Newsmax does not have to be excerpted.
Lehrer on Defensive Over Biased Questioning
PBS host Jim Lehrer was challenged Friday morning on claims that he went easy on Sen. John Kerry during Thursday night's presidential debate, while tossing verbal hand grenades in President Bush's direction designed to keep him on the defensive.
"I don't know what in the world you're talking about," Lehrer told radio host Don Imus, in his only post-debate interview.
"I would argue that my questions were right down the middle. There were some hardball questions for each candidate. There were some softball questions for each candidate. But for the most part they were just terrific."
The bias complaint, said Lehrer, was more of a commentary on his critics than a valid criticism of his own debate performance.
Still, some observers noted that Lehrer's questions largely focused on negative aspects of Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq - while avoiding Sen. Kerry's waffling on the issue, not to mention the top Democrat's long record of opposing measures to strengthen U.S. intelligence and national security.
At one point Lehrer claimed that over ten thousand U.S. soldiers had been killed in Iraq, before quickly revising that number to 1,052.
At the end of the debate, the PBS anchorman shook Sen. Kerry's hand - with some debate watchers claiming he gave the top Democrat a knowing wink.
In 1999, the president of Lehrer's network had to resign after admitting that 53 PBS affiliates had been sharing their donor lists with the Democratic National Committee for years.
In 1997, then-White House aide George Stephanopoulos revealed that President Clinton's reelection team thought it was a major coup when Lehrer was chosen to host one of the presidential debates, boasting that "our moderator" had been picked.
I want Lehrer to tell us if he gave the talking points to Kerry BEFORE the debate!
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Did you notice how he tried to get Bush to say that he believes that nuclear proliferation is the greatest threat? "So let me get this straight, you both agree that the greatest threat is nuclear proliferation?"
Bush saw right through that and clearly stated that proliferation of WMD IN THE HANDS OF TERRORISTS is the greatest threat.
Bush's correction was overlooked by the media. Just scrolled across my pager: "Bush and Kerry agree that nuclear proliferation is the greatest threat."
Kerry can't see how the U.S. can ask rogue nations to disarm while it doesn't disarm itself. The U.S. is good, stupid, and the rogue nations are bad! Yes, Mr. Kerry, the U.S. is GOOD!
Kerry wants to dismantle our means of getting Osama. He wants to us to lower our defensive shield. Come on, [Kerry] people, open your eyes!
Good debates would have eaten those questions up with strong facts and a solid performance. This is bullshit spin.
Bush had his opportunities, and just was not on his game last night. Frankly, the country is at war, and it is on the President's watch. The questions should be pointed.
Pray for W and Our Troops
pBS... is crusin for a brusin... itself... pBS has become the Kool-Aid laced with DNC talkin points.. not concentrated poison like the MSM are but deadly nevertheless.. any that gives money to them are on some kind of circumsized Cock-tail..
Why this man is still allowed to moderate presidential debates baffles me.In his book "The Last Debate",Lehrer depicts a "fictional" character(debate moderator) who is given damaging information regarding the right-wing Republican candidate and has to decide whether to use that information or not.The fact that he wrote such a book,obviously biased towards Republicans(evil,hence the "damaging" info),should have disqualified him as moderator.
No, he wouldn't know. He is inside the box.
Lehrer did a very biased job on this one. I think he only put Kerry on the hotseat once and he gave Kerry 30 second rebuttal time 5-1 over Bush.
He was much better in 00.
Charlie Gibson may be ok.
Bob Scheiffer may be restrained just because he knows he's percieved as a Ratherian.
I kep waiting for Lehrer to hit Kerry over his inconsistencies or his post Vietnam activities and he never did.
Yes, it's true. And that's the way it will be for all the debates, because all four debate moderators are Lefists: Gwen Ifill, Charlie Gibson and Bob Schieffer. Every single one of them will frame their questions from a Leftist point of view.
Just look at this and decide for yourself:
Lehrer Biased Questions (extracted from Transcript)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1232331/posts
Posted on 10/01/2004 12:50:07 AM PDT by FairOpinion
Q 1 (to Kerry): Do you believe you could do a better job than President Bush in preventing another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States?
Q 2 (to Bush): Do you believe the election of Senator Kerry on November the 2nd would increase the chances of the U.S. being hit by another 9/11-type terrorist attack?
Q 3 (to Kerry): "Colossal misjudgments." What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion, has President Bush made in these areas?
