MSNBC reported Giuliani promise not to attack other Republicans without noting his shots at Romney, Paul

On four occasions during MSNBC's October 16 political coverage, anchors uncritically aired Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's October 14 declaration, "Thou shalt not attack another Republican. So, I'm going to try to follow that commandment as much as I can." Giuliani was referring to the "11th Commandment" that was first stated during Ronald Reagan's 1966 California gubernatorial run: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." But at no point did any of the anchors -- Mika Brzezinski, Contessa Brewer, Monica Novotny, and Tamron Hall -- or either of the political analysts featured during the segments -- Pat Buchanan and Joe Watkins -- note that Giuliani has, in fact, repeatedly attacked other Republican candidates.

As Media Matters for America noted, on October 5, the Giuliani campaign circulated a press release titled "Romney's Taxachussetts Hypocrisy," attacking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's record on taxes and spending. Two days earlier, Giuliani had made a "pledge" during an interview not to directly criticize his GOP opponents. In an October 4 article on the interview, Politico senior political writer Jonathan Martin and Politico chief political correspondent Mike Allen wrote that Giuliani "took an unusual pledge" and quoted him saying: "It's my intention not to attack any other Republicans, absolutely. ... The whole focus of my campaign is I'm going to run against a Democrat."

Giuliani continued his criticism of Romney at the October 9 Republican presidential debate -- sponsored in part by MSNBC -- when he contrasted his economic policies as mayor of New York City with Romney's as governor of Massachusetts, saying, "I led; he lagged." The New York Times reported that the former New York mayor's comments at the debate "reflected a continuing effort by Mr. Giuliani to raise questions about Mr. Romney's candor and character," and quoted Giuliani telling Romney, "You have to be honest with people, and you can't fool all of the people all of the time: the line-item veto is unconstitutional."

During the May 15 Republican presidential debate, Giuliani misrepresented a statement by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), claiming that Paul said the United States had "invited the attack" on September 11, 2001. As Media Matters noted, Paul actually said the attacks were a response to U.S. actions in the Middle East and stressed the importance of understanding the motivations of those who want to attack the United States. Further, on October 7, the Associated Press reported that former Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci (R) "has emerged as the principal critic of Romney" and "has questioned his gubernatorial successor's economic record on behalf of Rudy Giuliani, whom Cellucci has endorsed in the primary campaign."

From the 10 a.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on October 16:

BRZEZINSKI: In fighting for the White House, GOP candidates now find themselves battling for what may be an even more elusive title, the Republican's Republican. Mitt Romney fired the first shot when he tried to slap that label on himself over the weekend.

ROMNEY [video clip]: My own view is that, if you will, the Republican wing of the Republican Party, if it's going to follow the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan spoke about, needs to have a social conservative, an economic conservative, and a military conservative.

BRZEZINSKI: OK, that's all Romney's rivals needed to dive into the fight and try and claim the title for themselves. [Former Sen.] Fred Thompson [R-TN] was the latest to make his case.

[begin video clip]

THOMPSON: I am the consistent conservative, who, for eight years on the national scene, fought for lower taxes, a balanced budget, welfare reform, and judges who would interpret the law and not make it up as they go along. I was conservative yesterday, I'm a conservative today, and I will be a conservative tomorrow.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ): Former Governor Romney yesterday proclaimed himself as the only real Republican in this race. As we all know, when he ran for office in Massachusetts, being a Republican wasn't much of a priority for him.

GIULIANI: Thou shalt not attack another Republican. So, I'm going to try to follow that commandment as much as I can.

[end video clip]

BRZEZINSKI: OK, all this brings us to MSNBC political analyst, consistent conservative Republican Republicans himself, Joe Watkins. Hi, Joe.

WATKINS: Hello, Mika. How are you?

BRZEZINSKI: You know, on the surface, this sounds a little silly. Smart politics?

WATKINS: Very smart politics, of course.

BRZEZINSKI: Really?

WATKINS: Yeah, well, you've got to define yourself. Right now, you're in a mode where people are getting to know you, they're getting to know what it is you stand for. And one of the ways you let them know what you stand for is by defining yourself. If you don't define yourself as a candidate, somebody else will define you for you. And usually the way they define you is not the way you want to be defined. So it's a very smart thing for a candidate like Mitt Romney to come out and say, "You know what? I'm a fiscal conservative, I'm a social conservative, and from a military standpoint, I'm also conservative." That tells voters very plainly and clearly where he stands on all three of those areas.

BRZEZINSKI: OK, could any of this end up backfiring?

WATKINS: Well, I don't think it ends up backfiring. I think the other candidates are very, very smart to use this as a launch pad to begin a discussion. Certainly, I know having once been a candidate, having a couple times been a candidate for public office, that it takes money to publicize yourself. If you don't have money, you've got to get earned media. You've got to find ways to pick a fight and to get yourself on the airwaves so that you can also define yourself and maybe beat up the front-runner. That's what the other candidates are doing. They're very smart to do it. It's one way to get yourself in front of the camera and let folks know your campaign is still alive.

