I'm convinced. I was skeptical at first, but I'm convinced that what Blaze Media just conducted was the direction Republican campaigns need to demand the primary season take. It is conventional wisdom that "serious" candidates need to participate in "serious" debates hosted by "serious" journalists on the "serious" networks.
It's been a one-sided joke and biased clown show for years.
Imagine if there existed a cultural expectation that Democrat candidates participate in debates hosted by moderators like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Erick Erickson, Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro, and Matt Walsh. As entertaining as that might be for conservatives, you can hear the laments and dirges echoing across the American left:
"Those weren't moderators, they were opponents!"
"The moderators made themselves the story!"
"The moderators didn't put the candidates on a level playing field where they could showcase their ideas, the moderators tried to embarrass and humiliate them!"
But that's exactly what the Republican Party has willingly subjected its candidates to for decades on end. And even though Walter Cronkite, Eleanor Clift, and Gwen Ifill of years past were notorious liberals, the increasing polarization of our current political dialogue - undoubtedly fueled and driven by social media soundbite culture - has greatly exacerbated the issue.
Who can forget Candy Crowley's inappropriate shilling for President Obama when Republican challenger Mitt Romney had him on the ropes regarding his Benghazi debacle:
ROMNEY: I think (it's) interesting the president just said something which -- which is that on the day after the attack he went into the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.
OBAMA: That's what I said.
ROMNEY: You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you're saying?
OBAMA: Please proceed governor.
ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
OBAMA: Get the transcript.
CROWLEY: It -- it -- it -- he did in fact, sir ... call it an act of terror.
OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
It was a tag team. Never mind that Romney was right and that Crowley made a mistake. Never mind that Obama's UN ambassador Susan Rice was on all five Sunday morning news programs just five days after Obama's Rose Garden speech making the very claim Romney had noted:
RICE: This was not a preplanned, premeditated attack.
Or more recently, Chris Wallace "moderated" the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden and ran disinformation interference for Biden relative to what we now know was a legitimate story the media wanted buried to help their fellow Democrat:
There simply no reason that Republicans have to play by those old rules these days. Media has changed, and the right needs to realize they are not required to play on the left's playground to get their message out. If Blaze Media can do it, The Daily Wire surely can as well. If they both can do it, Townhall, Breitbart, Newsmax, even The Bee/Not The Bee could do it too.
And while that's just for the primary, Republicans can and should play hardball in the general as well. You want a Chuck Todd to moderate, Democrats? We want a Ben Shapiro. You want a Nancy Cordes? We want a Michael Knowles.
And when the Left's reaction to such demands is inevitably, "Those aren't journalists! Those are activists with an obvious agenda!" the response can simply be, "Precisely."
There are a lot of things Republicans have to do if they intend to start winning national elections again, and this is one of them.
