Lefties Trash NBC News for Hosting a Debate with Media 'Extremists'

Conservatives were up in arms that the Republican National Committee was allowing NBC News to moderate a presidential primary debate. Given NBC’s record of hostility to Republicans in debates and in general, it seemed like a terrible idea. As it turned out, it was a sober and serious debate with no remarkably hostile or silly questions.

On the Left, NBC News was being pilloried for agreeing to the RNC rules and partnering with radio host Hugh Hewitt of Salem Media Group. On the morning of the debate, Washington Post media reporter Jeremy Barr penned a hostile story headlined “NBC’s partner for GOP debate is Salem, promoter of 2020 election denial.”

Barr cited 2000 Mules, a Dinesh D’Souza documentary alleging (but not proving) widespread hanky-panky with ballot dropboxes in 2020. If it’s fair to suggest Hewitt is guilty by association with D’Souza, can’t we play that game backwards with The Washington Post?

In the Trump years, The Post happily lapped up the Steele Dossier, the Russian collusion conspiracy packet that even Barr’s colleague Paul Farhi described as “raw information and unconfirmed tips from unidentified sources,” paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign team. The Post retracted major parts of two articles in 2021.