Eric Boehlert: Enablers -- NBC rewards Trump for blowing up Biden debate

[babylonsister]

Enablers — NBC rewards Trump for blowing up Biden debate
So-called liberal media
Eric Boehlert


One week after refusing to participate in the officially sanctioned presidential debate, an unprecedented move in modern American politics, NBC News has rewarded Trump by clearing its Thursday primetime schedule to air a last-minute town hall with the previously Covid-19-infected president. As Trump stumbles to the end of his re-election campaign and denounces the press at every turn, the brazen move by NBC highlights the dysfunctional and abusive relationship that has defined the Trump presidency.

He's spent four years maligning the free press as "enemies of the people," while corporate media outlets have granted him unheard of access. No president has been given as much free TV airtime as Trump — it’s not even close. Every briefing and virtually every utterance has been carried live and in full.

Not only did NBC scramble to clear its primetime schedule for the wildly unpopular president, but it made sure the Trump town hall is running at the exact same time, 8 p.m., as the previously-scheduled Biden town hall Thursday night on ABC. That ensures voters trying to assess the candidates have to pick between the two events in real time. The move clearly indicates the NBC forum has nothing to do with the public interest during the election season.

"If Trump insisted on being opposite Biden at 8 pm and NBC gave him that time slot, then that's scandalous," Merrill Brown told me. The former Director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, Brown was MSNBC.com's first editor-in-chief. "If it was their decision, then they have ignored their civic responsibilities. Why not 7 or 10 pm ET? Offering it at 10 would have served the entire country well by making it available at 7 PT. Why not Friday?"

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/nbc-rewards-trump-for-chickening

[katmondoo]

1. They will want to count the viewers and see if there will be more for Trump. There won't be!!

[nebby70]

2. If you keep paying attention to a toddler...

...throwing a tantrum - if you don't offer alternative behavior choices - if you expect the toddler will self-correct their behavior...
You are wasting your time, wasting a teachable moment - and betraying your responsibilities as the adult.
Trump only knows how to disrupt - and no one ever taught him alternative behavior.
I'm so tired of watching this out of control brat.

[JaneQPublic]

3. It's like rewarding a kid for NOT eating his vegetables by giving him dessert.

Heard this analogy on TV by some pundit, but can't remember who.

But it's quite apt: Trump cancels the scheduled debate because a virtual one won't allow him to wheeze and spit all over Joe. So Chuck Todd and the rest of the gang at NBC News reward him with his own Town Hall at a time to undercut Joe's.

No wonder #FireChuckTodd has been trending on Twitter.

[samnsara]

4. the only ABC channel we have locally is sinclair run.. wonder how thats working out..

[Paladin]

5. I smell that little ratfucker Chuckie Todd. (nt)

[PatSeg]

6. Good point

about "Why not 7 or 10 pm ET?" If Trump refused to debate Biden virtually, then giving him equal time earlier or preferably later would be somewhat understandable. I can imagine that they may have offered Trump such an option and he probably refused. They should have just told him, "Too bad, take it or leave it".

[Baclava]

7. Dueling Networks! Who will win the ratings game! Stay tuned! oh, the drama