Herman Cain Points Finger at Dishonest Journalists

(Reuters) It's the media's fault.

That was the essential message from presidential hopeful Herman Cain, who blamed the recent resurfacing of decade-old sexual harassment claims, which have been dogging his campaign, on the media on Saturday, during a one-on-one debate against fellow conservative presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich.

When Cain was asked what the biggest surprise of the campaign has been so far for him, he didn't hesitate, according to the New York Daily News: The nit-pickiness of the media, he said.

It is the actions and behaviors of the media that have been the biggest surprise. There are too many people in the media who are downright dishonest ... They do a disservice to the American people, he added, bringing the room to its feet, the paper reported.

Asked if he was done answering questions about the sexual harassment controversy, which stemmed from the 1990s, Cain snapped, You got it.

On Friday, a lawyer for one of Cain's accusers said his client filed her complaint about several instances of sexual harassment in good faith, and that she had received a financial settlement.

Attorney Joe Bennet said Cain wasn't being truthful when issuing repeated denials of incidents that allegedly occurred while the former Godfather's Pizza chief headed the National Restaurant Association.

Cain has repeatedly denied sexually harassing anyone.