Posted on 09/17/2024 8:26:53 PM PDT by Red Badger
ABC News is apparently pressing the panic button in the wake of fierce criticism of its Sept. 10 presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
A sworn statement by an ABC News whistleblower exposing network bias favoring Harris continues to be in focus regarding “assurances” to the Democrat’s campaign days before the event.
Now David Muir, anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight” and co-moderator of the debate, is defending his performance during the matchup, as ratings for his evening news broadcast have plunged some 12% in the aftermath.
“ABC News has offered assurances to the Harris campaign that if there is significant cross talk between Harris and Trump, the network may choose to turn on the mics so that the public can understand what is happening, the moderator would discourage either candidate from interrupting constantly and the moderator would also work to explain to viewers what is being said, according to the source familiar,” CNN reported.
ABC News insists it did not break debate rules, initially stating: “ABC News followed the debate rules that both campaigns agreed on and which clearly state: No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.”
A network spokesperson later told the Daily Beast: “Absolutely not. Harris was not given any questions before the date.”
The X account that posted the purported affidavit, @DocNetyoutube, reacted to ABC’s denial, stating:
Yesterday, ABC made a statement regarding the whistleblower affidavit. The only thing ABC said was that they did not give the questions or the topics to the Harris campaign. Well, nobody accused ABC of doing that. ABC has been accused of the following:
1.) Giving the Harris campaign sample questions, similar to the actual questions that would be used for the debate. 2.) Agreeing to give Harris a smaller podium and other arrangements to minimize the size differential between Harris and Trump. 3.) Fact Checking would be done for Donald Trump and NOT Kamala Harris 4.) Harris campaign gave questions to ABC that were not to be included in the debate. Including questions regarding her time as DA in SF and her time as California Attorney General.
Out of all these accusations, the fact checking of Trump has been admitted to. The podium and split screen appearance to keep the height differential have already been proven, ABC did NOT deny communications with the Harris campaign without the Trump campaign being present and they will never deny that because they cannot. According to the whistleblower, ABC executives made numerous phone calls with the Harris campaign without including the Trump campaign on the call. Everything the whistleblower has submitted has been proven except for sample questions. There will be another tweet later today announcing action to be taken against ABC and the affiliates of ABC.
As WND reported Sunday, Sept. 15, an ABC News whistleblower released an affidavit punishable by perjury specifying allegations that the network made numerous assurances to the Harris campaign to favor the Democratic nominee for president.
The sworn statement indicated: “It was agreed that Donald Trump would be subjected to fact-checking during the debate, while Kamala Harris would not comparable scrutiny. This was widely known throughout the company that Donald Trump would be fact-checked. In fact, various people were assigned to fact check observations it was perceived candidate Trump would make during the debate.
“In fact, [the] Harris campaign required assurances that Donald Trump would be fact checked. This was done via multiple communications with the Harris campaign whereas the Trump campaign was not included in the negotiations. To my understanding, any rules negotiations and conversations pertaining to the debate should have had both the Trump and Harris campaign involved, the Harris campaign had numerous more calls regarding the debate rules without the Trump campaign aware or on the call.”
The statement also says: “The Harris campaign was provided with sample questions that, while not the exact questions, covered similar topics that would appear during the debate.”
“Furthermore, the Harris campaign imposed serious restrictions on the scope of questioning, including:
No questions regarding the perceived health of President Joe Biden. No inquires regarding her tenure as attorney general in San Francisco. No questions concerning her brother-in-law, Tony West, who faces allegations of embezzling billions of dollars in taxpayer funds and who may be involved in her administration if elected. The whistleblower claims to have “observed a pronounced bias against Donald Trump within ABC News. Employees expressing favorable views towards him experience significant concerns about potential retribution.”
On Tuesday, Muir called the controversy over ABC’s performance “just noise.”
“All of the noise that you hear afterward about you know, ‘Which candidate won the debate, did the moderators win or lose?’” Muir told the audience on ABC’s “Live With Kelly and Mark.”
“That’s just noise. You all know that. The most important thing to remember is you all have the power.”
He said it was the “duty” of him and co-moderator Linsey Davis to discuss issues of importance to Americans, mentioning their inquiries about the border crisis, economy, reproductive rights, Afghanistan and the peaceful transfer of power.
“These are all really important issues, the issues of our time, really, and I always say as a moderator, what the candidates decide to do with that time – you can ask the questions, but they’ll answer with whatever they choose to answer with, and you have to be ready for whatever might come your way, even the most unexpected of moments,” Muir said.
Muir’s appearance on Tuesday’s talk show was perhaps prompted by a 12% drop in ratings for his nightly news broadcast since the debate.
Fox News reports: “Muir’s ‘World News Tonight’ averaged 6.7 million viewers on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the three episodes following the debate, after averaging 7.6 million in 2024 leading up to the debate.
“The 12% drop in viewers for ‘World News Tonight’ is more significant than slight declines ‘CBS Evening News’ and ‘NBC Nightly News’ saw when comparing the three episodes following ABC’s debate to the year-to-date totals, although Muir’s newscast remained the No. 1 broadcast evening newscast.”
ABC News fact-checked Trump at least five times during the Sept 10 debate, but preferred not a single fact-check for Harris.
Davis told the Los Angeles Times last week that her intense fact-checking of Trump was influenced by the June 27 debate on CNN that prompted President Joe Biden to exit the 2024 race.
“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis told the paper.
On Sunday, five days after the debate, Martha Raddatz of ABC News finally admitted Harris was wrong when she said during the debate there is “not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world.”
