Debate Moderator Bob Schieffer: GOP Obsessed With Birth Control

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 22, 2012   |   1:50PM   |   Washington, DC

CBS newsman Bob Schieffer will host the third debate tonight between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

The first two debates prompted outrage from pro-life conservatives over their bias — from biased questions and Romney twice having less time to talk during the debate to the moderator interrupting Romney more or letting Obama get the last word in more often.

Voters expecting a more fair and impartial debate this time around will be sorely disappointed — although it might be for the better that the debate is primarily expected to be focused on foreign policy issues. Schieffer made it clear earlier this year that he thinks, when it comes to social issues, that Republicans are too focused on pro-life topics.

In February, on Sunday morning’s Face the Nation, he pressed Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie over how Republicans have supposedly moved “too far to the right” to win. Later, in an interview with Maryland’s Democratic Governor, Martin O’Malley, Schieffer claimed “we’ve spent the last couple of weeks here talking about running against birth control for goodness sake” — ignoring how the media attacked pro-lifers repeated with the War on Women mantra.

Meanwhile, Schieffer twice falsely credited Obama for having “backed away” from requiring religious groups to cover birth control and abortion-causing drugs.

He said: “We’ve spent the last couple of weeks here talking about running against birth control for goodness sake. I mean, I admit, I mean, I believe the President made a serious political mistake when he tried to say to the Catholic Church, you have to buy birth control pills for the folks that work in your hospitals and your schools and so forth. But he backed away from that. And yet, the Republicans keep pushing. They say that’s not enough. That you’ve got to be totally against the birth control.”

As Media Research Center writer Brent Baker noted:

Of course, Schieffer was unable to identify any candidate who is saying “you’ve got to be totally against the birth control.”

Then with O’Malley, he repeated the claim Obama “did back away” on the birth control mandate, and proceeded to again express bewilderment that’s not good enough for Republicans: “But is that going to be an issue, this whole idea of birth control, is that going to be an issue in this campaign?”

Next, Schieffer cued up O’Malley to denounce Republicans as extremists: “Well do you think it’s good for the President if Republicans try to concentrate on social issues?”

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