What The Media Blackout of Trump's Election Speech Reveals

[0:02] hey nexters uh got a lot of questions today about the media and the president's speech on uh the [0:08] vulnerability of u.s election systems uh and i thought i'd come on and try to walk you through [0:14] it it's a topic i know well uh because i know it from pretty much not all sides but most sides [0:20] and uh i think some of the confusion and and and some of the anger uh is caused by a failure to [0:27] realize that there's some special case special aspects of this uh of these questions first of [0:33] all this is not the olden days uh if abc or nbc doesn't cover the president's speech it's not like [0:39] people can't see it now when it's not roadblocked which is the term of art for everybody taking it so [0:46] if you're watching any news channel or if you're watching any broadcast channel from the big the big [0:52] abc cbs nbc if it's roadblocked then people have to watch it so you're going to get a higher audience [0:57] but those days are over uh the white house streams this out it's it's streamed everywhere it's [1:03] streamed on newsmax it's streamed on salem so people want to see it can see it and that's different than [1:09] in the olden days so people say well in the olden days if the president asked for time from the [1:14] networks they got it that's true but this is not the olden days it's not if they don't have the [1:19] audience they used to and they don't have the monopoly they used to that's number one number two uh this uh [1:26] this uh president uh doesn't hasn't asked for a lot of time in prime time but he does often not say [1:34] what they say in advance he's going to say and so there's some trepidation now there's also hostility [1:40] to him because he's a republican and he's donald trump but any president if uh their beloved barack [1:46] obama went to them and said uh we want time uh they'd ask questions what's it for and and as it's been [1:53] reported uh both president obama and president biden gave prime time addresses that were not [1:58] covered by all the broadcast networks because they thought they were too political number three that's [2:03] distinctive in this case is donald trump's history and the network's history with the issue of um [2:11] claims about election fraud or elections being stolen the president has not told the truth all the time [2:18] on that issue um and uh so that makes it fraught it's also fraught uh because uh for four years and [2:26] longer really uh the democratic aligned media has uh russia russia russia uh claimed an election was [2:33] stolen that uh the independent council found was not stolen and so all that makes it a very fraught [2:38] issue and and because the networks the traditional networks haven't come clean about their failures [2:44] their systematic horrible failures about president trump and the russia collusion investigation [2:51] it's unfair to president trump but that makes them even more sensitive about this issue they sort of [2:54] don't even want to look at it now lastly there's a lot of throat clearing before i get to this case [3:00] you always have to think about that in in any situation including one like this the difference [3:05] between what is and what ought to be okay what what ought to be what ought to be is uh whoever the [3:10] president is regardless of party regardless of the ideological leanings of a of a network that [3:15] normally covers the president and when i say normally covers the president if they ever take a trump [3:20] event live ever if they ever do right they're in the business of covering the president live if they [3:24] do it once a year whenever a president asks for it uh the network should grant it to them that's i [3:30] think the way the country should work the white house should be judicious about when they ask and the uh [3:36] the network should uh trust uh the president regardless of ideology and party to say well if [3:42] the white house says the president's given a prime time address on cherries they should they should take [3:47] it that's i think the way it ought to be what's the way it is the way it is is uh we're in a different [3:53] period now the networks don't feel the same broadcast networks cbs nbc c uh abc fox broadcast network [4:02] they don't feel the same public service obligation to cover everything the way they used to because [4:08] there are other ways for for it to be seen they also don't feel about this president as i said uh [4:13] that they have total trust in him to say the least and um they don't make the money they used to they're [4:18] they're declining back in the olden days they didn't like giving up uh prime time shows to the president [4:23] for a speech of any duration but they did it because uh they had a monopoly and they were making so much [4:28] money uh it wasn't it wasn't a hit that was going to affect their bottom line that's the way it ought [4:34] to be but that's not the way it is and part of why that's not the way it is for this president that [4:39] he doesn't automatically get covered live is because they didn't do this the way they should have [4:45] in particularly in a situation where there was going to be skepticism on the topic of donald trump [4:50] talking live about uh allegations of election fraud or election theft if the white house wanted time [4:57] rather than saying to everybody tune in and see which is what they said i think they should have [5:01] done a background briefing embargoed trust the trust the network executives say come on into the white [5:08] house and and a serious person with documents will walk you through what the president's going to talk [5:13] about i think that's that that would have helped everybody in this case maybe they would have been [5:18] worried about leaks but maybe sign make them sign ndas i don't know so that's the live coverage uh i'm not [5:26] surprised that the white house is upset they didn't get the live coverage that they wanted [5:30] and i'm not surprised the networks didn't take it live and i wouldn't in this case and you know my my [5:36] my credibility on talking about liberal media bias i wouldn't in this case attribute the failure to [5:41] cover it to liberal media bias uh look look no further than fox news channel which is not liberally [5:46] media