CNN’s senior media correspondent Brian Stelter says that because CNBC “lost control of the debate” they will not “be in the running” for a future debate.
Appearing on CNN’s “Legal View With Ashleigh Banfield” Thursday, Stelter explained one reason CNBC had lower viewership for the debate compared to the Fox News and the CNN debates was because CNBC’s debate “was so chaotic because the moderators seemed to lose control so much that people didn’t want to watch it nearly as long.”
Banfield added, “There was that sort of nasty overtone. There was a lot of barb going back and forth.”
Stelter added, “When you hear the audience booing the moderators, you know you are in a very tough spot.”
“Part of me is sympathetic toward the moderators,” explained Stelter. “It’s an extremely difficult job. I think Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace, Brett Baier — these guys have made it look easy. It’s a very difficult job.”
Stelter then blasted the CNBC debate moderators Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick, and John Harwood
insisting that they “were not well prepared enough. The producers were not well prepared enough. And CNBC is feeling pretty red-faced now.”
Banfield criticized [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] for making a statement that wasn’t “particularly well prepared or thought out,” referencing Cruz’s comments about the Democratic debate suggesting “every fawning question from the media was, which of you is more handsome and wise?” (RELATED: Cruz Unloads On CNBC For Media Bias)
Defending CNN from Cruz’s barbs, Banfield claimed that CNN did in fact ask tough questions suggesting, “I scratched my head thinking, I could have sworn I watched the Democratic debate and I felt like Anderson Cooper was really tough.”
Referencing a Democratic debate clip where Lincoln Chafee was being taken to task for his voting record by moderator Anderson Cooper, Banfield commented, “Being a little rough? Turns out 10 days later, that dude was out of the race. That was rough, that was tough, that was fair. And bipartisan reaction to this debate was that Anderson did a good job and was fair to those candidates and wasn’t fawning.”
Stelter added, “You know, Cooper told me before the debate he didn’t want to be the story the next day. And he wasn’t. The story was about the candidates and what they said. That’s what moderators want. That’s what moderators wanted on Fox and on CNN. CNBC moderators also wanted the story to be about the candidates, but unfortunately they lost control of the debate. I don’t think CNBC will be in the running for a debate in four years.”
