For Some Reason, NBC News Will Host the Third GOP Debate

Is it that they can’t learn or that they won’t learn?

Why? Why would the Republican National Committee (RNC) partner with a left-leaning news organization like NBC to host the third GOP debate? Do they want two hours of topics on climate change, abortion, and questions akin to “When did you stop beating your wife?”

This time was supposed to be different, or so they said. The RNC was pledging to include debate partners outside the dinosaur news networks and tap moderators from the new wave of conservative media.

Nonetheless, here we are. NBC News, of Russia collusion hoax fame, will host the third GOP presidential primary debate:

NBC News will host the third Republican presidential primary debate in Miami on Nov. 8.

The debate, to be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, will air from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the television, streaming and digital platforms of NBC News, including streaming on NBCNews.com.

The moderators and the format will be announced later.

To qualify, candidates must have campaign contributions from at least 70,000 unique donors. They must also register at least 4% in two national polls or in one national poll and one early-state poll that meets the RNC’s polling requirements. Qualifying candidates must also pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee.

Expect good long segments on the concerns of voters over climate change and abortion. Expect zero coverage of things that matter like Biden’s failed foreign policy, Biden’s failing economy, or Biden’s mass illegal immigration crisis.

The most recent debate, on Sept. 27, was a trainwreck of stupidity from moderators. Asinine questions like asking candidates to write down the name of another candidate they want to “vote off the island.” Amature-hour clown show kind of questions. That was the Fox Business debate less than a month ago.

Seriously, maybe the bar is so low that NBC News will shock and awe by providing better-focused questions on topics that Republican primary voters care about.

After all, these are debates for a primary campaign, not the general election. The question lists are similar but different. The point of a primary debate is to help Republican voters in states like Iowa and New Hampshire make sense of the candidates in an unrehearsed and unscripted setting.

In previous cycles, the debates have been used by legacy media outlets, with an overt left-wing bias, to attack Republican candidates and make them defend their very existence.

The Daily Caller, also reporting on the NBC News announcement, notes that conservative media outlets are being shut out from the discussion, for the most part:

Conservative outlets outside of the mainstream media have been frustrated with the direction of the debates and previously spoke to the Daily Caller about their conversations with the RNC about hosting a debate. Some were granted anonymity so they could speak candidly about their exchanges.

“At this point, we remain interested and would certainly entertain the idea if the RNC came to us and said we want you to co-sponsor a debate, but I feel like each passing day, my hopes get a little bit lower,” one outlet in talks with the RNC about hosting a debate told the Daily Caller.

A spokesperson for Newsmax, a conservative cable TV network and Fox News competitor, expressed aggravation with the RNC’s debate application process, noting that the standards have continuously changed making it harder for the outlet.

“We have been in discussions with the RNC about us hosting a debate, but it has been difficult because of the many unusual and changing demands they keep making on Newsmax,” a spokesperson for the station told the Daily Caller. “The RNC seems intent on ensuring that media hostile to President Trump are hosting.”

An antiqued view persists among the top echelons of the RNC that to appeal to voters, these debates must take place on cable and legacy broadcast media channels or no one will see them. That line of thinking is preposterous given the availability of streaming video and endless platforms to deliver content.

The RNC would be better off hosting its own debates, broadcasting them live on every streaming platform on the planet, and offering a rotating panel of moderators hand-picked based on their seriousness and qualifications. Bring in journalists of all stripes and backgrounds who want to provide fair and honest questions, not the legacy media morning show jockeys ready to smile for the camera.

Instead, it’s the same old playbook of letting media outlets tailor debate questions to fuel barroom brawls on the debate stage while the people are ill-informed.