Skip to main content

Trump Caused Chaos at the Debate. Newspapers Blamed Both Sides.


For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

It’s not particularly difficult to describe what happened at Tuesday night’s debate. Donald Trump spent 90 minutes lying, interrupting, and attacking Joe Biden’s family. He refused to denounce white supremacists and violent militia groups and urged the neo-fascist Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Trump has behaved this way throughout his presidency, but his actions on the debate stage in Cleveland were still shocking. We know this is what happened because we saw it with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears.

Biden, on the other hand, did not behave this way. He attempted to follow the debate rules, to answer the moderator’s questions, and to talk about policy and Trump’s abysmal record. Trump shouted over Biden nearly every time the former vice president spoke. After countless interruptions, Biden finally told Trump to “shut up”—one can hardly blame him.

There is simply no reasonable way to draw an equivalence between the two men’s actions. Yet somehow, many of the nation’s headline writers did just that—implying that the debate was simply a partisan food fight in which both sides were to blame for hurling insults. Here’s the front page of today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer (via the Newseum):

Three headlines, with no indication at all that it was Trump who was responsible for the “insults,” the “interruptions,” and the dashed “hopes for a civil policy discussion.” It’s not that the Plain Dealer’s journalists were unaware of what actually happened at the debate or somehow saw it differently. The story on the right side of the page notes that Trump “largely revert[ed] to his normal routine—interrupting, name calling and outright ignoring the topics at hand and instead constantly turning the discussion to Biden’s son, Hunter. ” The online version of the story adds:

In fact, the debate got so bad, [moderator Chris] Wallace was forced to give Trump a stern talking-to. “I think the country would be better served if we let both people speak without interrupting,” Wallace said to Trump, after nearly an hour of seemingly unending talking over one another. “Him too?” Trump asked of Biden. “Well, frankly, you’ve been doing more of the interrupting,” Wallace said. Biden did try to stay on topic for the most part, only engaging in the back-and-forth when drawn into it by Trump, likely in an attempt to appear presidential and convince voters who dislike Trump’s abrasive style to switch sides.

It’s not hard to convey these basic facts in a headline—to communicate that it was Trump who was, yet again, responsible for creating chaos. The New York Times, for example, did an adequate job: “TRUMP’S HECKLES SEND FIRST DEBATE INTO UTTER CHAOS.” But the Plain Dealer chose not to do that. It wasn’t alone. Here’s a sampling of similarly egregious, both-sides-style headlines from across the country:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Allies of Rep. Adam Kinzinger launch super PAC to support Republicans who have bucked Trump

Founders of the group, which include Kinzinger advisers, are also launching a sister nonprofit to “build a grass roots army,” according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. Unlike traditional PACs, both organizations can accept unlimited contributions. Nonprofit groups are not required to disclose the identity of their contributors. AD Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) posted a video on Jan. 7, 2020, the day after pro-Trump riots at the Capitol, saying, “It is time to invoke the 25th Amendment.” (@RepKinzinger/Twitter) The effort will be up against significant head winds, as Trump still holds vast sway over the Republican Party — even after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory. AD The new groups, which aim to mobilize the kinds of anti-Trump donors who backed the now-embattled Lincoln Project, are being launched as the former president is planning to expand his political operation with his own super PAC. Kinzin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Doctor who spoke out over Trump’s Covid drive-by stunt says ‘I regret nothing’

The emergency room doctor who was reportedly removed from his hospital’s rota schedule for publicly calling out Donald Trump said he stands by his words and does not regret criticising the president for his “insanity” to wave at supporters while getting treatment for Covid-19. Dr James Phillips, who is chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University, was removed from the schedule at Walter Reed as attending physician after he slammed Mr Trump for waving at his supporters from a car while he was infected with coronavirus and risking the lives of accompanying Secret Service agents in the car. “Today, I worked my final shift at Walter Reed ER,” said Dr Phillips wrote on Twitter late on Sunday, he served his last day as attending physician. “I will miss the patients and my military and civilian coworkers - they have been overwhelmingly supportive… I stand by my words, and I regret nothing.” In October, two days after being admitted to the hospital with Covid-19, Mr Trump was dri...
Post a Comment
Read more

GOP Congressman Skips COVID-19 Relief Vote To Speak At White Nationalist Rally

Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, spoke Friday night at a far-right extremist rally organized by white nationalist figurehead Nick Fuentes while his colleagues in the House passed a massive coronavirus relief package. Gosar, who has served in Congress for more than a decade, submitted a request to vote by proxy due to the threat of the pandemic. Yet instead of staying home, he traveled to Orlando, Florida, where he served as a surprise headliner at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) alongside Steve King, the white nationalist former congressman from Iowa. The coronavirus aid passed the House with no Republican support and is now under consideration in the Senate. Fuentes, the main AFPAC organizer, attended both the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the U.S. Capitol riot of this year, although he claims he did not storm the building. His extremist event was held not far from the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conferenc...
Post a Comment
Read more