At Tuesday night’s CNN-organized Republican debate, addressing retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Hugh Hewitt of the right-wing Salem Media Group posed this question: “People admire and respect and are inspired by your life story, your kindness, your evangelical core support. We’re talking about ruthless things tonight — carpet bombing, toughness, war. And people wonder, could you do that? Could you order air strikes that would kill innocent children by not the scores, but the hundreds and the thousands? Could you wage war as a commander-in-chief?”

JIM NAURECKAS, jnaureckas at fair.org, @JNaureckas
Naureckas is editor of the media watch group FAIR’s magazine Extra! — see fair.org.

He said today: “It’s horrifying to see our leading cable news network offering, as a litmus test for becoming president of United States, a willingness to kill thousands of innocent children. To equate that with toughness and seriousness about protecting the United States is a violent fantasy of the sort that motivates the people who carry out mass shootings.” See by Sarah Lazare: “Observers Slam CNN for Aiding and Abetting Hate Speech in GOP Debate.”

Also, see “Criticism of CNN’s Democratic Debate Panel.”