CNN exec defends President Obama getting more time in debate, ‘he talks more slowly’
In a CNN staff memo, Exec Mark Whitaker defends the debate moderator, Candy Crowley, arguing that Obama got more speaking time because he talks “more slowly” and that the network is going to do a word-count comparison between him and Romney.
Republicans have offered harsh criticism of debate moderator and CNN appears to be looking to put a positive spin on her performance.
Some conservatives including Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlson have bashed Crowley for allowing Obama more speaking time (the president spoke for 44:04 minutes to Romney’s 40:50, according to CNN) and interrupting Romney 28 times compared to Obama’s 9.
Read the full note below:
Let’s start with a big round of applause for Candy Crowley for a superb job under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. She and her team had to select and sequence questions in a matter of hours, and then she had to deal with the tricky format, the nervous questioners, the aggressive debaters, all while shutting out the pre-debate attempts to spin and intimidate her. She pulled it off masterfully.
The reviews on Candy’s performance have been overwhelmingly positive but Romney supporters are going after her on two points, no doubt because their man did not have as good a night as he had in Denver. On the legitimacy of Candy fact-checking Romney on Obama’s Rose Garden statement, it should be stressed that she was just stating a point of fact: Obama did talk about an act (or acts) of terror, no matter what you think he meant by that at the time. On why Obama got more time to speak, it should be noted that Candy and her commission producers tried to keep it even but that Obama went on longer largely because he speaks more slowly. We’re going to do a word count to see whether, as in Denver, Romney actually got more words in even if he talked for a shorter period of time.
[…] 2012 Election: CNN defended giving more time to Obama because he speaks slowly […]
THIS ARTICLE REMINDS ME OF A COMMENT I MADE BEFORE COMING TO Global Dispatch ABOUT Justice Clarence Thomas, WHILE SPEAKING TO CAUCASIAN SCHOOL-CHILDREN.
AS MORE NEGRO POLITICIANS PARTICIPATE IN DEBATES, CAUCASIANS WILL HAVE TO GET USED TO NEGROES’ INTERNAL BATTLE BETWEEN “Ebonics” AND CORRECT GRAMMATICAL-ENGLISH. AS I HAVE OFTEN TYPED, NEGROES ARE LIKE AMERICAN- HISPANICS/ASIANS BECAUSE ENGLISH IS STILL NOT THEIR PRIMARY LANGUAGE. [If Caucasians could be “flies-on-the-wall” in Negro households, they would understand what I mean]. CAUCASIANS OFTEN COMPLAIN ABOUT PROFANITY IN FILM/MUSIC/TELEVISION; BUT, BECAUSE OF AN INADEQUATE EDUCATIONAL COMPREHENSION, NEGROES USE PROFANITY AS SYNONYMS FOR PROPER ENGLISH WORDS. AND, “Ebonics” IS SPOKEN AT A FAST-PACE WITHOUT REGARD FOR SUBJECT/PREDICATE-AGREEMENT, ETC.
SO, Candy Crowley, DID THE RIGHT THING.
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON