Anyone who watched the latest Republican debate had to be exasperated. To be clear, rarely do the presidential candidates answer the questions being asked: They simply use the time allotted as an opportunity to say their piece. It's the moderator's responsibility to hone in on the answer, and call out the candidate when given a non-answer. This, of course, is rarely done.

The Republican presidential candidates made mincemeat out of the CNBC moderators, using every opportunity to call them out for their questions. It did not help that instead of asking serious questions in a fact-based manner, the moderators sometimes asked leading questions, a la Fox News.

Ted Cruz had one of the longest and most effective outbursts against the media as he played the aggrieved victim in perfect form.

"Senator Cruz, congressional Republicans, Democrats, and the White House are about to strike a compromise that would raise the debt limit, prevent a government shutdown, and calm financial markets that fear another Washington-created crisis is on the way," said CNBC's Carl Quintanilla. "Does your opposition to it show that you are not the kind of problem solver American voters want?"

Cruz was prepared for an attack on the media. "You know, let me say something right at the outset," Ted Cruz said. "The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. This is not a cage match. And you look at the questions— 'Donald Trump are you a comic book villain,' 'Ben Carson can you do math,' 'John Kasich will you insult two people over here,' 'Marco Rubio why don't you resign,' 'Jeb Bush why are your numbers falling.' How about talking about the substantive issues people care about. ... The questions that are being asked shouldn't be trying to get people to tear into each other. It should be what are your substantive solutions to people who are hurting."

As a partisan, it's easy to love the leading question. However, the question was more drama and posturing than actual probing. The question should have been something to this effect: Why oppose or threaten a shutdown, when past experience was a failure that cost American taxpayers billions? Instead, Quintanilla's framing left the door open for Ted Cruz to grandstand. His criticism was effective because all the questions asked during the debate were amateurish. Then again, CNBC has become the bastion of misleading financial information, so this type of questioning should be expected.

The traditional mainstream media has become a joke. But ironically, the party that has complained the most about the state of the media is most complicit in dumbing it down. Read on to find out why.