One of the more astute Tuesday morning reflections on the presidential debate comes from Joe Concha, media reporter for The Hill.
Concha isn't a guest contributor at the prestigious, politically centered Washington newspaper, he's a staid staffer, considered among the savviest analysts of media performance working today. What he concludes in his commentary is aptly expressed in the headline, "NBC's Lester Holt emerges from debate bruised and partisan."
Concha says, in essence, it's one thing to say the function of the debate moderator isn't to act as a truth squad -- but when you say that, you'd better apply it to both candidates equally. Holt did not, Concha concludes.
He pursued Donald Trump and let Hillary Clinton off the hook.
Read the whole of Concha's piece, it's well worth it. But allow us to give you some of the highlights here:
"Debate moderator Lester Holt came into Monday night as a news anchor with a sterling reputation for being a non-partisan newsman.
"He enters Tuesday with at least 40 percent of the country questioning that distinction.
"... When Holt wasn't being invisible, he was targeting Trump's weaknesses while avoiding Clinton's.
"That's not to say the Republican nominee shouldn't have been challenged or fact-checked. But as we've seen throughout this general election campaign, only one candidate is getting fact-checked while the other largely gets a pass.
"Opinions are pointless without facts and foundations, so here's two easy examples to absorb as they pertain to Clinton:
"Fact check No. 1:
"TRUMP: You called it the gold standard of trade deals. You said it’s the finest deal you’ve ever seen.
"CLINTON: No.
"TRUMP: And then you heard what I said about it, and all of a sudden you were against it.
"CLINTON: Well, Donald, I know you live in your own reality, but that is not the facts. The facts are -- I did say I hoped it would be a good deal, but when it was negotiated.
"Clinton never used the word 'hoped.' She said 'gold standard' during her time as secretary of state. It had been broached multiple times by Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries and therefore was easy to see coming.
"Does Holt correct or fact-check here? No. But he was decidedly aggressive when challenging Trump's claim on always being against the Iraq War, and that's fine. But if the decision was made by Holt beforehand to fact-check in real time, he needed to do so to both sides in obvious situations. This was one of them.
"Fact check #2: Clinton says the murder rate is down in New York City under Bill DeBlasio without police using stop-and-frisk.
"Stop-and-frisk's last year of existence was 2014. In 2015, in the only full year of records without it in New York City, murders rose to 352, from 333 the year before. Trump kept insisting on this number, Clinton insisted he was wrong. Holt let it go.
"But here's where the moderator ultimately fell way short. First, a clear disclaimer:
"Asking Trump about releasing his tax returns or about the "birther" issue are legitimate issues to ask, and Holt was right to do so.
"However, for the moderator to ignore any questions about the Clinton Foundation -- which has been very much in the news lately for all the wrong reasons -- and any direct inquiries about destroying evidence and deleting tens of thousands of emails, calls into questions what his aim was here. And these aren't periphery topics, the kind you can take-or-leave on such a stage. If they were ignored, it was done so purposely.
"That's not to say Trump had a good night. Given Holt's propensity to sit back and let the conversation go where it flowed, Trump -- in his first one-on-one debate -- needed to bring those topics up himself, particularly when one broad subject was cyber security, which couldn't have teed up Clinton's extreme carelessness around handling classified information any better. He didn't. ..."
Concha goes on to question why Holt never uttered a word about immigration or Clinton's health. And in the end, the Hill writer gave Holt a C- based on one thing: "Fact-checking is not a one-way street."
Lester Holt, he says, exits his debate experience as "the toast of left-leaning media, which makes up a solid majority of the landscape overall."
Comments
Joe Concha's article was very
I watched the "Rays" game
Me too, did not watch either.
Ditto for me
People have to understand,
Well each side is going to
Clinton attacked Trump for
Perhaps folks should read a
Spoken like a true no-nothing
Florence - Do you really
Sorry you feel, rather than
Not an objective host...he
Holt did great, just called
Holt's personal agenda
Holt's personal agenda
Mr. Concha is absolutely
As an Independent voter, I am
Clinton was polished but
It would be difficult to
Hillary flops around more
Well Written .. Well said by