Was The VP Debate Moderated Fairly?

Raddatz’s Questions Favor Liberals 19-12; Fair on Foreign Policy, Biased on Domestic Issues

ALEXANDRIA, VA – According to an analysis from the Media Research Center, the questions posed at Thursday night’s vice presidential debate by ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz favored Team Obama, but not entirely. Out of 48 questions and follow-ups, a plurality (19, or 40%) incorporated a pro-Obama/Biden or anti-Romney/Ryan agenda, vs. 25% (12 questions) that skewed in the other direction and 35% (17 questions) that were neutral or purely information-seeking.

Raddatz showed almost no bias in her foreign policy questions, which split down the middle: eight pro-Romney vs. seven pro-Obama (not counting the neutrals). But on domestic issues, especially on the budget and taxes, she joined Joe Biden in pounding on Paul Ryan, with a remarkable dozen questions that incorporated liberal campaign themes, compared to just four based on a conservative premise, a stark three-to-one liberal tilt.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell reacts:

“Martha Raddatz’s friends in the media are swooning over her performance in last night’s Vice Presidential debate.  And certainly she deserves a good deal of credit for taking Joe Biden to task for the Obama Administration’s failures in Benghazi. She asked the hard, pointed questions that the administration has managed to dodge for weeks. Her conduct during the opening segment was refreshing and professional.

“But over the course of the 90-minute debate the wheels came off, especially when she shifted to domestic economic policy. Any moderator whose weighted questions favor liberals over conservatives by a 19-12 margin is biased.

“The record shows it is not as bad as conservatives think, and not as good as liberals are stating.”

Another factoid is that Vice President Joe Biden interrupted Paul Ryan 82 times in a 90-minute debate.

From Fox News:

Raddatz followed the Biden lead though – interrupting the debaters 50 times. She leaned heavily on Ryan, interrupting him 31 times, 12 more than the 19 times she cut off Biden. She also took a liberal tone on abortion and let Biden control the debate tone by never shutting up. He led Ryan on time by 1 minute 20 seconds, 41:32 to 40:12, but it was doubtful that the debate clock could track every Bidenism. CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Biden managed to “continually inject himself” into Ryan’s comments. Cooper, too, was living in the land of understatement.

Even the post-debate CNN panel criticized Biden’s continual interruptions, facial expressions and laughter, giving the style portion of the debate to Ryan.