“How do you solve a problem like Maria?” (from The Sound of Music)
Probably most of us have seen The Sound of Music during out lives. Lots of songs, including the exasperated Nuns trying to figure out what to do with “Maria”, who didn’t seem cut out for a lifetime of being a Nun. They came up with an unconventional solution to be sure but it worked out well.
Folks can argue whether my suggestion is conventional or not but I think it’s pretty simple. Since (thankfully!) he’s not President any more, don’t carry any event he does live.
Even a couple of hours of tape delay of CNN’s disgraceful “Town Hall” would have allowed for fact checkers to give Collins or other CNN types the time/ability to point out all of Trump’s lies. It’s not like the media hasn’t already done something along these lines. Even freaking Fox “News” stopped carrying his signature rallies live. Some clips of what he said, a bit of talking about it and that was it. Had CNN treated the Town Hall the other night that way all the fuss, and from many of us outrage wouldn’t be happening.
This would I truly believe solve the problem journalists are wringing their hands about since that Town Hall. Frankly, I see an awful lot of Crocodile Tears but I also believe there are many conventional journalists aghast at the CNN decision to platform Trump and want to avoid the mistakes of the past. As I’ve said, I think they already know how to deal with the problem of how to cover Trump and just don’t realize it. Most of them at least. The big bosses I’m convinced want their goddamned money and if it means effective again giving him coverage it would cost his campaign billion dollars or more to buy their ad revenues will inure them to the damage he will do.
We will of course have to wait and see what CNN and others do moving forward. CNN is predictably trying to spin their way out of the backlash they are getting from the public, other journalism outlets, and even some of their own people. Anderson Cooper’s schtick of “Look – he’s not just a candidate but the likely nominee, and it’s wrong/bad to shut yourself off from opposing political views” is pure gaslighting. I’ve told you how they (and others) should handle Trump coverage moving forward. It’s not a perfect solution I admit but it’s way better than what we saw Wed. night. Trump hasn’t stopped campaigning to be President since he first announced back in 2015. While he was still President the media including Fox stopped covering his rallies live and in full!
The only thing standing in the way is the greed of executives at journalism outlets, their Boards & Stockholders and even much of the “Talent.” CBS’s Les Moonves’ comment about Trump being bad for the country but good for ratings reflected a sentiment widespread in journalism and clearly it still exists. Money, even filthy Lucre makes people do awful things.
CNN hoped for a ratings blockbuster. They didn’t get it. Several million viewers over the course of the event (about seventy minutes) is a normal number for one of Tucker Carlson’s shows – pretty good for cable but not “off the charts” like CNN hoped. Ok, so it was better (by a lot) than they’d normally get but I think not worth the backlash they are getting. It of course remains to be seen what they and other outlets will learn (or not) from the already infamous Town Hall.
Personally, I think the greed displayed during Trump’s first Presidential run and for far too long afterwards has cost our country and the free world dearly. Not just in money and quality of life, but actual countless human lives. Including those suffering, fighting and dying in Ukraine. And those still getting sick with Covid and dying here and around the world. History (if we can keep Trump from a second term) will one day look back at the Covid mess Trump made and realize the parallels with Reagan’s screwing up the ability to contain HIV back in the 1980s.
Let’s just hope journalism does the right thing moving forward. I’m not betting on it but I’m not without hope.
I’ve been calling him a serial killer for a long time. I have facts on my side.
dfg is totally responsible for a great many covid deaths and should be brought to trial on the world stage. Yes, sir, he is a serial killer.
And an Idiot ….
The entire republiCLOWN party is a death squad.
It is an army intent on tearing up the Constitution led by the nazis put on scotus by a “federalist party” nazi.
“Even a couple of hours of tape delay of CNN’s disgraceful “Town Hall” would have allowed for fact checkers to give Collins or other CNN types the time/ability to point out all of Trump’s lies.”
Remember a video show called “Pop-Up Video?” The whole premise for the show was to show a music video and, at various points through the video, trivia bits would “pop up” on the screen. The trivia had to be fairly short or concise to fit in the little pop-up blurb graphic (almost anticipating Twitter’s original character limit) but there were all sorts of trivia that could appear. Information about the artist or a song lyric or “240,000 gallons of water were used to film the 5-second rain scene” or “this dance sequence is an homage to ‘Aliens'”–not always “insightful” but almost always “interesting” to some degree.
Well, do the same thing with a tape-delayed Trump speech or “town hall.” Doing that would be more likely to get people (even MAGAts) to pay attention to how reality veers from Trump’s viewpoint.
Please stop putting sound bites of dfg here. Post quotes, but please leave his disgusting face and horrible voice off. We’ve seen and heard him for far too many years! Thank you for letting me vent!
I just use a shovel and with this fat @ss, about a yard of dirt….