Toeing The Line

The GOP Debates Showed How Fox News Enforces Republican Orthodoxy:

Fox News is the enforcer of Republican orthodoxy.

At Thursday night's GOP debates in Cleveland, moderators Bret Baier, Bill Hemmer, Megyn Kelly, Martha MacCallum and Chris Wallace peppered the party's 17 presidential candidates with tough questions. But several of those questions had one key thing in common: They hit candidates for deviating from Republican orthodoxy.

These are fair questions. But they show the role journalists play in highlighting when one or two candidates profess views that are different from the majority of the field -- and the pressure those candidates face to bring their positions in line with other Republicans...