kai Ryssdal wrote, “have to hand it to Fox News moderators for going after their guys.” He tweeted, “@msnbc anchors would not have been – and will not be – as tough on Dems as @FoxNews was on GOP tonight.”

• Fox: Even the host network declared itself the winner, with patriarch Rupert Murdoch tweeting, “What a fantastic night for USA, democracy, freedom and incidentally Fox News.”

Fox’s focus on itself as the key player in the debates may have been evidenced by the fact that the moderators dominated the on-air time, speaking for 31.7 percent of the two-hour event.

That was far more time than any one candidate received. The average was approximately seven minutes per candidate. Trump, under constant fire from Fox moderators, got the most time at almost 11 minutes.
Why the Fox fixation on itself? Jeremy Peters of the New York Times offered the theory that Fox saw it as a chance to gain respect and recognition from its leftist peers in the media, although he put it in terms that sympathized with that ambition
“For the journalists of Fox News, the debate offered a potentially defining moment in front of millions of people, during one of the most anticipated political events of the year,” he wrote.
“This was an opportunity to demonstrate that their network is not, as its critics have charged, a blindly loyal propaganda division of the Republican Party, that Fox journalists can be as unsparing toward conservatives as they are with liberals, and that they can eviscerate with equal opportunity if they choose.”
But many conservatives were livid with Fox over the moderators’ incessant attacks on the 10 GOP presidential candidates.
A caller on Friday told Limbaugh, “I thought I was watching MSNBC. The moderators methodically torpedo each candidate, with Donald Trump being the biggest target.
“And the worst was Megyn Kelly, who you just referenced, who thinks she’s all that and just too cute, asked that ridiculous name-calling question and referenced the nonexistent war on women.”
That’s when Limbaugh agreed, saying, “Everybody should have known this was gonna happen. This is presidential politics, and Republican candidates are where media people score their points. It’s where they build their careers. It’s where they establish their credentials.”

In an article headlined, “Conservatives are mad at Fox News and Megyn Kelly. They shouldn’t be,” the Washington Post compiled a few tweets representing the conservative fury at Fox across the nation, writing, “This kind of stuff was all over social media Friday morning.”

 

http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/rush-orders-from-gop-donors-to-take-out-trump/