Opinion: What I think happened at the debate that was maybe a nightmare -- Alexandra Petri

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Opinion What I think happened at the debate that was maybe a nightmare
We do have a fact-checker! His name is Joe Biden, but he seems to have something else going on tonight.

By Alexandra Petri
Columnist
June 28, 2024 at 6:30 a.m. EDT

“How was Thursday’s presidential debate on CNN,” you ask? I would compare it unfavorably with childbirth. Childbirth was unpleasant, but at least at the end of it I got a child. By contrast, here is how the debate went.

Jake Tapper: Hello. We have a system in place for turning off your microphones, but we won’t use it. We do not have a system in place for fact-checking your claims in real time because the Trump campaign said that trying to tether his remarks to a shared reality would put him at an unfair disadvantage. So, you know, just try to keep it as accurate as you can? That’s just a suggestion, though! Most important thing, have fun out there!

Donald Trump: Great! So I can just talk? I can just say whatever I want?

Dana Bash: Correct! You can just say whatever!

Trump: And no one will stop me? Even if I say something really vile and dehumanizing about how because of immigrants we are living in a “rats’ nest” or say several times that Democrats want abortion to happen after birth?

Tapper: We do have a guy who will fact-check you in real time, if he remembers. That man’s name is President Joe Biden. But he has his own stuff going on tonight, so maybe he won’t.

{snip}

Bash: Do you feel the cold hand of terror grip your heart, America, as these two men over 75 argue about their golf handicaps? Do you feel a sensation like something dying, and you are terrified to see what that thing was that died, because you fear it might be hope? Are you waking up in a cold sweat and wondering: How did we get here? How did we decide that live television performance was the best way to determine who should run the country? And how was this that performance?

{snip}

Opinion by Alexandra Petri
Alexandra Petri is a Washington Post columnist offering a lighter take on the news and opinions of the day. She is the author of "AP's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up). Twitter https://twitter.com/petridishes

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. Love her column

She uses satire to tell a lot of truth.

[Hekate]

2. Excellent satire. CNN did a crap job.

[slightlv]

4. Hekate, I can't remember when I last saw a really decent

debate. They're all just "entertainment" now... it used to be, when I was growing up, candidates actually put out their vision for America. What policies they would try to implement, their vision of what the country, and the world, could be and how they'd attempt to make it so. With decently detailed implementation suggestions.

That's all gone. T* has ruined this country in so many ways, and this is just one more. As long as the rich control the media, we the people will never be able to make an informed decision without becoming journalists and investigators, ourselves. And then, when we DO dive deep to get details, we're called fanatics and other unflattering names. Oh well, sticks and stones...

[Hekate]

5. It's been a looong time

[lees1975]

7. You're being way too kind.

It was much worse than that. It would take some pretty miserably bad journalism to get worse than tha debate and the way in which it was moderated. No journalist worth his education and career could sit there, listen to that pathological lying, and keep silent. Tapper and Bash are incompetent fools.

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

https://archive.ph/riiSa

[Hekate]

6. Thanks!