The 24 hours following a political debate are typically filled with spirited discussions about winners and losers, and Wednesday night’s fourth GOP primary debate is no exception. And while partisan pundits pontificate about political pendulums, there was some bipartisan consensus on the host: NewsNation, a newcomer to the cable news industry, pulled off a terrific debate, arguably the best thus far.

***Now for an important disclaimer: I am the media analyst and a paid contributor to NewsNation. I joined the NewsNation team because I believed in their ambitious mission to re-write the cable news narrative in a centrist manner. Are they succeeding? Let’s discuss.***

For the uninitiated, NewsNation is the newest cable news network on the block, only two years into existence. The core value proposition for NewsNation is a “centrist news for the rest of us” approach that has its fair share of skeptics. But as I wrote in October, NewsNation’s recent growth is a good sign for traditional journalism in a political media ecosystem that all too often rewards extremism over dispassionate reporting and analysis. Ratings trending in the positive direction are a good sign for the future of the network.

Wednesday night’s debate showed the political media world that NewsNation is just as capable, if not more so, than its competitors. There were some bumps: there was a three-second audio problem as Governor Ron DeSantis began to speak, but that sort of thing is bound to happen on live television. More importantly, it was rectified immediately, unlike the first debate hosted by Fox News that featured horrible audio — due to cross-talking candidates in a cavernous Reagan Library — throughout the debate.

But NewsNation’s debate stood out for specific programming decisions. Megyn Kelly and Elizabeth Vargas proved adept at leading the debate for different yet complimentary reasons.

Kelly is as fearless a political media figure as you will find, and she had zero issues asking each candidate the absolute toughest and, at times, unflattering questions, especially at the very start of the debate. This set an important tone, loosened the discussion right from the start, and got to the “good part” of a debate without the “feeling each other out” portion that usually wastes 30 minutes.

And Vargas reminded anyone watching why she is as sharp a news anchor as anyone in the business. She asked smart and pointed questions and, more importantly, used her gravitas to keep structure to the discussion so that it didn’t become an unwieldy melee like prior debates. And let’s not forget Washington Free Beacon editor Eliana Johnson, who added the right amount of conservative bona fides that worked well for a GOP debate.

This praise is not just my observation — it’s shared by many others and not just on social media. The Wall Street Journal’s Tim Hanrahan called NewsNation’s debate moderators “one of the night’s winners,” writing:

The moderators—Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation, former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and Eliana Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon—kept a tight rein on the debate and didn’t take or get any flak from the candidates, unlike last time, when Vivek Ramaswamy went after NBC’s Kristen Welker, calling her biased. For NewsNation’s first ever debate, the production was strong, with Kelly in particular pushing the event forward through sometimes messy and tangential arguments. And most importantly, it finished on time, at 10 p.m. on the dot.

In her live commentary, Washington Post columnist Meghan McArdle was also effusive of NewsNation, saying, “These moderators are the best of the debates so far, even discounting for the fact that they have fewer candidates to contend with.” Later, “I liked NewsNation more — this was the best of the debates so far.”

Deadline’s Ted Johnson praised “The NewsNation moderators wisely directed more specific questions to each of the candidates, especially at the start, something that helped focus the candidates and made it all the more apparent when they were not answering the queries,” and noted one huge differentiating factor in this debate, writing:

Moreover, the moderators asked more questions about the person not in the room: Donald Trump. Curiously, Trump has been in the background of topics for all but the first debate, when candidates were asked whether they would support him even if he was convicted. By contrast, NewsNation queries included one about Trump’s comment that he would not be a dictator in his second term, except for day one.

Another smart decision: giving the candidates 90 seconds to answer questions, a decision praised Thursday morning on Fox & Friends by Steve Doocy. That extra time allowed what seemed like more thoughtful and deeper answers and avoided the ten pounds of crap in a five-pound bag phenomenon we so often see in other debates with 45 or 60-second response time.

Some of the decisions proved less wise. The debate featured questions from Tom Fitton, founder of the very pro-Trump outlet Judicial Watch. He’s perhaps most infamous for privately telling Trump before the 2020 election to refuse to concede. According to the Associated Press, the Jan. 6 committee found the following: “The committee cites correspondence from Tom Fitton of the conservative group Judicial Watch to the White House in October 2020 in which Fitton urges Trump to say after polls close: “We had an election. I won.”

The NewsNation debates had Fitton on to ask candidates about “election integrity” at the behest of the RNC. While that decision drew mockery from many on the left, it earned praise from Republicans who don’t see the controversy in his inclusion because … ain’t that America?

Ratings haven’t come out yet, and expectations should probably be tempered since this was the fourth debate among candidates who are viewed as being highly unlikely to be able to topple Trump from his frontrunner perch, but I’d argue that those numbers won’t be the most important metric by which to judge whether or not NewsNation’s debate was a success. The key question — can this new channel handle both the logistics and substance of a presidential debate — was answered in the affirmative.

It was an evening of high-quality political debate content largely because the candidates had the airtime to reveal their true nature for better and worse. Of course that was in part due to only four candidates participating, but also, credit to the NewsNation team for making a lot of the right calls which led to arguably the best GOP debate thus far.

The post Cable News Newcomer NewsNation Draws Bipartisan Praise — And a Little Heat — For Its First Debate first appeared on Mediaite.

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