So how do the questions from the first GOP debate, moderated by MSNBC and the Politico.com, match up to the questions posed by the FOX News panel in the second debate?
It’s not even close. Opening up the Media Blog vault and reviewing the first GOP debate after having just watched the second was a revealing exercise. I think the MSNBC/Politico questions actually got stupider with age.
By contrast, the FOX News questions were serious and the questioners tenacious in pursuing answers. Even the questions that viewers submitted to FOX via e-mail were far better than “What do you dislike most about America?” and the other nonsense that got past the Politico’s electronic gatekeepers.
Watch the video. I created a montage of MSNBC questions first, followed by a montage of FOX questions. The increase in the seriousness and difficulty of the questions is comparable to that between high school and college:
David Frum got it right. FOX News distinguished itself tonight, and made the Democratic activists who are trying to deny that it has any journalistic integrity look foolish.