Posted in: Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: biden, cnn, new york times, opinion, trump

NYT: Bad Debater Should Drop Out of POTUS Race, Not Convicted Felon

President Biden had a bad debate night so The New York Times urged him to step aside - but did the NYT do the same to convicted felon Trump?

The fallout continues from Thursday night's alleged "debate" between President Joe Biden and ex-reality show host, multi-impeached ex-POTUS, and convicted felon Donald Trump – a free-wheeling fiasco hosted by CNN that saw  Jake Tapper and Dana Bash serving as little more than moderator props (we have more about them below). An exhausted President Biden – coming off a day's worth of campaign stops ahead of the debate – was no match for Tapper and Bash, who allowed Trump pretty much all of the time he needed to spew lie after lie without any fact-checking going on in real-time (that was saved for CNN's post-debate coverage – too little, too late). Earlier today, a CNN spokesperson made it clear that it was the network's position that it wasn't Tapper and Bash's job to fact-check – that responsibility was left to President Biden and Trump. Yeah. Let that "logic" sink in for a hot second. For his part, Trump was so pleased with basically being given the keys to the news network that he thanked CNN, Tapper, and Bash during a rally earlier today. Now, The New York Times (NYT) is checking in – clearly not having seen President Biden earlier today in Raleigh, North Carolina, for an event – is urging him to step aside and not run for re-election.

"The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can't continue his race, and create a process to select someone more capable to stand in his place to defeat Mr. Trump in November," the NYT Editorial Board wrote. Of course, we know what you're thinking. If the NYT is urging President Biden to step aside for the good of the country, then that same board must've urged the same thing of Trump when he officially became a convicted felon – right? If you need a second to check, we'll wait – but… spoiler? To save you some time, we'll just tell you that it never did. In fact, go back over Trump's track record and see how many times "The Gray Lady" urged him to drop out. It's an interesting double standard that we can only hope that the "newspaper of record" clarifies sooner rather than later – but if there's one silver lining in all of this? The NYT track record when it comes to President Biden isn't great – eventually backing him in the 2020 general election, but not before backing Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during the Democratic primaries prior. Here's a look at President Biden's remarks from his rally event earlier today:

CNN, Tapper, Bash Debate Debacle Sparks Biden/Trump Dumpster Fire

Knock-knock. Who's there? CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. "CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash" who? And that really is the biggest question coming out of Thursday night's "debate" between President Joe Biden and ex-reality show host, multi-impeached ex-POTUS, and convicted felon Donald Trump, isn't it? Let's get the debate out of the way first, though. From Biden, we got exactly what we would've expected from an old guy who spent most of the day making campaign stops and then had to get on the stage for debate. From Trump, we got the same flowing wave of nonsensical bullshit and outright lies that we've come to expect from the convicted criminal with absolutely no record to stand on. If you were expecting some kind of "The American President" moment, then I don't know what to tell you other than the real world isn't a Marvel movie – or is it? Because rarely does real life give us a choice that is so painfully easy to make that if it was a script being pitched, it would be rejected for being righteously too unrealistic. Freedom or fascist dictatorship. In simpler terms? A delicious slice of pizza or a punch to the face. This year's election isn't an "issues" election – it's a "survival" election. And that's where CNN, Tapper, and Bash come in…

In terms of being a "news network," Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's CNN continues its drive to be mentioned in the same conversations as FOX "News" – maybe that's a good thing ratings-wise, but it kinda tanks any chances you have at "journalistic integrity." In fact, from now on, let's refer to CNN as "Cnn" due to how small it's gotten over the years. As for Tappper and Bash, I would like a chance to ask them this. What would the difference have been if we just had two coats on hangers replacing you? Oh, you need someone to ask the questions? You could've had literally anyone record them ahead of time. It's not like Tapper and Bash were doing any pushback or real follow-up – and fact-checking? Tapper and Bash weren't having any of that – because why would you want the American voters to actually know when someone's telling the truth and someone's lying? That would actually mean that Cnn would… have to do its job?!? 

So, where do things stand at this point? Moving forward, any debate that doesn't have real-time fact-checking isn't worth the screen time – they just become glorified infomercials for the candidate, no different than those "town halls." I'm sure Tapper and Bash's Cnn colleagues will rally around them and try to paint them as being unfairly treated and how they were put into a "tough position." Stop it. They put themselves in that position by sitting on their journalistic responsibility to cut through the lies and get to the truth for their viewers – the voters. Instead, Cnn used the truth as a sales tactic to get viewers to check out their post-debate coverage.

Yes, that's right – Cnn did do fact-checking… after the debate was over. I saw a clip of it on Twitter – not from Cnn but from someone else. Because Cnn couldn't even get around to posting a fact-checking video on its YouTube channel (at least at the time that this was written). But it was never really ever about the voters or even the candidates – it was never about the substance. Cnn wanted "sizzle." What we all got was a dumpster fire.

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