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MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell tears into his own network for airing Trump press conference without fact-check (www.mediaite.com)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell tore into the major cable news networks, including MSNBC, on Thursday after they aired former President Donald Trump’s press conference live and didn’t “fact-check every lie” he told.

O’Donnell then complained that “to make a bad news coverage situation worse, none of the networks – none of them – carried Kamala Harris’ speech live after the Trump appearance. None of them.”

O’Donnell concluded, “It’s 2016 all over again. The same mistakes are being made. I have never seen an industry slower at learning from its own stupid mistakes than the American news business, and you cannot expect them in the next 89 days to figure out what they haven’t been able to figure out in nine years: how to cover a Trump for president campaign.”

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[–] [email protected] 192 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I watched both the Trump conference and O'Donnell's take live and, yeah, he has a point.

The feed I had, you couldn't hear the reporters questions at all. So all you could hear was Trump and there was no way to know what the actual question was based on his answers.

But nobody follows up on ANY politician and it's been that way for a couple of decades now.

The classic example I always cite is one that happens all the time:

"Well, we're going to get rid of job-killing regulations."

The logical follow up question would be:

"Can you cite an example of a regulation you'd get rid of and in what way it's a job killer?"

But nobody ever asks that question.

[–] [email protected] 98 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think the more egregious part is that all of the networks covered Trump's press conference, then failed to cover Harris' speech. Giving air time to one candidate and not the other is not balanced reporting. It is giving free publicity to one candidate over the other. They went to Trump's house on short notice rather than cover Harris' public speech with plenty of notice.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 months ago

Yup. Same as 2016...

"We're live outside the venue where Trump is about to speak in just 7 short hours..."

Bernie Sanders hosts 30,000 people? Crickets.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But nobody follows up on ANY politician and it's been that way for a couple of decades now.

Denver’s own Kyle Clark has entered the chat. He did a debate (don’t click; it’s boring af) for the CO4 house seat that included Boebert, and he didn’t let her get away with anything. It was great to watch. He’s absolutely loved locally, and probably has a future at the local level.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

His interview with the Republican who paid for his girlfriend's abortion was glorious.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The feed I had, you couldn’t hear the reporters questions at all.

That is true so often, even when it's a non-crazy press conference. It would be so easy to just stick an omnidirectional mic in the press gaggle.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's intentional. If they had a mic for the press, you'd see the press better able to, well, press the politician in question.

The last thing people like Trump want is a journalist pressing him on why he keeps dodging questions and chopping word-salad.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

But I don't just mean for Trump. They almost never do it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

What the person being questioned is supposed to do is repeat the question before answering it. I suspect they're intentionally not doing that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Sure, but it's not necessary. An omni mic in the press gaggle would be fine. It wouldn't even require much work in terms of an audio mix and they definitely have someone doing a live mix anyway. We're talking fading in and out.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Right? That’s how we get grilled in interviews. We can’t get away with general statements without answering the question, but somehow no one asks a presidential candidate the same follow-up questions.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The segment: https://youtu.be/ZD-oTJ49nls?si=Nw811XFtixpvDmr3

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Damn, that got me a little hard and I'm not even american

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Lawrence is an OG Edward R. Murow type mfer. He simply does not give a fuck and he nerds out over arcane political history on his show. It's like having a civics class with the cool professor that you actually don't want to miss.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

on his show

He does this a lot? I've never seen him and I thought this was his resignation. I half expected Budd Dwyer, honestly.

Should I start watching news television again? News people speak so slowly so I usually read the news instead of watching it.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it's not a mistake.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 3 months ago (1 children)

MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal is owned by Comcast. Any publicly traded corporation – let alone one making over $100 billion in annual revenue – will trample over anyone and anything – democracy itself included – in service of its bottom line. They exist solely to grow without bound as fast as possible like a cancer.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (16 children)

Don't let the company be faceless - it lets them escape accountability. The executive team at Comcast are willing to destroy democracy for a slightly higher bonus.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Corporate media are doing everything they can to usher in a dictatorship that will see the end of freedom of the press. And if Trump wins in November, they will deserve it. The problem, of course, is they're going to drag all of us along with them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Pretty sure most of them gave up on freedom of the press a long time ago... Now they're just pr for the oligarchy

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not American but I just hope they don't fire him as retaliation. Maybe he can't be fired for some reason, or maybe he just isn't afraid to speak the truth, idk. Just, the world needs more people like that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

From my understanding, there's nothing protecting him from being fired for this

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago

Mistakes? I mean, if it’s deliberately done to drive views or a deeper, more nefarious agenda by right-wing billionaire media empire owners…is that a mistake?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago

Trump gets rating. MSNBC is a corporation. The primary objective of corporations is to raise shareholder value. They have no requirements to tell the truth or do what's best for Americans. They will do whatever helps their shareholders and if that is ushering in a second trump presidency, they will do it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Trump brings in viewers because he constantly says dumb shit. He's a cash cow for networks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Which is mind boggling to me because I would literally pay to never have to hear a word from him ever again.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

His rant legitimizes everything I've said since 2016.

Broadcast Media is complicit in the right, and in Trump.

During the election they gave him tens of millions of dollars of free coverage/advertising that no other candidate got.

They have always treated him with soft hands, never pushing or fact checking like they would anyone else.

Miss democratic events to attend Trumps bullshit, then claim democrats don't hold enough events.. That they actively don't cover and report on.

It has a vested financial interest in the right wing, and in Trumps presidency, because they constantly create controversy which drives viewership.

How many times did you hear about what Biden had done outside of Republican false hysteria? About his policies? About the good his policies could do, or did do, for the American people? About the support his policies, and he himself had? I bet you dont even need a full hand to count the times.

How many times has Trump been in the news? Republicans? How many times do they just let them come on, spout their raw, bullshit propaganda and lies completely unchallenged? Treating them like their disgusting, immoral bullshit is just as valid and just as important as any actual crisis facing the actual, everyday American public? Almost every time they are on Camera.

Broadcast media in America has betrayed the people, betrayed the country, and betrayed their duty to their journalistic ethics. And for what? Ratings. Ratings. Ratings and corporate access/power. The journalists on the street, and in the studios, Sold their integrity for the benefit of the powers above them rather than investigating it and revealing it.