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Should networks air President Trump's speeches and press conferences live?

Should networks air President Trump's speeches and press conferences live?

  • Total voters
    50
Cardinal said:
By now a reasonable person could conclude that Trump is engaging in what can only be considered a deliberate campaign of disinformation. If the barrage of lies could be explained by naivete or ignorance, the laws of odds would demand that he tell the truth a simple majority of the time since even a naive or ignorant person would technically share the same fundamental reality as the rest of us, and therefore tell the truth more frequently. To make falsehoods a majority of the time can only be explained by deliberate deceit.

From that, we can argue that its the duty of news outlets to inform, and that airing the President's speeches live necessarily results in a disinformed public. News outlets can have it both ways by both airing the President's speeches, but having a five or ten minute delay (or whatever amount of time is necessary) in order to fact-check the President as viewers are watching at home. The consequence of not doing so is that once the lie is told without immediate correction, the desired narrative of the President accomplishes its result and dislodging that narrative is often impossible.

"Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”

-Jonathan Swift

So for this President (there is no comparison to other Presidents when it comes to sheer volume and frequency of deception so this question would only apply to Trump), should networks continue to air his speeches and press conferences live?

Since inauguration, Trump has made 7,645 false or misleading statements, which is probably more than every President in history combined.
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As you point out. It is not simply a "Yes" or "No" answer. It is likely the MSM would fail in their duty to give the TRUTH timely equal time. An extremely eloquent and charismatic rebuttal mesenger would be required, but as you say, the die has already been cast. I don't think any truth makes nay difference to Trumpsters that seem to be proud of this President's ability to distort, dissemble, embellish, and outright lie.
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Cardinal said:
I wonder how many people are voting without having read the OP. I'm going to guess "More than a few."
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Nope, the poll boils down to "should the rules for airing a "live" POTUS speech change based on Trump?".
 
upsideguy said:
As much as it will be a complete farce as a POTUS speech and will need to be extensively fact checked, he is the POTUS. I do believe he is entitled to this conduit to get his "message" out to the people, as packed with lies, as we know it will be. If Trump chooses to embarrass himself in this way, that is his right.

I do believe the Dems "equal time" is every bit as vital to our democracy.

I know it will be a incredible waste of time. I just hope there is a Popeil's Pocket Fisherman infomercial on another channel. That, at least, will have fewer lies and a better point.
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I would assume that there will be a staff of fact checkers who will be checking every statement Trump makes so that they have the facts when it is time for their rebuttal.
 
Cardinal said:
By now a reasonable person could conclude that Trump is engaging in what can only be considered a deliberate campaign of disinformation. If the barrage of lies could be explained by naivete or ignorance, the laws of odds would demand that he tell the truth a simple majority of the time since even a naive or ignorant person would technically share the same fundamental reality as the rest of us, and therefore tell the truth more frequently. To make falsehoods a majority of the time can only be explained by deliberate deceit.

From that, we can argue that its the duty of news outlets to inform, and that airing the President's speeches live necessarily results in a disinformed public. News outlets can have it both ways by both airing the President's speeches, but having a five or ten minute delay (or whatever amount of time is necessary) in order to fact-check the President as viewers are watching at home. The consequence of not doing so is that once the lie is told without immediate correction, the desired narrative of the President accomplishes its result and dislodging that narrative is often impossible.

"Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”

-Jonathan Swift

So for this President (there is no comparison to other Presidents when it comes to sheer volume and frequency of deception so this question would only apply to Trump), should networks continue to air his speeches and press conferences live?

Since inauguration, Trump has made 7,645 false or misleading statements, which is probably more than every President in history combined.
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No, unless they get a copy of the speech hours in advance and fact check every. Single. Statement. He. Makes.
 
Cardinal said:
Read the OP.
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I get ya Card, but he is pResident. He deserves to step up and LEAD, I'm sure that is NOT his intention, but he deserves the chance. I don't think he needs to be real time fact checked. His base is gong to eat his **** with a spoon no matter what he says, and everyone else will either see his lies for what they are as he tells them or will read, and expect, the fact checking that will surely come. The man lies, in a significant way and with purpose, more than 10 times a day. Even though he absolutely is the foremost Con-Man of ALL time that many lies has diluted his credibility, across the world, to the point that what he says tonight will be received with extreme skepticism … at best.

He, and the nation, deserve and need for him to have his moment; Will it be a scene from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" or "A Face In The Crowd"? I'm guessing the latter; he deserves the rope to hang himself. And so does the Country deserve the opportunity for him to do so.
 
Irwin Corey said:
I get ya Card, but he is pResident. He deserves to step up and LEAD, I'm sure that is NOT his intention, but he deserves the chance. I don't think he needs to be real time fact checked. His base is gong to eat his **** with a spoon no matter what he says, and everyone else will either see his lies for what they are as he tells them or will read, and expect, the fact checking that will surely come. The man lies, in a significant way and with purpose, more than 10 times a day. Even though he absolutely is the foremost Con-Man of ALL time that many lies has diluted his credibility, across the world, to the point that what he says tonight will be received with extreme skepticism … at best.

He, and the nation, deserve and need for him to have his moment; Will it be a scene from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" or "A Face In The Crowd"? I'm guessing the latter; he deserves the rope to hang himself. And so does the Country deserve the opportunity for him to do so.
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People need to let go of the need to change the minds of his base. Their minds are not going to be changed, because they're not deluded, they know what Trump is doing, they approve of what he's doing and he's doing what they elected him to do. This pill has proven nearly impossible for everybody else to swallow, but by now it must be acknowledged as the truth.

