Presidential Debate - During the very first Republican presidential debate last August, hosted by Fox News, Gingrich accused host Chris Wallace of playing “Mickey Mouse games” with “gotcha questions.” At the end of September, Gingrich blamed the media for his ...

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PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
POSTED BY EIZ ON THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
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During the very first Republican presidential debate last August, hosted by Fox News, Gingrich
accused host Chris Wallace of playing “Mickey Mouse games” with “gotcha questions.” At the end
of September, Gingrich blamed the media for his ...
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PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
POSTED BY EIZ ON THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
By Andrew Belonsky 21 hours ago Tweet
Newt Gingrich sometimes sounds like a
broken record with his constant attacks on
the media. During the very first Republican
presidential debate last August, hosted by
Fox News, Gingrich accused host Chris
Wallace of playing “Mickey Mouse games”
w i t h “gotcha questions.” At the end of
September, Gingrich blamed the media
for his then-floundering campaign, and
just last week he tried to hit CNN’s Wolf
Blitzer for asking about Romney’s tax
records.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and all of Gingrich’s anti-media rants are getting pretty repetitive,
so today the candidate tried a new angle: he vowed not to participate in any general presidential
debates if they’re moderated by reporters, because all reporters support President Obama.
“As your nominee, I will not accept debates in the fall in which the reporters are the moderators,” he
promised at a Florida rally, MSNBC reports. “We don’t need to have a second Obama person at the
debate.” Is Gingrich implicitly saying his former colleagues at fair and balanced Fox News aren’t
reporters? Sounds like it.
Gingrich, fond of calling himself a historian, must be forgetting that the official presidential match-
ups, currently organized by the independent Commission on Presidential Debates, are moderated
by journalists. Always. Ever since John Kennedy and Richard Nixon’s seminal televised 1960 face-
off, reporters from the major networks, and sometimes newspapers, have played referee in the
presidential candidates’ various public deliberation. That’s just how it’s done and if someone
wants to be president, they have to deal with that reality.
Besides, who else would moderate the debates? Who does Gingrich suggest? A six-year old
child? An unbiased foreigner with no direct stake in the election? The plastic cow that attended his
Iowa rally? Or would the candidate, keen on a sci-fi moon colony, prefer super computer Watson
moderate? Should we just program some random questions into a computer and hope the
candidates stay on message and within time constraints?
Gingrich’s suggestion is ridiculous. It’s also presumptuous, because there are still months until
the Republican nominating convention, and even if he can hang on through primary season,