BRZEZINSKI: All right, just real quickly, in one word, is there anyone in this race who really is a conservative's conservative, Republican's Republican?

WATKINS: Well, I think they're all good Republicans; all the camps are good Republicans. I think that -- well, Mitt Romney probably is the one that is most socially conservative and also fiscally and militarily conservative. All three.

BRZEZINSKI: OK. All right, Joe, we leave it there.

WATKINS: Thanks.

BRZEZINSKI: Thank you very much.

From the 11 a.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on October 16:

BREWER: Will the real conservative please stand up? In the race for 2008, all the candidates, it seems -- the GOP candidates -- are vying to be called the real conservative, and they're opening fire on each other.

[begin video clip]

ROMNEY: My own view is that, if will you, the Republican wing of the Republican Party, if it's going to follow the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan spoke about, needs to have a social conservative, an economic conservative, and a military conservative.

McCAIN: Former Governor Romney yesterday proclaimed himself as the only real Republican in this race. As we all know, when he ran for office in Massachusetts, being a Republican wasn't much of a priority for him.

THOMPSON: I am the consistent conservative, who, for eight years on the national scene, fought for lower taxes, a balanced budget, welfare reform, and judges who would interpret the law and not make it up as they go along. I was conservative yesterday, I'm a conservative today, and I will be a conservative tomorrow.

GIULIANI: Thou shalt not attack another Republican. So, I'm going to try to follow that commandment as much as I can.

From the 12 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on October 16:

NOVOTNY: Republican presidential candidates are apparently giving the Democrats a break. Instead, at least for now, they're attacking one another. This all started a few days ago when Mitt Romney claimed to have the real Republican credentials.

ROMNEY [video clip]: My own view is that, if will you, the Republican wing of the Republican Party, if it's going to follow the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan spoke about, needs to have a social conservative, an economic conservative, and a military conservative.

NOVOTNY: Not surprisingly, Romney's rivals disagree, and now they're fighting back.

McCAIN [video clip]: Former governor Romney yesterday proclaimed himself as the only real Republican in this race. As we all know, when he ran for office in Massachusetts, being a Republican wasn't much of a priority for him.

[...]

NOVOTNY: Let's listen to Giuliani. He's been responding to the idea of the Republicans going after one another, and he had this sound bite. Let's hear that.

GIULIANI [video clip]: I think Ronald Reagan is kind of our guide to a large extent because he was the most successful Republican in a long time. He used to have an 11th Commandment. It was thou shalt not attack another Republican. So I'm going to try to follow that commandment as much as I can.

NOVOTNY: Joe, does he have a point?

WATKINS: He has a very good point, except if you're not first place in the sweepstakes to be the Republican nominee, you've got to do something to change the order. And so Giuliani is doing very well in the national polls, he's atop the national polls in the Republican sweepstakes, and in the state polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mitt Romney is ahead. So the others who aren't leading right now have to attack in order to change that dynamic, and they're doing just that. But in a perfect world, Republicans wouldn't attack Republicans. Pat Buchanan has a great point, which is that once the Republican nominee is chosen, they'll all get behind that person to defeat Hillary Clinton in the November election.

[...]

BUCHANAN: Let me say on that 11th Commandment, you know, we -- in the Nixon days, we obeyed that 11th Commandment pretty well, thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. Our problem, Monica, was with the first 10.

From the 1 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on October 16:

HALL: In the race for 2008, the Republican candidates are running to be the real conservative and opening fire now on each other.

[begin video clip]

ROMNEY: My own view is that, if will you, the Republican wing of the Republican Party, if it's going to follow the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan spoke about, needs to have a social conservative, an economic conservative, and a military conservative.

McCAIN: Former governor Romney yesterday proclaimed himself as the only real Republican in this race. As we all know, when he ran for office in Massachusetts, being a Republican wasn't much of a priority for him.

THOMPSON: I am the consistent conservative, who, for eight years on the national scene, fought for lower taxes, a balanced budget, welfare reform, and judges who would interpret the law and not make it up as they go along. I was conservative yesterday, I'm a conservative today, and I will be a conservative tomorrow.

GIULIANI: Thou shalt not attack another Republican. So, I'm going to try to follow that commandment as much as I can.

[end video clip]

HALL: Let's bring in MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan and former presidential candidate, as well as Joe Watkins, a Republican strategist and MSNBC analyst. Thank you, gentlemen, for making time.

BUCHANAN: Thank you, Tamron.

WATKINS: Thank you.

HALL: So I just got this in from our producer, Angie Dorr [ph], comments from Rudy Giuliani. He's continuing to defend himself as the real Republican in this race, Pat. He says, "I gave my blood for the Republican Party in New York," and he went on to say that he was the first Republican mayor of New York and the first to stay a Republican in 50 years.