The GOP Freak Out

I haven't had cable in over two years so I didn't see the GOP debate last night, but I "watched" it for a while on Twitter. I made it to the Leno or Conan question and turned off the computer in disgust. I am so tired of our dysfunctional media. The GOPers are allowed to go on TV and lie their faces off and the moderators don't challenge them. It's not like they should need factcheckers at their elbow for "misstatements" that have been debunked so long ago they could be taught in Ancient History classes.

And even if they can't react immediately, the day after coverage is all horserace bullshit. Forget about reporting the policy implications of their remarks. It's not about what they said. It's about how they said it. Their stage presence. Who wins the news cycle. The political implications on their standing in the tiresome polls.

If we had a functioning media that remembered how to do its job, they would have asked these important questions and wouldn't let the candidates weasel out of answering either. And no, John King trying to bully TPaw into insulting Mittens to his face doesn't count. King was just looking for an easy soundbyte.

The media needs to leave the horserace analysis to the experts like Andy Borowitz who tweets the quote of the day:

The consensus is that the big winners of Monday's GOP debate were the people who didn't watch. #CNNdebate

Amen to that. Watching paint dry would have been a more productive use of the time.