liberal media they didn't cover the whole speech um so that's uh that's uh the first thing about [5:54] the live coverage now regarding the coverage after the fact um it's difficult at a nine o'clock [6:00] speech where the documents aren't readily available that are backing up what the president said and [6:05] it's difficult to do reporting overnight to call the chinese embassy to call intelligence sources to [6:11] call uh can election officials in michigan it's difficult to do that reporting overnight and [6:19] unfortunately for the president uh if there's not a lot of reporting in the morning first thing in [6:23] the morning on television uh and in in what used to be called newspapers on the websites [6:30] the momentum kind of fades and of course it's a friday in the summer and so the concept of getting [6:34] momentum uh into the summer weekend is is a challenge i do believe that um that there'll be [6:40] more on this i do believe news organizations will look into it i'm quite confident that some of what the [6:45] president said is not true and does not and or knew neither true nor knew and therefore it does not [6:51] warrant and will not get much investigation but some of the things he said were new and certainly [6:57] if true are extraordinarily important stories and i know some news organizations will follow up on that [7:02] fox news channel the fox and friends the curvy couch they did not mention this story for at least [7:09] the first hour and a half of their show this morning um that's extraordinary okay just think take [7:14] that as a snapshot of how this was covered the president united states who normally gets a lot of good [7:20] coverage on fox news channel gave a speech that he and his white house said was of extreme importance [7:25] hyperbolically some of the president's associates said this is like one of the most important speeches [7:30] of presidents ever given okay he gives a speech they cover most of it live on their channel and then [7:37] their morning program their signature morning program does not mention it okay now is that because [7:43] fox is biased against the president no is it because fox is skittish about these issues because of what [7:49] what happened after the election in 2020 i'm sure that's part of it but it's also easy to justify [7:56] saying the president said some combinations of things that were old demonstrably are known to be false [8:04] or not currently verified he said very few things arguably maybe none where you could go on and say [8:12] breaking news the president made this new claim that's definitively illustrated by documentation and so i'm not [8:19] surprised it hadn't didn't get much coverage i'll be curious to see the way when the next round comes [8:24] i'll be curious to see if the white house helps the media you know uh the news news organizations don't [8:29] have subpoena power they don't have the capacity uh to go out and and and get all these documents or [8:35] or make people in the intelligence community talk to them so again i'm saying from the point of view of [8:40] the public interest the media's interest and the white house's interest for reporters who are credible for [8:45] reporters who want to advance this story or confirm this story in good faith the allegations the that [8:52] the president made the white house should help them the hostility that the white house has towards the [8:57] press is understandable it's well earned uh because the way the president's been treated by the dominant [9:04] media but if you're if you want to get this story out through those organs you gotta you gotta help them [9:11] you gotta you gotta demonstrate some good faith with them and demand that they show good faith back [9:16] if they've got the goods if what the president said was lock cinch true it shouldn't be any any [9:22] challenge to present the information to reporters even from legacy organizations and walk them through [9:27] it and have them do stories and like i said if they'd done that in advance i think they would have [9:31] gotten more live coverage there's there's so much about this that makes people on the right people in [9:38] magus say well what about what you know the way joe biden was covered or brock obama these are all [9:43] important points they're all part of the context but if donald trump were george washington if he [9:49] were the first president united states there was no precedent for how previous democratic presidents [9:54] were covered and last night he went to the networks and said i want time to talk about election [10:01] security i don't think it would have been any different and i don't think it's helpful to always say [10:07] well look at the coverage biden got in this case in this case the white house could have done a [10:12] better job the president could have done a better job and if they want if they still care about [10:18] coverage which they apparently do on the broadcast networks and on cable they need to they need to [10:24] work a little bit differently in advance and after the fact to get the kind of coverage they want [10:31] it's it's it's possible that they could do everything perfectly and they still wouldn't get it [10:34] but in this case they didn't do everything perfectly bottom line though is it doesn't matter nearly as [10:40] much as it did and and some would argue doesn't matter at all if if this is an important story and [10:45] people who normally would watch abc or cbs or nbc if if uh if they didn't see it live last night and [10:52] they watch whatever entertainment programs were on they're still going to hear about it because the [10:56] nature of the way media works today i hope that cleared up some of it i'm trying to bring the [11:00] temperature down on this and and be a little bit more about uh light than heat because i know people [11:06] are are super emotional whenever anything about the media and donald trump comes up thank you for [11:11] watching thank you for being nexters uh you can always get all my content on youtube slash next up [11:16] halperin uh or where you get your finer podcasts i hope everybody has a great summer weekend and we'll [11:21] see you next week with our regular scheduled episodes tuesdays and thursdays and wherever special [11:27] episodes might pop up see you soon everybody