MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow accuses CNN of ‘lying’ about Rand Paul debate qualifications

• published: 15 Dec 2015
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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow accuses CNN of ‘lying’ about Rand Paul debate qualifications MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow accuses CNN of ‘lying’ about Rand Paul debate qualifications MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow accuses CNN of ‘lying’ about Rand Paul debate qualifications https://youtu.be/buu-xhNDBqU This is something of a beat for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: Policing other cable networks for how they manage their debates, that is. Back in August, Maddow accused Fox News of fudging its methodology to make it appear as if there were a big polling “chasm” between the front-running candidates allowed into the network’s prime-time Aug. 6 debate and those relegated to an earlier JV contest. “The material difference where it really matters is on the edge of the stage,” ripped Maddow. “It’s with the candidates for whom this decision by Fox either means they get to keep running for president or it is the de facto end of their presidential run because Fox News said so.” The weekend provided Maddow with an opportunity to show her evenhandedness vis-a-vis her cable news rivals, and she took it. CNN, she explained, announced Sunday that it would allow nine candidates onto the stage of its varsity debate. The ninth candidate to slip in just before the cutoff? Rand Paul. But as Maddow — and others before her — explained, Paul didn’t technically qualify under the very detailed criteria that CNN had laid out for this critical clash. Candidates wishing to make the prime-time event needed to secure a polling average of at least 3.5 percent nationally or at least 4 percent in Iowa or at least 4 percent in New Hampshire. Though Paul didn’t reach any of those thresholds, CNN decided that its scientific debate criteria needed an infusion of spirit: “In the light of new polling released this morning and in the spirit of being as inclusive as possible, CNN has decided to include Sen. Rand Paul in the prime-time debate,” a CNN spokeswoman said. Back in September, CNN changed its polling criteria for another GOP debate in a way that allowed surging Carly Fiorina to land on the main stage. CNN has released the lineups and podium order for the December 15 GOP debates in Las Vegas https://t.co/t406YSO4Qs pic.twitter.com/XrnqWm0Kys — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 14, 2015 Not only was CNN’s rationale unsettling, noted Maddow (a Washington Post contributing columnist), its coverage of its own debate was misleading. To illustrate that latter point, Maddow showed bits of CNN’s oh-so-copious-and-tedious pre-game discussions in which the topic of Paul’s qualification had arisen. Example: CNN HOST CAROL COSTELLO: Doug Stafford joins me now. He’s the senior strategist for Rand Paul’s campaign. Welcome, sir. DOUG STAFFORD, RAND PAUL CAMPAIGN: Good morning, Carol. How are you? COSTELLO: I’m good. First of all, what’s it like — you’re waiting for these polls to see if you qualified for the main stage. This FOX News poll comes out Sunday at the last minute. What’s that like for you and the candidate? STAFFORD: Well, we’re just very pleased that Senator Paul is going to be on the main stage where we feel he belongs. Maddow riffed, “It’s so weird because here’s Rand Paul’s campaign guy talking to a CNN anchor about how Rand Paul qualified for the CNN debate with this new poll. And the Rand Paul campaign guy knows that Rand Paul did not qualify for the CNN debate. But he’s just going to kind of go with it. We believe he ought to be on that stage. Yes, ma’am. But this is how CNN has been mishandling this issue on the air.” And not just “mishandling”! Maddow took things a step further: “I don’t mean to be weird. But they have been — I hesitate to say lying, but they’ve been lying about this on their own air for a couple of days now and I really don`t understand why,” she said. Why isn’t this a “national news story”? Maddow demanded to know. Perhaps because of the low level of public interest in the affected candidate to begin with. Paul has a national polling average of 2.7, suggesting that only so many folks care whether he’s in the varsity debate, the JV debate or at home watching on television. As we wrote back in August after Maddow criticized Fox News, these debates do indeed vest cable news outlets with authority and importance extending far beyond their usual practice of blabbing about the same five stories all day long. Yet not so much authority and importance that a cutoff decision is going to change the course of American politics. Cable news isn’t that powerful, thank God.