So please re-read my OP without the premise that fact checking in real time has anything to do with his supporters.
 
Cardinal said:
Worrying about the perception of fact checking him in real time ignores the unique reality of this President's dishonesty. This isn't an issue of the media holding politicians to account, but of this specific President creating chaos through anti-truth. Trump's anti-truth isn't the media's fault, except so far as the media chooses to enable him by giving his anti-truth unfettered air time.
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Sure Cardinal, to anti-Trump folks maybe, but to everyone else, it's targeting Trump out of partisan angst to censor him specifically. Just more MSM hating on Trump. And it actually is targeting Trump specifically and censoring him.
If your goal is to change opinions about his speech, it's good to worry about such things.

Engaging Trump directly has shown not to be productive in any way. His responses would merely be more ranting and lying without being any kind of coherent response to the followup question.
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Schumer in a few minutes got Trump to own the shut down, in a similar venue (Trump rambling about immigration and challenged face to face by others).

Reporters asking questions, is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about someone in that same discussion challenging him in a forum where he is unlikely to be able to shut them down, or dodge. And if he does doge, it's just hanging there obvious.
If he concludes the meeting without such challenges, he's effectively dodged any/all face to face challenges. Which is what's gonna happen.
We have seen fact checking of Trump 24/7 for 2 years. It's ineffective beyond the results you've seen thus far.

Regardless, not all networks would agree to challenge POTUS, so it won't fly either. End result is he'll give it live, and there will be rebuttals after.
 
The POTUS should always be given ample time over the national airwaves to address the nation no matter the situation. However, in a made-up crisis situation like what we're now facing on the immigration front, I think the opposition party leadership should also have equal air time. This would be different IF there actually were a full-blow breach at our southern border, i.e., 9/11 terrorist-style and it was like a war zone there, but that's not nearly the case - not even close.
 
Mach said:
Sure Cardinal, to anti-Trump folks maybe, but to everyone else, it's targeting Trump out of partisan angst to censor him specifically. Just more MSM hating on Trump. And it actually is targeting Trump specifically and censoring him.
If your goal is to change opinions about his speech, it's good to worry about such things.


Schumer in a few minutes got Trump to own the shut down, in a similar venue (Trump rambling about immigration and challenged face to face by others).

Reporters asking questions, is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about someone in that same discussion challenging him in a forum where he is unlikely to be able to shut them down, or dodge. And if he does doge, it's just hanging there obvious.
If he concludes the meeting without such challenges, he's effectively dodged any/all face to face challenges. Which is what's gonna happen.
We have seen fact checking of Trump 24/7 for 2 years. It's ineffective beyond the results you've seen thus far.

Regardless, not all networks would agree to challenge POTUS, so it won't fly either. End result is he'll give it live, and there will be rebuttals after.
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Reporters don't have the luxury of being powerful ranking Democrats with whom Trump must negotiate with (or at least appear to negotiate with). Trump is allowed to spout nonsense and say "Next question" without any need to justify his decision.

Also, the country isn't divided neatly into Trump supporter and anti-Trump. There are also the people in between (for some reason).
 
Cardinal said:
Then you misunderstood the OP. A ~5 minute delay in order to fact check him doesn't preclude him from being aired.
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And who's doing the fact checking? The usual gang of lefties that run the network?
 
If PBS is a qualifying “ network “ , then yes. The others should loose their journalism lisences for good.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Nope, the message is that live broadcasts of POTUS speeches should remain so (even for Trump). The press has plenty of time to fact check and rebut anything that the POTUS says and need no special formats (just for Trump).
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There needs to be a crawler on the bottom to fact check during the speech/event.
 
Cardinal said:
This isn't about trump supporters.
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u lOL, you think the MSM are Trump supporters? Just curious, out of those 7000 odd lies you guys claim
Trump has said how many actually affected the lives of the average American or made an actual difference in the country? I just burst into laughter every time I read one of your lists of "lies". I try hard to find a Trump equivalent to the lies Obama told to get the ACA passed - something that actually hurt a lot of people.
 
Bullseye said:
u lOL, you think the MSM are Trump supporters? Just curious, out of those 7000 odd lies you guys claim
Trump has said how many actually affected the lives of the average American or made an actual difference in the country? I just burst into laughter every time I read one of your lists of "lies". I try hard to find a Trump equivalent to the lies Obama told to get the ACA passed - something that actually hurt a lot of people.
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No, what I'm saying is that fact checking the President isn't about you.
 
Cardinal said:
People need to let go of the need to change the minds of his base. Their minds are not going to be changed, because they're not deluded, they know what Trump is doing, they approve of what he's doing and he's doing what they elected him to do. This pill has proven nearly impossible for everybody else to swallow, but by now it must be acknowledged as the truth.

So please re-read my OP without the premise that fact checking in real time has anything to do with his supporters.
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I did read your OP, #57 is still my response.
 
Cardinal said:
No, what I'm saying is that fact checking the President isn't about you.
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Ok, never mind. I usually try to avoid your typical Trump-phobic posts. This subject was just so idiotic and cliched I couldn't help myself. Carry on.
 
tecoyah said:
Its the long box on the bottom of a screen with text scrolling in it.
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Ah yes, that's how I imagined that fact checking would work during the speech.
 
Taylor said:
The fact checkers should also be fact checked in real time. And those guys should have another group fact them *them*.

Or, people could learn to think for themselves. Do their own research. Chew their own food.
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If you're any example of how well that works then we definitely need fact checking.
 
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