Republicans Use Actual Media Bias as Deflection for Their Own Failings

The GOP has been whining since the CNBC debate moderators were less than deferential to the presidential candidates and their stances on the issues, and while it's absolutely hilarious to see adults throw a temper tantrum over actually having to defend their positions and explain their transgressions against their own stated principles it always seems to be partisan in nature. Certainly none of those moderators would have questioned Hillary Clinton as hard as they did the GOP candidates had it been a Democratic debate instead of a Republican one.

Take Clinton's appearance on Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" where Clinton replied that she would let banks fail in the future if we had a similar situation to 2008 come along and they started asking for another bailout. Colbert completely fails to ask the obvious follow up question, which is if this is her sincere position why in 2008 did she vote as a Senator in favor of TARP? She's obviously only taking the position that she would let the banks fail in 2015 because she knows that's the politically popular position to take, but in 2008 when it mattered she voted to bailout the big banks. Pressing her on this would be the type of "hostility" that candidates whine about, but only Republicans generally get asked.

Another example would be in CNN's Democratic debate where Clinton made the preposterous statement that Libya was an example of smart power in action. Anderson Cooper never made the obvious link between Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Clinton now regrets her support for Iraq, but she turned around and supported the exact same policy in Libya which led to the exact same results. In both countries the U.S. toppled a secular dictator and in so doing laid the groundwork for tribal genocide and civil war to break out in both countries. Not only this, but she wanted to do the exact same thing in Syria. If Cooper were interested in keeping Clinton honest he would have pressed her on why she regrets supporting this policy in Iraq for what are obviously political reasons, but not in Libya even though it had the exact same outcome. There is no question that if a Republican had taken these exact same positions they would at least be questioned on them.

The point here is not to say that the media has been too hard on Republicans and too soft on Democrats, but rather has been far too soft on both and largely complicit in allowing both Democrats and Republicans to peddle nonsense. I have no sympathy for the Republican candidates who were unable to do more than pander to their audience and attack the media when questioned a little harder than they would have liked, but we can all at least be honest that media outlets like CNBC or CNN are generally more likely to question people like Ted Cruz more vigorously than Hillary Clinton even if we think the idea that they would seriously question any politician is laughable.