43 Comments

The interview was a waste of time for everyone involved. Same old questions from the press. Thankfully, President Biden was strong. Why keep badgering Biden when there are two candidates and the other one (a convicted felon) hasn’t yet been asked to step down or stop the lies he continues to spread? Why downplay the poor performance of his opponent?I’m ashamed of the msm for their lack of research and true journalism.

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I’m almost 90 years old, and have been a supporter of Lester Holt. I don’t watch tv anymore so I have to depend on good reporting. Such a shame for the media to have this kind of coverage. Shameful of Lester Holt. 🥲

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I heard he was also terrible interviewing Obama - but this is worse, as it's all coordinated :/

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In addition to their desire to generate clicks, they clearly fear angering the right more than they do the left or even the middle. Hell, hasn't Trump given out reporters' personal info so his minions could harass them?

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Yes, some reporters have even been harassed at their homes by MAGA cultists or stalked. It's disgusting and really kills the trust that people have in the press.

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Lester got his ass handed to him! It was great!

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This.

“They want to be able to churn out a series of bestsellers, compiling information they should have been reporting in newspapers and broadcasts, packaged as buzzworthy scoops to juice book sales.”

Haberman et al.

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I have been saying this for months. The press misses the Trump years. They were FUN for them.

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Nazism wont be fun for anyone

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Lotsa 20-30 something year old reporters - so msm corps can keep salaries low... sad

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and Woodward... yeesh pathetic

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Same reasons we won't see many headlines about how Trump fell asleep at the RNC last night. Could you imagine if Biden did that?

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wasn't it on a split screen on MSNBC - AND THEY DIDN'T COMMENT THAT IS WAS HAPPENING??? disgusting. Check which media owners are T donors - it's pretty simple.

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Honestly think Lawrence is the only survivor over there... :/

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Thank you so much for telling it so clearly and simply. Bless you!

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Nailed it. I too was happy to see President Biden not falling into Holt's "gotcha" traps and maintaining his ground about how the mass media treats him vs Trump. Sensible media critics, even us "armchair" critics are important. I flag the NYT in the comments section about what you wrote regularly, as do others (I wouldn't subsribe nowadays, I have an institutional subsription).

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I was waiting to see if the anchors at MSNBC would push back at Holt, especially Rachel Maddow. No cigar. They know what side their butter’s on. What a disappointment.

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makes me love the independent journos I follow all the more...

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When Kal El is asked "are you a good boy" his response is, I am sure, "Asked and answered." Wish Biden would simple say that, too, for all those stupid debate questions. I do love "I was there."

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Spot On !!! You said exactly what is happening and has been happening. Two tiered system in which one side is held to a higher standard and the other side gets a "pass" or their behavior is passed off as "normal and tolerable"

BUT, just look at what members of the Republican Party like Haley, McConnell, Vance etc have done...they gave up their Moral Compass & Integrity for what? Popularity and Ratings within their party after being trashed by 45 or trashing him.

Media wants clicks and eyeballs or else why would we have so many "sellouts" on so many networks.

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The media could have shown that tfg’s answers — not often in response to the question — were talking points from his rallies. They didn’t.

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O my word that dog is adorable

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Black Twitter: "Lester Holt is a Mess"

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Chaos and fear sure sells clicks. So sick.

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Hoping the American Public has gotten cynical enough to see through it.

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hoping abt 70% think the rally incident was 'staged' as well...

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I can't go with you all the way here, Oliver. It appears to me that Joe was avoiding answering Lester's question, not "politely [pressing] back." You further state, "But do you see the trick there? He converts Biden’s critique of the media’s post-debate coverage, which was all about Biden’s poor performance and not at all about the torrent of lies Trump told during the event, into another attack on Biden." What do you make of these post-debate pieces about Trump's lies? I don't see any trick. It's not "all about Biden's poor performance."

