Lester Holt's actions at the first presidential debate were inexcusable. And also unsurprising.
The day when media lefties were patient enough to believe that the system would work without being this blatant are over. They've been open this election about rejecting even the illusion of objectivity.
The only question is why do Republicans continue to allow mainstream media figures to moderate presidential debates? Lester Holt decided to debate Trump. But you can increasingly expect this kind of behavior from any media figure below a certain age to whom the concept of journalism is a dead and incomprehensible notion. Or rather, to them it means that it's their duty to attack Republicans.
2012 should have buried this. And I don't know why we're still dealing with this in 2016.
A debate between two candidates, one Democrat and one Republican, is the only time that the GOP has unquestionable leverage to get its way by rejecting mainstream media moderators. There are still a handful of journalists working for the big news networks who could be trusted to be fair, but most of them are over 70. There's obviously no future in that. I can't think of a single media figure who has any remote credibility in this regard except maybe Tapper.
It's the right of Republicans to demand independent, professional moderators who can be trusted to do their job of asking questions and checking the time, instead of offering false fact checks and trying to debate the candidates. Lester Holt's antics should be the final nail in the coffin of the mainstream media moderator.