If you watched the CNBC Republican Debate. ..

[flockofseagulls104]

AND still deny that the mainstream media is biased..... You must be blind, deaf or dumb. Those moderators were uninformed, in the tank and exceptionally rude and condescending.

[TheConfessor]

I didn't watch a second of it, but I certainly would not call CNBC the "mainstream media."

[flockofseagulls104]

I didn't watch a second of it, but I certainly would not call CNBC the "mainstream media."

Really? This is probably the first time I've ever watched anything on CNBC, but the 'journalists' who asked the questions seemed to be locked into the same narrative you see on the networks and the rest of the bunch. What is your definition of "mainstream media" then?

[BackInTex]

I didn't watch a second of it, but I certainly would not call CNBC the "mainstream media."

Really? This is probably the first time I've ever watched anything on CNBC, but the 'journalists' who asked the questions seemed to be locked into the same narrative you see on the networks and the rest of the bunch. What is your definition of "mainstream media" then?

CNBC is an American basic cable and satellite business news television channel that is owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a division of Comcast Corporation.

I would call it "mainstream". A small feeder creek, but certainly the same watershed.

Mainstreams = NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN

FOX is certainly becoming, if not already, as large a stream/river as the others. The difference being FOX is on the right side of the Continental Divide while the others are on the left side.

[triviawayne]

I didn't watch a second of it, but I certainly would not call CNBC the "mainstream media."

Really? This is probably the first time I've ever watched anything on CNBC, but the 'journalists' who asked the questions seemed to be locked into the same narrative you see on the networks and the rest of the bunch. What is your definition of "mainstream media" then?

CNBC is an American basic cable and satellite business news television channel that is owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a division of Comcast Corporation.

I would call it "mainstream". A small feeder creek, but certainly the same watershed.

Mainstreams = NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN

FOX is certainly becoming, if not already, as large a stream/river as the others. The difference being FOX is on the right side of the Continental Divide while the others are on the left side.

Becoming? How much bigger does it need to get? O'Reilly Factor regularly places a few days in the top 25 cable broadcasts each week?

It is in 81.4% of households while ESPN is in 81.1%

[silverscreenselect]

It is in 81.4% of households while ESPN is in 81.1%

I would guess that's more a function of how much Fox and ESPN charge cable companies rather than a decision about the content. ESPN charges the most of any "basic" channel, so there's a tendency to bundle it in higher priced packages and leave the lower priced channels in the "basic" package. That's why you'll always seen Home Shopping Network in almost every cable household in America.

[flockofseagulls104]

One of the things I got from the debate that no one is talking about:

I will briefly adopt the leftist mindset, although it hurts.

Ben Carson said that we are not each other's enemies. The real enemies are those that work to divide us. No truer words were said last night.

Ben Carson is leading a lot of the polling, and is one of the top two or three choices in every poll. Where does most of his support come from? Is it the Republican establishment? I think not. It is from the Tea Party sector of the Republican party. Where does a lot of the support for Carly Fiorina come from? How about Ted Cruz? I think people who identify with the principles of the Tea Party, not Republican establishment.

Aren't these tea baggers supposed to be redneck racists? What are they doing supporting a guy who has black skin? What are they thinking supporting a girl? Don't they know that Cruz is a Mexican name? (I know he's of Cuban descent, this is sarcasm).

You who denigrate the Tea Party are being victimized by the people Ben Carson was talking about. The vast majority of people who identify with the Tea Party are not who these people are leading you to believe. They don't care about race, color, creed, gender or any of the other narratives the left cares about. How do you account for the fact that the Tea Party people would gladly support a black man, woman or Hispanic to be President, and yet decry they are racist any time they disagree with the current President. When are you going to wake up and see you are being manipulated?

It's really slimey trying to think like a liberal....

[jarnon]

AND still deny that the mainstream media is biased..... You must be blind, deaf or dumb. Those moderators were uninformed, in the tank and exceptionally rude and condescending.

Most of the press coverage of the election focuses on trivial nonsense rather than subjects that will matter when one of these candidates become President. Ted Cruz said it best: “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. ... How about talking about the substantive issues?” Bernie Sanders had the same idea when he said: “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

[triviawayne]

It is in 81.4% of households while ESPN is in 81.1%

I would guess that's more a function of how much Fox and ESPN charge cable companies rather than a decision about the content. ESPN charges the most of any "basic" channel, so there's a tendency to bundle it in higher priced packages and leave the lower priced channels in the "basic" package. That's why you'll always seen Home Shopping Network in almost every cable household in America.

