I think that it really is going to come down to this. TV news has fallen into total disrepute because of the way they let Trump and his cronies lie, pivot and obfuscate on the airwaves day after day, year after year. This new Trump administration is no different from the last, except to be worse. But George Stephanopoulos came up with a solution today and I think this may be the way to go.
🚨 WHOA! ABC just abruptly CUT THE FEED of JD Vance after he schooled George Stephanopolous:
VANCE: "Here's, George, why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you're losing CREDIBILITY, because you're talking for now 5 minutes with the Vice President of the United… pic.twitter.com/eGJwHO8atz
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) October 12, 2025
This is what it ALWAYS is. Mike Johnson is a master of this. You could ask him about selling soybeans to China, a perfectly legitimate question, and he (or Vance) will pivot to Trump bringing peace to the Middle East, or the planet Tralfamadore, or it matters not what. They simply don’t answer the questions posed to them.
I personally think that maybe more of a debate kind of methodology might be used. For instance, if you tell an interviewee ahead of time, “You’re expected to answer the question asked and only the question asked, do you agree?” that would solve a lot of problems.
And then if the interviewer stopped and said, “You didn’t answer the question,” and just kept repeating that and sticking to the question, I think we would get a lot farther towards genuine accountability on the airwaves.
J.D. Vance is a master of DARVO, Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offense. He is a master of grievance. He will not answer a straight question but always play game and insult people.
That’s why it was easy to predict that Trump would pick Vance as his VP. We made that prediction here on PZ, that Vance would be Trump’s vice president, even though Doug Burgum was considered, Elise Stefanik, a few others. But it was easy to make the prediction about Vance and be right because Trump wants a VP playing DARVO and MAGA games.
This is all reality TV to Trump, not reality. Unfortunately, the yous and mes deal with reality every time we go to the supermarket, pay the insurance bills (OMG the insurance bills) worry about rising tuition and falling levels of competence in public schooling, inflation, the whole enchilada.
I think Stephanopoulos was spot on correct in cutting Vance off. I may even write a letter to him at ABC and compliment him and encourage him to keep doing it.
TV broadcasters have to hold these peoples’ feet to the fire. If they don’t, it’s a waste of time. We really are at a turning point both in politics and broadcast journalism and it will be intriguiing to see where things actually end up going. One thing is sure: we cannot keep doing what we’re doing and expecting a different result. Einstein was right about that being insane.
Stephanopoulos allowed Vance to continue evading his question. He should have interrupted Vance and said, “Please respond to MY question and we can continue.” Then if Vance continued the evasion, George should’ve then just cut the feed and said, “We’re sorry if anyone is upset but the Vice President was continuing to ignore my question so I chose to end the interview. When the Vice-President chooses to remember he is a guest on this show and he is expected to answer our questions rather than getting free airtime to spout his partisan lies unchecked, he will be gladly welcomed back. If he wants to set the course of a discussion, then he can stage a press conference where he’s free to ignore any ‘inconvenient’ questions and answer only the questions he provides to his sycophantic reporters.”
Do you really want to know why the media, the rich, the politicians, the courts, and a large part of our country don’t confront the lies and go to battle for truth, decency, democracy, etc.???? We are a nation of craven cowards. FACT. Don’t bother whining…phuck your excuses. Everyone wants something for nothing. FREEDOM IS NOT FREE AND NEVER HAS BEEN. ITS BEEN KEPT ALIVE BY BLOOD SACRIFICE. FACT ASSHOLES. Don’t worry about it. It’s over. Now for the fight to deal with lying nazis and you phuckers who gave them power. Let you in on a little secret…you are not safe.
The only way he could have handled it better would have been to cut him off mid-spew.
I think Stephanopoulos handled it like a pro. He let Vance bullshit to his heart’s content so people could hea the obvious lies and how fluently he delivered them; destroyed Vance’s whole response in about three short sentences; and THEN immediately cut him off just as he was getting started with the next round of bullshit because his time was up.
Now we need somebody to cut off convicted felon, sexist pig, all ’round asshole, Donny TACO.