No, I didn’t even remotely have the one molecule of heart to watch Kristen Welker’s debut on Meet the Press, interviewing Trump. I did see some clips, and read commentary from people whose opinion I respect. So, any thoughts I have on the broadcast can only been seen through that lens. Some of my comments are limited, therefore, and might not be of much value. Though some -- indeed, most (but I'm biased...) may still be spot-on.
First things first. In fairness to Kristen Welker, for all the deep (and I think justified) criticism she’s received for what she let Trump get away with, some praise -- because she did at least one thing impressively well and (more to the point) important, which Supreme Court attorney Neil Katyal, former Acting Solicitor General of the U.S. was raving about. Through flattery, Welker got Trump to admit that he acted on his own instincts, not his lawyers’ advice, to try to overturn the election. This is no small thing. It's a damning acknowledgement and deeply problematic for his defense. And Ms. Welker deserves praise for this important admission. As for the rest – honestly, much of the initial blame has to go on NBC which approved this. While going for ratings is clearly their motivation, one would have hoped that NBC had learned from Les Moonves’ ill-advised comment in 2016 that CBS’s coverage of Trump might be bad for the country, but good for the network. At the very least, you’d have thought that NBC would learn from CNN’s “town hall” debacle with Trump that helped get its CEO Chris Licht fired. Even more to the point, you’d have thought that NBC would have been paying attention for the past seven years and grasped who Trump was. And to give him this forum was borderline journalistic malpractice. Yes, it’s understandable that you interview the leading candidate for the GOP nomination to be president. But there are other forums to do so, and serious guiderails to put in place, knowing that he will relentlessly lie and try to stir up his fascist base. And knowing that he is under four indictments, has 91 charges against him and was found liable twice for (as the judge wrote) the equivalence of rape. And fomented an Insurrection to try to overthrow the United States government. Which leads to Ms. Welker. It was a bad start when, prior to the broadcast, she promoted the show by almost school-girl breathlessly saying that Trump – the man, just as another reminder, under four indictments, found liable for rape, who tried to overthrow democracy – was "fired up about a lot of these issues” (given the violence he promoted on January 6 and continues to push, “fired up” might not have been the best choice of words) and “obviously trying to draw sharp contrast with President Biden,” as if this was a “both sides” situation (Note to Ms. Welker – democracy and fascism is the sharpest contrast worth referencing), as well as calling Trump “defiant” and “president,” and “leaning into his deal-making status,” ignoring that his “deal-making” status is largely self-proclaimed and that he’s had six bankruptcies. And is facing his company being shut-down by the state of New York…which previously shut-down his charity foundation for “a shocking pattern of illegality.” As conservative columnist Tom Nichols wrote, “Good Lord. Trump isn't 'trying to draw contrasts,' he tried to subvert the Constitution to stop Biden from taking office." Her cheery enthusiastic words about the upcoming broadcast were reprehensible and gave shudders for what seemed likely to follow. And what followed lived down to expectations. At one point, for just one example – of many lie after lie -- Trump said untruthfully that the Capitol Police testified against Nancy Pelosi, and then added (untruthfully) that they burned all the evidence. And these blatantly obvious lies went unchallenged by Welker. In clips alone, media critic Dan Froomkin wrote that “Trump utters about 30 different lies, and there's zero pushback from Kristen Welker.” Indeed, even though NBC seemingly believed they responsibly covered themselves by pre-taping the interview, pre-taping only matters if you don’t let yourselves be used to let Trump repeat his lies and propaganda and even tamper with the jury pool for his upcoming trials. Why, for instance, the broadcast let Trump call Special Prosecutor Jack Smith “deranged” and a “lunatic” is inexplicable. In the end, this is how bad the broadcast was for Kristen Welker and NBC. During the Meet the Press broadcast, Welker told viewers that NBC would have a website where they could go and see Trump fact-checked there. This alone is just utterly egregious. The starting point for fact-checking an interview subject is… the interviewer. Especially when you know the person being interviewed is a serial liar and you’re giving him a major platform – and you know so clearly he will lie that you’ve prepared a fact-check website for him!! Instead, you come prepared – most-especially prepared for his known, repeated lies that he’s likely to repeat. Putting the burden on viewers to, after-the-fact, go online and remember the web address and check out the lies is an empty substitute for doing your job. To not push back on known lies when people are watching is just admitting you’re going to give a fascist propagandist a microphone to lie. In fact, since this was pre-taped…NBC and Meet the Press knew what all Trump’s lies were before they aired the interview!!! They could have prepared a scroll to run underneath as the interview aired. They could have cut away from the tape to have Welker had comment on the lies before returning back. Instead, they chose to let the lies go out into the world…generally unchallenged. And instead, provided a link to a website. Democracy is so appreciative…
2 Comments
John
9/18/2023 10:38:22 am
In real estate the 3 words are, “Location, Location, Location.”
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Robert Elisberg
9/18/2023 02:41:34 pm
I got my degree in Radio, TV, Film, as well -- and have worked in the media almost every since. The hope for ratings are definitely at the heart of this -- but that was the case at CNN, too, and it didn't work out well for Chris Licht.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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