Which means nothing regarding mainstream vs non mainstream. How a channel with more penetration than ESPN can be called non mainstream, I just don't know.

[flockofseagulls104]

AND still deny that the mainstream media is biased..... You must be blind, deaf or dumb. Those moderators were uninformed, in the tank and exceptionally rude and condescending.

Most of the press coverage of the election focuses on trivial nonsense rather than subjects that will matter when one of these candidates become President. Ted Cruz said it best: “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. How about talking about the substantive issues?” Bernie Sanders had the same idea when he said: “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

Bernie Sanders is one of the protected class himself. The MSM are building him up.

The mainstream media has pretty much ignored the main point of Hillary's emails. Hillary was caught in a BIG lie last week, yet the mainstream media tripped all over itself saying she restored her credibility. As Marco, I think, said, they ARE a SuperPac for the Democrats. And the audience knew it, as do millions of people who don't drink Kool Ade.

[jarnon]

Most of the press coverage of the election focuses on trivial nonsense rather than subjects that will matter when one of these candidates become President.

This has been going on forever. Remember Romney’s dog? Johnson’s dog? Nixon’s 5 o'clock shadow? Nixon’s dog?

[Bob Juch]

One of the things I got from the debate that no one is talking about:

I will briefly adopt the leftist mindset, although it hurts.

Ben Carson said that we are not each other's enemies. The real enemies are those that work to divide us. No truer words were said last night.

Ben Carson is leading a lot of the polling, and is one of the top two or three choices in every poll. Where does most of his support come from? Is it the Republican establishment? I think not. It is from the Tea Party sector of the Republican party. Where does a lot of the support for Carly Fiorina come from? How about Ted Cruz? I think people who identify with the principles of the Tea Party, not Republican establishment.

Aren't these tea baggers supposed to be redneck racists? What are they doing supporting a guy who has black skin? What are they thinking supporting a girl? Don't they know that Cruz is a Mexican name? (I know he's of Cuban descent, this is sarcasm).

You who denigrate the Tea Party are being victimized by the people Ben Carson was talking about. The vast majority of people who identify with the Tea Party are not who these people are leading you to believe. They don't care about race, color, creed, gender or any of the other narratives the left cares about. How do you account for the fact that the Tea Party people would gladly support a black man, woman or Hispanic to be President, and yet decry they are racist any time they disagree with the current President. When are you going to wake up and see you are being manipulated?

It's really slimey trying to think like a liberal....

How do you know any of the Tea Party groups are backing Carson? Have any officially said they are?

[flockofseagulls104]

It is in 81.4% of households while ESPN is in 81.1%

I would guess that's more a function of how much Fox and ESPN charge cable companies rather than a decision about the content. ESPN charges the most of any "basic" channel, so there's a tendency to bundle it in higher priced packages and leave the lower priced channels in the "basic" package. That's why you'll always seen Home Shopping Network in almost every cable household in America.

Which means nothing regarding mainstream vs non mainstream. How a channel with more penetration than ESPN can be called non mainstream, I just don't know.

It's not about that. The MSM all have the same narrative and bias on what they report, what they don't and how they present it. You can watch the 'news' on NBC, CBS, CNN what have you, and you will get the same exact liberal spin on the days events. You will be told what is good and what is bad from their view point. Sometimes using the exact same wording.

Fox News is watched by more people, I believe, than any one of the Main Stream Media TV outlets. The difference is that they are one of the few, if only, major news sources that DOESN'T have that liberal bias. That threatens the MSM and the liberal elite, so they denigrate it. That's where the mindless Faux News mantra comes from.

[flockofseagulls104]

One of the things I got from the debate that no one is talking about:

I will briefly adopt the leftist mindset, although it hurts.

Ben Carson said that we are not each other's enemies. The real enemies are those that work to divide us. No truer words were said last night.

Ben Carson is leading a lot of the polling, and is one of the top two or three choices in every poll. Where does most of his support come from? Is it the Republican establishment? I think not. It is from the Tea Party sector of the Republican party. Where does a lot of the support for Carly Fiorina come from? How about Ted Cruz? I think people who identify with the principles of the Tea Party, not Republican establishment.

Aren't these tea baggers supposed to be redneck racists? What are they doing supporting a guy who has black skin? What are they thinking supporting a girl? Don't they know that Cruz is a Mexican name? (I know he's of Cuban descent, this is sarcasm).