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/27/politics/fact-checking-the-cnn-presidential-debate/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/28/fact-check-presidential-debate/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/fact-check-biden-trump-claims-first-debate-rcna157277

https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-election-debate-trump-biden-577507522762aa10f6ee5be3a0ced2bb

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/fact-checking-the-claims-biden-and-trump-made-during-the-debate

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Now compare that to the torrent of pieces in all of those outlets claiming that Biden must go right now! Five articles versus 5000 'Biden is old, must resign now!' have no impact at all.

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AND THEY ARE STILL AT IT! THIS IS OFFICIALLY JOURNALISTIC MALPRACTICE AT THIS POINT, and it is very coordinated...

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Jul 17·edited Jul 17

Someone should make an 'exhaustive list' of how many enemies Joe has accumulated by standing up for US - the AMERICAN PEOPLE....starting with OUR OWN oligarch class! Putin. Orban. Xii...etc etc - HELP HIM OUT! Then he has to play 'deflect the schoolyard bully' w/donnie CONSTANTLY - and very publicly. Now the press is after him...this is gross - do they hate this country?

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In the interest of preserving space, I did not make an exhaustive list, which would be impractical if not impossible. I would ask you to define torrent.

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Google search 'Biden step down site:nytimes.com' 6970 results in the last month

Google search ' 'Biden step down site:washingtonpost.com' 1910 results in the last month

Google search 'Trump debate lies site:nytimes.com' 473 results in the last month

Google search 'Trump debate lies site washingtonpost.com' 486 results in the last month

Just these two outlets published over 9 articles about Biden stepping down for every 1 article mentioning Trumps lies.

That's close to a torrent in my book.

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and all over podcasts I used to respect :?

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Right. But, none of these are face-to-face interviews with the felon asking the same questions over and over again.

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But, Marjorielin, what good would that do? What would it reveal that we don't already know? That Trump is a felon, a degenerate, a liar and a cheat is a "dog bites man" story.

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We all already know Biden is old and famously prone to gaffes.

What have the relentless interviews of Biden being asked the same questions over and over again revealed?

Gah! Talk about a living example of Murc's Law...

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yes we should be looking at them f'n 'affectionately' - NOT like it's something brand new we have to put under a microscope again and again - it's vicious repug framing - AND WE KEEP TAKING THE BAIT. Cannot believe D's don't have a decent pushback machine by now... is this by design? my g-d

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donnie is covered like a reality show character - joe like a grown up

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What we don't know is if Joe has the capability to be president now and for the next four years. I, a citizen and voter, want to know this. I have doubts. How else can I find out, except through the news media? I support the media in trying to get to the bottom of this crucially important issue, in particular whether there has been a cover-up of Joe's true condition these last several months.

I'll let you have the last word. Warning: If you say "gah!" again, insult me, or call me names, I will block you.

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1) The choice is Biden or Trump. Some uncertainty with Biden, dead certainty with Trump.

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗕.

As you said, 'We all know what Trump is like'

To persist in this 'uncertainty' is like this old joke from the 2008 election...

"𝘛𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘵. ‘𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯?’ 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘴. ‘𝘖𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵?’

𝘛𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥."

2) You're making the grave assumption that the 'news media' is actually 'getting to the bottom' of this, which means you are either entirely unaware of the inherent biases of the corporate news media, incredibly naive, or trolling.

If their interest was in actually determining whether Biden is capable they wouldn't be asking the same questions over and over and over. Asked and Answered.

They're very deliberately creating the very climate of uncertainty you are concerned about 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡. It sells their product.

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and Biden came out of RETIREMENT to save OUR SORRY ASSES!

Give the man some CREDIT!!! TY

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THEY ARE PUTTING NON-STOP PRESSURE ON BIDEN TO QUIT - WHY?BECAUSE HE CAN WIN. PERIOD. Look at it as a strategy vote. When Joe was running in 4th place in the 2016 primary - donnie asked zelensky to dig up dirt on BIDEN (in the infamous perfect phone call) - bc even then, DONNIE ALWAYS POLLS WORSE AGAINST BIDEN. ALWAYS.

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