“Our fact-checkers found that to be false,” Raddatz said.
“There are currently 900 U.S. military personnel in Syria, 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq. All have been under regular threat from drones and missiles for months. We also have action in the Red Sea,” Raddatz added. “Also, every single day, the Navy SEALs, Delta Forces special operators can be part of any sort of deadly raid.”
Neither Muir nor Davis alerted their 70 million debate viewers to the egregious falsehood by Harris.
Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews
It was rigged.
In a face-to-face, Megyn Kelly would take this David Muir’s manparts like a Sioux warrior on a Seventh Cavalry trooper...
Receiving questions and subjects that were off limits for one candidate but were he other having everything fair game should be considered election interference.
Yawn- DemoRats cheat and lie. It’s what they do best.
Western Lensman
@WesternLensman
https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1833869730735603919
This clip may be the most egregious example of ABC debate moderators’ direct actions/inactions to affect viewers’ perceptions of the information presented at the debate.
There are at least seven instances of this within a two-minute span.
This is not “bias.”
It’s much worse.
This is direct, planned interference in the debate outcome. When moderators take on the role of “fact checkers” the inference is that the absence of a “fact check” confers validity to the non-fact-checked information.
When one side is repeatedly “fact checked,” while the other is not, that is a signal to the viewer that one side is not reliable and truthful, while the other side is.
The ABC moderators had their orders, and here you see those orders executed.
In this clip:
1) Trump says Pelosi is responsible for security at the Capitol. True. Muir intervenes on Kamala’s behalf by cutting him off with snarky retort, doesn’t acknowledging the validity of Trump’s statement, and immediately redirects to Kamala to set up her “answer” he knows is coming. This is direct action by Muir to affect the outcome of this exchange.
2) Kamala says she was at the Capitol on J6. She was there in the morning, but left to go to DNC HQ prior to the riot. Critical information is omitted. No fact-check.
3) Kamala says Trump incited a mob to attack the Capitol. False. Trump’s “peacefully and patriotically” comments are ignored. Trump is not charged with inciting violence. No fact check.
4) Kamala says that “some” police officers died on January 6. False. No fact check.
5) Kamala recites the Charlottesville “Fine People” hoax. This has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked. No fact check.
6) Kamala recites the “stand back and stand by” hoax. This is designed to infer that Trump was ordering a “militia” to act on later orders, when he was clearly asking for a cooling of tensions. No fact check.
7) Kamala recites the “bloodbath” hoax. Trump was talking about the automobile industry, not violence. No fact check.
To quote Megyn Kelly on the ABC moderators:
“They did exactly what their bosses wanted.”
“Absolutely not. Harris was not given any questions before the date.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, sure... whatever. It’s just a technicality and how the question is phrased. ABC didn’t have to give them any questions in advance..... Did the Coup-malala provide the questions that they wanted asked of them? Did they suggest the order they wanted the questions asked in? Did they say what subjects were off limits?
Where is this panic button?
Next to hillary’s reset button?
But hey, you people (not FReepers) just keep believing Heels Up won the debate...
Clearly weighted in favor of pantyhose... How can they even try to deny that?
ABC news is nothing short of biased, partisan political propaganda. This comes very close to election interference and in-kind campaign donations. In my opinion it’s illegal.
It's what they HAVE to do in order to trick voters into supporting them. Democrats have become the mouthpiece and beneficiaries of BIG GOVT.
>> In a face-to-face, Megyn Kelly would take this David Muir’s manparts like a Sioux warrior on a Seventh Cavalry trooper...
ROFLMAO. That one’s a keeper!
MeAgain has really changed (for the better) since ~2016.
Muir, on the other hand, is still the same lying homo POS he always was.
Now, that would be Must See TV!!
I’m no lawyer and didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night, so I’m asking. How is an affidavit “punishable by perjury” if it’s not submitted to a court?
And I’m. o English Major either, but how is something punishable by perjury? That doesn’t make sense. It could be punishable FOR perjury.
I believe it was filed with a court in NYC.
an dyes it should be ‘for’.............
> As WND reported Sunday, Sept. 15, an ABC News whistleblower released an affidavit punishable by perjury… <
WND is being overly dramatic there. Every picture of the affidavit that I saw has the whistleblower’s name redacted and the notary’s name redacted.
So we don’t know if the document was even properly notarized in the first place. No notary’s name = no possibility of perjury. It’s not much different than me autonomously scribbling an accusation on a scrap of paper.
The document could be the real deal. If so, the whistleblower needs to quit delaying and put all his cards on the table. Like immediately. Strike while the iron is hot.
Or the document could be a prank put out by some clever high school student. Or it could be weird disinformation put out by who knows who.
Three possibilities, as I see it. And that bothers me. The ABC collusion was very obvious. And here we are, focusing all our energy on a big question mark.
I can only hope that Trump is doing some serious investigation behind the scenes.
Election interference is exactly what this is. Muir and Davis worked to take away the right of American citizens to give their informed consent on how they are to be governed. Their extremely unfair, dishonest actions make a mockery of the idea this even was a presidential debate and not just propaganda and manipulation on behalf of their own party. And the Muir, who thew away all claim to being a journalist, has the nerve to say, “The most important thing to remember is you all have the power.” What a way to spit in the face of the American people.
Everyone, don’t forget to boycott ABC (not just the “news”) and all aspects of Disney and to tell others to do the same.
“ Anonymously scribbling”, not “autonomously scribbling” in my post #17.
Autocorrect strikes again.
Heck, I’m not even sure what autonomously scribbling means.
The bottom of The Beast With Two Backs.
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