You who denigrate the Tea Party are being victimized by the people Ben Carson was talking about. The vast majority of people who identify with the Tea Party are not who these people are leading you to believe. They don't care about race, color, creed, gender or any of the other narratives the left cares about. How do you account for the fact that the Tea Party people would gladly support a black man, woman or Hispanic to be President, and yet decry they are racist any time they disagree with the current President. When are you going to wake up and see you are being manipulated?

It's really slimey trying to think like a liberal....

How do you know any of the Tea Party groups are backing Carson? Have any officially said they are?

Pay attention: We are not groups. We are individuals. Can you understand that concept?

[BackInTex]

How do you know any of the Tea Party groups are backing Carson? Have any officially said they are?

The Tea Party is not groups. It is members. And more a mindset, as I am not a member, but I identify with most of the Tea Party platforms. Polls don't call groups. They call people. The people have answered. The answer is not a Republican establishment/platform answer.

The media will continue to call Republicans racists, despite the fact that our leading candidates are minorities/women (with Trump being the exception be he is sort of his own race). The Democratic field is all white, whiter than white. But the low information people will continue to believe what they are told, Republicans are racist, people are causing global warming/climate change, you deserve someone else's money, yada, yada, yada.

[flockofseagulls104]

Hmmmm, Wonder what happened with the Pastor's bingo sheet?

Becky, John and Carl probably filled up their whole cards.....

[silverscreenselect]

The media will continue to call Republicans racists, despite the fact that our leading candidates are minorities/women (with Trump being the exception be he is sort of his own race). The Democratic field is all white, whiter than white. But the low information people will continue to believe what they are told, Republicans are racist, people are causing global warming/climate change, you deserve someone else's money, yada, yada, yada.

There are two types of, for want of a better word, racists out there. There's the type that actually hate or patronize or have some other mental hangups about minorities. These are the type that go around burning crosses; there's few of them. And then there are the type that pander to the first group, not because they share the first group's beliefs but because it's convenient to enable them to gain the votes they need. And there's a lot of them out there.

To put it in other words. The first group are the type that put lawn jockey statues on their front yard. The second group are the type that manufacture the lawn jockey statues.

[flockofseagulls104]

And then there are the type that pander to the first group, not because they share the first group's beliefs but because it's convenient to enable them to gain the votes they need. And there's a lot of them out there.

Finally you see! Yes, the Democrat Party!

[TheConfessor]

I didn't watch a second of it, but I certainly would not call CNBC the "mainstream media."

Really? This is probably the first time I've ever watched anything on CNBC, but the 'journalists' who asked the questions seemed to be locked into the same narrative you see on the networks and the rest of the bunch. What is your definition of "mainstream media" then?

That's pretty surprising, since CNBC is widely credited with launching the Tea Party. I have probably watched thousands of hours of CNBC over the years. They cover the news strictly from a business perspective and tend to be very supportive of conservative policies and right wing politics. Their guy who is often credited with launching the Tea Party movement is Rick Santelli.
http://www.cnbc.com/2014/02/24/5-years- ... sited.html

If I had to define "mainstream media," I'd say it's any broadcast or print media that attempts to appeal to the widest possible spectrum of viewers, listeners, or readers without intentionally alienating large segments of their audience, maintaining at least some claim of objectivity. I would include the big four of CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, as well as CNN and the remaining news magazines like TIME and Newsweek, and pretty much every remaining daily local newspaper across the country, as well as AP and Reuters. Media such as CNBC, Bloomberg, ESPN, BET, etc. are probably not "mainstream," since they intentionally try to reach only a specific subset of all viewers. You could probably make a case for the BBC, Al Jazeera and others as "mainstream," or at least offering another valid perspective that is trying to reach a broad audience. And if we include FOX as "mainstream," I guess we also have to include MSNBC. HLN used to be a news channel, but now it's mostly reruns of old episodes of "Forensic Files," so they have become mostly irrelevant. And I suppose most local TV and radio news at least tries to be in the mainstream, just covering what they think is important to their audience, without much advocacy.

[flockofseagulls104]

What a contrast.

It's amazing how much more relevant last night's debate was when you have moderators that ask substantive questions that aren't designed to denigrate the candidates.

I like Kasich, but what the heck was his problem?

[SpacemanSpiff]

I have a simple idea on how to keep these debates more, well, debately.

No TV ratings allowed.

IIRC, they were considered "news events" not subject to Nielsen ratings and such. Of course, if they run commercial mid-stream, I suppose then it's obliged to have ratings. But that seems to turn it into a reality show, or a 'rassle royale, or something other than a debate.

Just my two cents.