#BENGHAZI: Paul Ryan discusses Candy Crowley with Hugh Hewitt:

PAUL RYAN:  …clearly, we suspected that this was not simply because of the video. And as time went on, and as days transpired, it became more and more and more clear that that just wasn’t the case. And that’s why we prosecuted that. We made that point. Mitt did bring this up in the debate. I mean, we did talk about the fact that this was not because of a video or some spontaneous protest. So you know, as time went on, more information became clear, and we became more sure of the facts as we now know them.

HUGH HEWITT: Perhaps the most significant intervention by a member of the media in a presidential campaign ever is Candy Crowley’s…

PR: Yeah, yeah.

HH: …intervention in the exchange between Governor Romney and President Obama. Do you think that was innocent? And number two, do you think she’d do it again knowing now what we know?

PR: I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t really know, so I’m not inside her head. I don’t know what she would do now. I’m just not going to speculate, because I just don’t know.

HH: Do you think it was, okay, even from the objective standpoint, though, is it wrong for people in the media to prejudge this, because a lot of prejudging is going on already, as happened with Candy Crowley in that debate.

PR: Yeah, well, I think it represents some subjectivity in the media to prejudge events and to prejudge things, or to affix political motivation to these things. Four people were killed. They were Americans, our ambassador among them, and we don’t have all the answers. That’s all we should know, to know that we need to get to the bottom of this. Whether, you know, I don’t know what was running through her mind. Clearly, you know, I think prejudging in the media is something that happens all the time. She also violated the rules of the debate, in my opinion, from at the time. That was just my personal opinion, which was when she did that, obviously I was sitting there watching it, I did not think that was in conformity with the rules as set out in the debate. So…but that’s another issue.

HH: Yeah, she’s a very fine broadcast journalist and a frequent guest on this program in the past. But I do think that on this issue, Beltway may be a little bit disconnected from the country.

Audio and the rest of the transcript at the above link.

By the way, it’s a testament to the MSM’s current overall level of debasement that Crowley was merely a runner-up in this year’s Duranty Awards.