Kurtz: Debate ‘Absolute Trainwreck for CNBC,’ ‘Disaster For All Of Us In the News Business’

Fox News Media Analyst Howard Kurtz slammed CNBC’s GOP debate as “an absolute trainwreck for CNBC” and “a disaster for all of us in the news business” on Wednesday’s “Kelly File.”

Kurtz said, “Megyn, this was an absolute trainwreck for CNBC. Many of the moderators’ questions seemed to me to be snide, hostile, condescending, borderline insulting. And, let me just make clear, I’m totally in favor of tough and provocative questions. … But a lot of these questions were not drilling down on facts, or record, or policy. When John Harwood says Trump, comic book campaign, or does he have the moral authority to be president? When Carl Quintanilla asked Marco Rubio, who had a good night by the way, are you a young man in a hurry? shouldn’t you have waited a few years to run for president? It just validated what a lot of people think about the mainstream media, and this channel’s that’s affiliated of course with NBC News that they cannot be fair to Republicans. It was a disaster for all of us in the news business.”

Kurtz added, “it didn’t seem like they were focused, for the most part, on questions that, you know this is supposed to be a debate about the economy and jobs on questions that most Americans would relate to. And it’s just that they were gotcha questions, you’re right, they were so personal and the tone seemed so condescending. And by the way, also, there were many points where the moderators lost control of the debate, so there was a lot of shouting. And there were points where they were just sloppy. So, Becky Quick was trying down Donald Trump on something, and he disputed the premise of the question, and she said, ‘Where did I read this?’ And how did I come up with this? Okay, you have researched it. You’re supposed to pull it out and [say], ‘Here’s the article, Mr. Trump.'”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett