Report: Rule Change Allows Candy Crowley To Steal Debate Spotlight

by John Nolte 

Fox News is reporting that Candy Crowley's desperate need to marginalize everyday American voters and steal the spotlight for herself during tonight's debate has just been formalized. Altering the original agreement with the debate commission, and under intense media pressure, both Obama and Romney have agreed to answer any questions asked by Ms. Crowley and her over-sized ego.

 

Regardless of whether the Fox News report pans out or not, Crowley's behavior these past few days has only served to reinforce every negative thing anyone has ever said about the corrupt media. Crowley's narcissistic preening before her media pals as she promises to insert herself into the debate and violate her contract, has been distasteful in the extreme.

 Never before has a presidential debate moderator worked so hard to grab the spotlight and not let go. Crowley not only believes she's above things like her contract (her word); she also believes she's more important than the American people.

What we were supposed to get tonight -- what we've been promised -- is an unfiltered interaction between two presidential candidates and a group of everyday American citizens. Voters ask the questions, the candidates answer the questions, and we try to get to as many of these questions as we possibly can.

But Crowley's obviously of the opinion that her questions and what she has to say is more important than all of this. For days now, she's been puffing herself up as the Keeper Of All Things Noble And Pure About Journalism -- which apparently means shoving aside those stupid voters in order to make her personal mark on the debate. This is nothing more than a pathetic move to grab more attention for herself, and this behavior has even extended to today.

Bottom line: When a moderator works this hard to become part of the story, something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Of course those among Mark Halperin's elite media "Gang of 500" -- or who I call "The Worst People In The World" -- are applauding Crowley. But that makes sense. There's nothing the media loves more than when one of its own normalizes the idea of the media becoming the biggest part of a story -- which is exactly what the horribly insecure Crowley is making sure she does.

As a general principle, I'm all in favor of presidential candidates from both parties being relentlessly grilled by tough questioners. The problem here is that tonight's debate is supposed to be about everyday voters asking questions, not the media. The bigger problem, though, is that Crowley isn't an honest broker. She's a flaming liberal who's almost certain to repeat what we saw in the vice presidential debate where ABC News's Martha Raddatz interrogated Paul Ryan all through the night and Joe Biden on only one occasion.

Obviously, Crowley is forgetting one very important point: it's not 2008 anymore. New Media is watching and reporting on everything she's doing, and as a result her push to be the bride instead of the bridesmaid is making her infamous, not famous. Before the entire world, Crowley's ego is in hyper-drive and should her awful instincts reach into the debate itself, she'll find the marginalization complete.

Thanks to New Media, for the first time ever, the corrupt media finds itself in an election cycle where they're under 24/7 scrutiny for their intense biases. The media now also has to compete in the post-debate world of analysis and coverage.

We all know that Crowley's over-arching goal is to be the anti-Jim Lehrer and insert herself into the debate in order to rescue Obama from his abysmal record and lack of a second-term agenda.

She will do her worst, but in holding her accountable, New Media will do its best.