Despite Blitzer's denial, Coulter, Cavuto claimed Blitzer "got[] a little talking-to" prior to Dem debate

Summary: On Fox News' Your World, echoing an anonymously sourced blurb posted on the Drudge Report, Ann Coulter stated, "Well, apparently, Wolf Blitzer has gotten a little talking-to. And, yes, I think he'll be serving tea and cookies before asking [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton] a question." Host Neil Cavuto agreed with Coulter's claim that Blitzer "has been given a talking-to" prior to the November 15 Democratic presidential debate. But Blitzer himself said, "No one has pressured me. No one has threatened me. No one is trying to intimidate me."

On the November 14 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, during a discussion about the November 15 Democratic presidential debate, which CNN host Wolf Blitzer is scheduled to moderate, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter claimed: "Well, apparently, Wolf Blitzer has gotten a little talking-to. And, yes, I think he'll be serving tea and cookies before asking [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton (NY)] a question." Later, when Coulter claimed that Blitzer "has been given a talking-to" prior to the debate, host Neil Cavuto responded, "Absolutely." Cavuto added, "And they can talk to him all they want. I don't see him folding one iota." But, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, Blitzer said on the November 13 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, "No one has pressured me. No one has threatened me. No one is trying to intimidate me. ... No one has even called me to try to pressure me or anything like that. ... I have not felt any pressure whatsoever."

Coulter and Cavuto's claim echoed an anonymously sourced blurb posted on the Drudge Report website November 13, which asserted that "Blitzer has been warned not to focus Thursday's Dem debate on" Clinton and quoted an anonymous "top Clinton insider" saying, "This campaign is about issues, not on who we can bring down and destroy. ... Blitzer should not go down to the levels of character attack and pull 'a Russert,' " referring to NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, who moderated the October 30 Democratic debate in Philadelphia. Later that day, Drudge updated his post to include Blitzer's denial.

From the November 14 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

COULTER: Although surprisingly enough, Democrats seem to be bringing back their enthusiasm for raising taxes.

CAVUTO: Or at least for getting the debate going again.

COULTER: Oh, getting the debate going --

CAVUTO: They bloodied Hillary at the last one. Now do you expect the tone will be different for this debate?

COULTER: Well, apparently, Wolf Blitzer has gotten a little talking-to. And, yes, I think he'll be serving tea and cookies before asking Hillary a question.

CAVUTO: I don't think Wolf will do that.

COULTER: I sort of don't, either. I thought his debates have been the best so far.

CAVUTO: I think he's a solid interviewer. He's very good. He's opposite me and this network. But the fact of the matter, he is an impeccable journalist. I don't see him folding for anyone.

COULTER: Right. But he has been given a talking-to.

CAVUTO: Absolutely.

COULTER: I'm not joking about that.

CAVUTO: And they can talk to him all they want. But I don't see him folding one iota.

—S.P.