Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton cackled away comments about Carly Fiorina made during a New Hampshire town hall that, if made by any other conservative candidate, would be cause for healing circles and peace rallies all across America.
During a Q&A on veterans’ issues, a man—who is a veteran and who claims to have been an HP employee from 1999-2005—expressed his frustration with Fiorina by saying, “every time I see [Carly Fiorina] on TV I want to reach through and strangle her.”
Need a refresher? Here’s the video:
On Wednesday night, Carly Fiorina appeared on The O’Reilly Factor and responded:
“I don’t take umbrage with him, I don’t even take umbrage with Mrs. Clinton. I do take umbrage with the clear double standard that exists in the media. If this had happened with a conservative candidate, the liberal media would be all over us to correct him, to apologize, and all the rest of it. Newsflash: the media is biased, this isn’t anything new, and we just have to deal with it unfortunately… It’s not gonna rattle me.”
O’Reilly pointed out an incident earlier this month in which the MSM took great umbrage with Fiorina’s apparently inadequate response to a man who made a drive-by claim that President Obama is a Muslim…
…even though during past encounters with this world view, she had shut them down without a second thought.
This is the perfect response—if Fiorina had attacked the audience member, she would have looked nuts (because, as I pointed out, this was in no way a true threat.) If she had instead attacked Hillary Clinton for not leaping to her defense, she would have looked petty and delusional; if the media won’t hold Clinton accountable for her secret email server, they’re not going to make a story out of her not jumping down a supporter’s throat for not being a meninist.
Fiorina is right—media bias exists. When it hits, all you can really do is point it out, make a better point than was made in whatever soundbite is swirling around, and move back to your own narrative. Republicans by and large cannot and have never been able to rely on a friendly pool of reporters to keep the message alive; to expect it now, even during a popular and high-profile primary cycle, would be a huge unforced error.
Point Team Carly.
Follow Amy on Twitter @ThatAmyMiller
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