Press bungles attempts to take down Rubio, Carson

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The news media shot blanks this week after a couple of outlets published stories on Republican presidential candidates that could have severely damaged or ended their campaigns, but instead led to even more media criticism.

Ben Carson, tied with Donald Trump as the national front-runner and No. 2 in the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings, and Marco Rubio, trailing in third place and on the rise, were targets of new stories that dug into their pasts and questioned the candidates' integrity. In both cases, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee claimed bias on behalf of the "mainstream media."

"The mainstream media is dead set on helping the Democrats coronate Hillary Clinton," the spokesman said, "and selectively covering manufactured Republican controversies while conveniently ignoring stories on the Democrat candidates' protests over debates, new details on [Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's] secret email scandal, and the Democratic National Committee becoming financially insolvent. The double standard is astonishing."

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