Q 4 (to Bush): What about Senator Kerry's point, the comparison he drew between the priorities of going after Usama bin Laden and going after Saddam Hussein?
Q 5 (to Kerry): As president, what would you do, specifically, in addition to or differently to increase the homeland security of the United States than what President Bush is doing?
Q 6 (to Bush): What criteria would you use to determine when to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq?
Q 7: (to Kerry): Speaking of Vietnam, you spoke to Congress in 1971, after you came back from Vietnam, and you said, quote, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
Are Americans now dying in Iraq for a mistake?
Q 8: (to Bush): You have said there was a, quote, "miscalculation," of what the conditions would be in post-war Iraq. What was the miscalculation, and how did it happen?
Q 9 (to Kerry): You just -- you've repeatedly accused President Bush -- not here tonight, but elsewhere before -- of not telling the truth about Iraq, essentially of lying to the American people about Iraq. Give us some examples of what you consider to be his not telling the truth.
Q 10: (to Bush): Has the war in Iraq been worth the cost of American lives, 10,052... uh... 1,052 as of today?
Q 11: (to Kerry): Speaking of your plan, new question, Senator Kerry. Can you give us specifics, in terms of a scenario, time lines, et cetera, for ending major U.S. military involvement in Iraq?
Q 12: (to Bush): Does the Iraq experience make it more likely or less likely that you would take the United States into another preemptive military action?
Q 13(to Kerry): What is your position on the whole concept of preemptive war?
Q 14 (to Bush): Do you believe that diplomacy and sanctions can resolve the nuclear problems with North Korea and Iran? Take them in any order you would like.
Q 15 (to Kerry): Senator Kerry, you mentioned Darfur, the Darfur region of Sudan. Fifty thousand people have already died in that area. More than a million are homeless. And it's been labeled an act of ongoing genocide. Yet neither one of you or anyone else connected with your campaigns or your administration that I can find has discussed the possibility of sending in troops.
Why not?
Q 16 (to Bush): Clearly, as we have heard, major policy differences between the two of you. Are there also underlying character issues that you believe, that you believe are serious enough to deny Senator Kerry the job as commander in chief of the United States?
Q 17 (to Kerry): If you are elected president, what will you take to that office thinking is the single most serious threat to the national security to the United States?
Q 18 (to Bush): All right. Mr. President, this is the last question. And two minutes. It's a new subject -- new question, and it has to do with President Putin and Russia. Did you misjudge him or are you -- do you feel that what he is doing in the name of antiterrorism by changing some democratic processes is OK?
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Reading just the questions by themselves show the enormous magnitude of not only bias, but the deliberate intent of providing Kerry with a forum to expound on his attacks against President Bush, and ask President Bush the questions McAuliffe would ask President Bush
1 posted on 10/01/2004 12:50:08 AM PDT by FairOpinion
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The last debate...same sh*t happened. Why oh why can't we have a BRIT HUME doing every debate. Brit will work to make a fair and even debate. Don't ever count on the liberal loons to do this!!!! They've proven they NEVER play fair!!!
Bias, especially among members of the media, is in the eye of the beholder.
What is not debateable (pun intended) is the fact that the presidential nominee of a major political party was not asked a single question regarding his foreign policy stances and votes as a United States Senator over the past 20 years.
Asking Lehrer, "Why didn't you ask a single question about John Kerry's votes on (insert foreign policy issue of importance since 1984)" would have demanded a response since, well, it's undisputable that he didn't ask such a question.
Jim couldn't have just waived it off with a, "I don't know what you're talking about" dismissal. Lost opportunity.
We already knew that Jim. You have spent so much time in Washington, you couldn't begin to understand what we're talking about.
I had to work and missed the debate, but when antiquing with my neighbor early this a.m. she said she watched them and they both came off poorly in her opinion.
She said Bush seemed tired and Kerry is a nut who can't only not make up his mind, but he also didn't give definitive answers as to how he would do things or change things. She said Kerry sounded like a slick untrustworthy con man.
The Last Debate, by Jim Lehrer.
i love Ann Coulter's comparison of a leftist who does not notice his own bias with a fish in the ocean:
One fish to another fish: "Water? What Water?"
Btw, Hannity just made some great points about soooo many crucial questions Lehrer refused to ask Kerry about foreign policy.
Watching Jim Lehrer last night, i witnessed the single worst case of bias against the conservative candidate in a Presidential Debate i've ever seen.
it was THAT bad.