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NY Times Touts ABC's 'Calm,' 'Authoritative' Tone, 'Factual Guardrails' Against Trump
mrc NewsBusters ^ | September 12, 2024 | Clay Waters

Posted on 09/12/2024 11:14:58 PM PDT by Morgana

New York Times media reporter Michael Grynbaum made Wednesday’s paper with the smugly confident post-presidential debate “Media Memo,” “ABC’s Matter-of-Fact Moderators Built Factual Guardrails Around Trump.”

Fifteen minutes into Tuesday’s debate, former President Donald J. Trump was delivering a circuitous answer about his stance on abortion rights when he made a statement with no basis in reality: that a governor had condoned executing babies after birth.

Linsey Davis, one of the evening’s moderators from ABC News, did not let that one slide. “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Ms. Davis said, matter-of-factly.

That’s not what Trump was arguing, but neither ABC nor NYT wanted to know.

Trump was clearly referring to a 2019 interview by then-Democratic governor Ralph Northam in which the host asked him to explain a local politician comments when she said her bill would permit an abortion even if a woman was ready to give birth. Northam responded with a ramble that suggested he was indeed comfortable with an infant being born and then murdered, or “executed,” as Trump put it.

Northam: The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.

Grynbaum continued to fluff for ABC News.

In the context of 105 minutes of fierce debate in Philadelphia, these exchanges were fleeting. But they signaled a shift -- for an evening, at least -- in the balance of power between Mr. Trump and the many journalists who have struggled, or stopped trying, to construct factual guardrails around the bombardment of baseless claims that he regularly unleashes on live TV.

Using calm and authoritative tones, Mr. Muir and Ms. Davis offered a model for real-time fact-checking that has been absent from many recent presidential debates. Mr. Trump’s apocalyptic portrait of an America besieged by migrant crime was met by Mr. Muir’s polite reply: “As you know, the F.B.I. says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”

“They didn’t include the cities with the worst crime! It was a fraud!” Mr. Trump retorted.

“President Trump, thank you,” said Mr. Muir, before moving on.

Trump was noting that some major cities are not reporting crime data to the FBI, which was true.

Grybaum indirectly noted the moderators’ pro-Harris slant, without raising the issue of bias.

There were almost no moments of tension between the moderators and the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the ABC anchors skipped several opportunities to follow up with her on tough topics like the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Ms. Harris’s shifting positions on fracking and the southern border.

But Mr. Trump delivered, by one count, more than two dozen falsehoods over the course of the evening, while Ms. Harris’s factually questionable remarks were more misleading than flagrantly untrue.

That discrepancy did not stop Mr. Trump’s allies -- even before the debate was finished -- from accusing ABC of bias.

Grynbaum squeezed on more soft soap:

[Muir] and Ms. Davis, who hosts the Sunday edition of “World News Tonight,” have taken pains to present themselves as nonpartisan figures. Mr. Trump even chose Mr. Muir to conduct his first major TV interview after taking office in 2017.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abc; abortion; alwaysbullcrapnews; americangrundgesetz; baselessclaims; davidmuir; factualguardrails; grundgesetz; kammyssororitysister; linseydavis; linseysrecurringutis; michaelgrynbaum; muirsrecurringutis; prolife; sororitysister; thebaselesstimes; trump

1 posted on 09/12/2024 11:14:59 PM PDT by Morgana
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To: All

Since there will be no more debates, there need be no further interest in them.

Focus must properly return to Independent issues like the Swamp and populism.


2 posted on 09/12/2024 11:22:02 PM PDT by Owen
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To: Owen

No one wants to hear that witch laugh


3 posted on 09/12/2024 11:25:08 PM PDT by Morgana ( “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.” — Alice Paul )
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To: Morgana

Trump doesn’t need to do it, but the best counter for all of this is to fact check ABC and the rest of the propaganda media and run weekly ads listing their lies. I would include pointing out disparities / inconsistencies between what local affiliates and national outlets report about specific stories. Pit them against one another.


4 posted on 09/12/2024 11:43:37 PM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: Morgana

Trump and the GOP still have time to zurn it around!


5 posted on 09/12/2024 11:48:59 PM PDT by dpetty121263 (Zr)
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To: neverevergiveup

Authoritative? Authoritative liars maybe. The media is so out of touch with what’s going on in this country. Trump had to tell the media, the so-called press, what’s going on and they called him a liar for it. Donald Trump is the only one telling the truth.


6 posted on 09/13/2024 12:22:52 AM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: Morgana

was this next to their story that Israel bombed a hospital in gaza- with a picture that was years old??


7 posted on 09/13/2024 5:14:15 AM PDT by God luvs America (6young 3.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: Morgana

“Guardrails” is a very popular word with the same people who like “our democracy”. It’s used a lot in Europe, but it really began with the American-authored West German constitution in 1947-48.

That “Grundgesetz”, or “basic law”, is a lot like ours (no surprise), with one big difference - the people can’t change it. The German “basic law” sets up a special court “for the protection of the constitution” which can, by issuing an order, ban people, parties, writing, speaking, singing, drawing, memes, on-line posts which “threaten democracy”.

The other EU states have more or less copied this model, and you can bet anything you have that when media here talk about “fortifying an election” or “transition integrity” or “guardrails”, this is EXACTLY what they mean.

“Our Democracy” means that part of the regime that the people are not allowed to change.


8 posted on 09/13/2024 5:25:09 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
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To: Morgana

NYT, the pot calling the kettle black.


9 posted on 09/13/2024 5:28:23 AM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: Morgana; All

And, supplementing post 8, it’s why the regime is so fond of using the “N word” (no, not THAT N word) to describe anyone or anything that threatens their control mechanisms or their system.

It’s because most Americans, and most people here, ACCEPT the premise that if freedom of speech, the press, assembly, petition, and popular elections produce you-know-what, then those civil liberties don’t really count and the Constitution that guarantees them has just been misinterpreted.

You hear a lot now “freedom of speech doesn’t guarantee freedom from consequences”. But apparently, beating up speakers who give you the sads IS free from consequences.

This is the era of the American Grundgesetz.


10 posted on 09/13/2024 5:43:28 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
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To: Morgana

THE NYT needs to register as an active part of the DNC.


11 posted on 09/13/2024 7:25:31 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: Morgana

NY Times trying to cover up the fact that Trump proved his facts and how the moderators couldn’t stop him.


12 posted on 09/13/2024 7:40:39 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Owen

NO its past time we fight back against this media crap.
the media needs to understand they are not incharge of anything.


13 posted on 09/13/2024 2:03:47 PM PDT by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: markman46

They are Swamp. They will receive their just rewards after the election win. Because they are Swamp they will be drained.

Beginning with the end of daily press briefings. Think of all that Swamp filth in the room that will have to find honest work.


14 posted on 09/13/2024 2:26:56 PM PDT by Owen
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To: dpetty121263

Turn what around? He whipped them all.


15 posted on 09/13/2024 2:30:22 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Clay Bevis and Cuck Butthead are panty wadded, pearl clutching cowards. Rush deserves better.)
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To: Morgana

“Guardrails” = Fascist brainwashing and censorship.


16 posted on 09/13/2024 2:31:55 PM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: Fledermaus

I am talking about the middle of the road types, he has you and I solidly but bad as I have to say it they are the ones who win elections.


17 posted on 09/13/2024 5:57:19 PM PDT by dpetty121263
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