Video: Ben Carson, Vetting, and the Media

Guy Benson | November 11, 2015 5:30 PM

As last night's GOP debate aired up the dial, I appeared with Megyn Kelly to discuss the mainstream media's slipshod process of vetting Dr. Ben Carson's background and biography:

The Carson campaign has been needling the media ever since their storyline faltered and fell, laughing all the way to the bank:

Donald Trump hungrily joined the anti-Carson feeding frenzy while it lasted, then pulled his punches at last night's debate. He should be glad he went the non-confrontational route, because Carson would've been ready -- via the Weekly Standard:

"We were kind of hoping he would [attack]. We were all set to really go after him," Carson campaign manager Barry Bennett told me in the spin room after the debate. According to Bennett, Carson planned on telling Trump: "I saved 15,000 lives in the operating room. And you don't appreciate my service, but I wouldn't trade a single one of them for all of your money. Money's not important to me. It's not what's important to most Americans." But the opportunity to deliver those lines never came as Trump refrained from criticizing Carson to his face during the two-hour debate. "It's kind of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. When he's alone at night with his Twitter account, he can say some pretty nasty things. But then when he's around people it's all nicey-nice," Bennett said. "I don't know. He's an entertainer."

Oof. Parting thought: Why not goad Trump with the "entertainer" line ahead of the next debate, and hold onto the 'lives saved vs. dollars made' line? It's an evergreen attack that could have been stashed away for future deployment. I'll leave you with this little nugget of winning messaging, which does media and Democratic opposition researchers' work for them: