john harwood - Page 2

The CNBC Debate Moderators On Hillary Clinton and Free Trade

Consumers of political news should understand that the biases of debate moderators are highly relevant. It doesn’t mean moderators with strong views are incapable of running a good debate, but the networks really ought to make portfolios of their moderators’ political history available for easy public consumption. It is fair to ask what sort of perspective these CNBC moderators bring to the presidential contest.

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Media Tries Getting ‘Pedantic’ On Ted Cruz

The real lesson of this exchange: John Harwood wanted to ambush Ted Cruz with an assault on his credibility, in an interview he had plenty of time to prepare, and the only thing he could come up with was the number of IRS agents Cruz mentioned in a joke. Is that really the ground defenders of the Lyin’ King and Hillary “I didn’t want to carry two cell phones” Clinton want to fight on?

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Ted Cruz vs. Media’s Dark Art Of Highly Selective Fact-Checking

The exact number of agents working for the IRS is not relevant to either the joke Cruz was making, or the serious and legitimate point underlying it: the same government that pronounces itself utterly helpless to keep track of immigration scofflaws, or secure the border, is very aggressive about keeping tabs on law-abiding taxpayers.

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