Posted on 09/08/2016 7:40:30 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
The Daily 202: Matt Lauer’s widely-panned performance shows the perils for debate moderators
By James Hohmann September 8 at 8:53 AM
With Breanne Deppisch
THE BIG IDEA: The upcoming debates will be harder to moderate than ever before.
-- The reviews are in, and last night’s biggest loser was Matt Lauer. No one is happy with the host of NBC’s “Today” show, who interviewed each presidential candidate back-to-back for 30 minutes during a “commander-in-chief forum” in primetime.
The most galling moment came when Donald Trump repeated his demonstrably false claim that he was “totally against the war in Iraq,” and Lauer never pressed him on it.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is angry that the NBC host devoted one-third of her time on stage to asking a series of follow-up questions about her email practices as secretary of state and then gave her little time to talk about pressing national security issues.
Trump’s allies, meanwhile, insist that he took it too easy on her. “Six Obvious Follow-Up Questions NBC’s Matt Lauer Failed to Ask Hillary Clinton” is the headline on Breitbart News (which is controlled by Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon).
-- Visualizing the frustration: Our analytics partners at Zignal Labs tracked more than 250,000 mentions of Lauer and at least one of the candidates during the forum. Tweets and articles mentioning Clinton and Lauer were 15 percent more likely to be negative than those mentioning Trump and the NBC host. As the word clouds below illustrate, the Clinton/Lauer dialogue was focused on emails (mostly complaints that Lauer spent too much time talking about them) and the Trump/Lauer chatter focused on Iraq (mostly complaints that Lauer let Trump off the hook when he lied about opposing the war.)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Lauer panned by his media friends for having the gall to ask Hillary a couple of uncomfortable questions. They aren’t even trying to hide it anymore, folks.
I would say her leaky bathroom e-mail server that was hacked by the Russians, Chinese and every other national security service worth a damn is a "pressing national security issue."
Commode computers. What are you going to do?
I didn’t watch it, but it reminds me of when Tim Russert got heat for the drivers licenses question to Hillary in 2008.
I will only remind the POTUS debate moderators that Donald J. Trump has no fear whatsoever of debate moderators like Candy Crowley of CNN!!!! Moderators, be fair or be beware!!! Trump will eat your hearts out and destroy you publicly. On the other hand, if you play fair & square, you have nothing to fear!!!
Any questions on Hillary supporting and VOTING for the war in Iraq while a senator?
Yeah, right. Lauer did a hit job on Trump. The left wanted even more. They are sending the signal to the upcoming liberal debate moderators that they want even more partisan attacks from the moderators. Lauer did not go far enough.
The most galling moment came when Donald Trump repeated his demonstrably false claim that he was “totally against the war in Iraq,” and Lauer never pressed him on it.
That is it? That is all they could find wrong?
Of course other then complain that Lauer asked about Hillary’s emails -
To them it seems what position a private person (and Trump was a private person during the war in Iraq) compared to how a former Senator and Sec. of State handles classified material is more important.
I wonder if any of the Nixon "Plumbers Unit" are still available for leak duty? Maybe she really needs a "Roto- Rooter" task force.
Matt was too hard on Hillary on too easy on Trump. This will be corrected for the first debate.
Wrong Target Leftists. Don’t blame Lauer for Hillary’sincompetence as a poltical candidate.
Despite Lauer doing everything he could for Clinton, she so completely tanked because she is fundamentally incompetent as a politician. That what happens when you try to wrap your anointed one in a glass bubble after a proven track record of incompetence and corrupt spanning some 45 plus years. You got away with it with 0 because no one knew who he was. Can’t do the same thing with Hillary.
Your candidate is an “Epic Fail” Leftists. Nothing and no one but Clinton can fix Clinton for you.
Matt should commit seppuku.
Yeah, and then he jumped all over HilLIARy for saying no one died in Libya!
/s
If Lauer is taking heat from the RATS, it means Trump walked away
as the winner.
Go Trump.
Trump will chew these moderators up and spit them out.
Every last one of them.
Bezos looks like Daddy Warbucks of Little Orphan Annie fame.
“If Lauer is taking heat from the RATS, it means Trump walked away as the winner”
Exactly right.
More like a cross between Lex Luthor, Dr. Evil and Donald Pleasance’s Blofeld.
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