Search Google News for "Matt Lauer"... the news media is crucifying him. *UPDATED*

[procon]

Last edited Thu Sep 8, 2016, 09:23 AM - Edit history (1)

Matt Lauer Failed The Moderator Test
Huffington Post

Matt Lauer Fields Storm of Criticism Over Clinton-Trump Forum
New York Times

Critics blast Lauer's 'Commander-in-Chief Forum' performance
CNNMoney

Matt Lauer slammed on Twitter for Commander-in-Chief Forum moderating effort
Entertainment Weekly

NBC's Matt Lauer blasted for letting Trump off easy on Iraq war
New York Daily News

Matt Lauer did not get high marks for moderating the first Clinton-Trump event
The Week Magazine

Matt Lauer Panned By Left and Right For 'Pathetic Job' During Presidential Town Hall
TheWrap

Hillary Clinton Rises Above Matt Lauer and NBC's Hit Job And Shines In Commander-in-Chief Forum
PoliticusUSA

Matt Lauer totally blew it on Trump's blatant lying about Iraq and Libya
Vox

Matt Lauer pitches Trump a ridiculous softball: 'Will you be prepared on day one?'
Raw Story

Matt Lauer's Pathetic Interview of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Is the Scariest Thing I've Seen in This Campaign
New York Magazine

US election 2016: Forum moderator Lauer suffers media backlash
BBC News


UPDATED HEADLINES:

Matt Lauer was tougher on Ryan Lochte than on Donald Trump
Washington Post

NBC's Matt Lauer Takes Hits for Handling of Military Forum
TVNewser

Matt Lauer is Getting Destroyed Over the Military Forum with Hillary and Trump Last Night
Independent Journal Review

NBC's Matt Lauer blasted for letting Trump off easy on Iraq war
New York Daily News

People Are Furious That Matt Lauer Let Donald Trump Lie About Iraq War
Elite Daily

Media turn on Lauer for not fact-checking Trump
Politico

Matt Lauer Gets Slammed After He Allows Trump To Lie About Iraq And Shuts Down Clinton
UPROXX

NBC's Military Forum Was a Master Class on How Not to Hold Candidates Accountable
The Intercept

What Matt Lauer's bad night says about the fact-checking industry
Washington Post

Matt Lauer gets panned over handling of candidate forum
Los Angeles Times

NBC's wasted opportunity: The “Commander-in-Chief” forum was a complete bust
Salon

'Commander-in-Chief' Forum Panned as Colossal Failure of Journalism
Common Dreams

Matt Lauer Gets Pummeled Over Commander-in-Chief Forum
variety.com

Last night's C-in-C forum: Clinton gets a C, Lauer a D, and Trump is expelled
National Catholic Reporter

The Commander in Chief Forum was an embarrassment, but still enough to disqualify Trump
Politics News

[underpants]

1. AND not one question about the threat of Sharknados

He's been covering Sharnados for several years. You'd think he'd work in a question about that...or new pasta salad recipes and kitchen gadgets.

[Sherman A1]

5. Agreed

With climate change being a major issue, we really need to look at Sharknados going forward. Matt really dropped the ball there....

[Granny M]

2. This hack should never get a story

bigger than "Cat rescued from tree" for the rest of his career.

[StrictlyRockers]

54. He needs to stick to morning fluff pieces.

And parades and such. He's no journalist, that is now proven. That forum was an infuriating exercise in misogyny and bias.

"Secretary Clinton, we've only got 30 minutes so let's spend 10 of them rehashing the fake email drama that we've beaten to death for the past year and a half, that way I can interrupt you and rush you through every single one of your answers on serious policy matters."

"Mr. Trump, hey fella, why are you so awesome? And please feel free to ramble on at length with nary a single interruption throughout the entire half-hour."

[Control-Z]

61. Oh, and please, feel free

to attack Hillary to your heart's content. Take her down, man. I won't say a word.

[LisaM]

63. And don't forget Obama!

Criticize Obama every chance you get, and the apparent co-Presidency he and Hillary shared the last four years.

[AgadorSparticus]

75. Exactly! So infuriating! Lauer is a douchebag.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Matt Lousy

should retire in shame

What a partisan hack, doesn't deserve his press credentials

What's Matt afraid of, Trump TV??

Or was he trying out for a job?

[RoverSuswade]

4. I was SO PISSED

when he brought up the emails right off the bat. The forum was supposed to be about the military and cheap-shots it.

[AlbertCat]

6. I remember Matt.....

...... when he was cute and hairy.... and a reporter on MTV.


Besides.... this thing was a joke before it aired. What did y'all expect?

[MynameisBlarney]

11. He was an MTV reporter?

No damn wonder.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

31. He was not.

The OP is being facetious or is mistaken.

[MynameisBlarney]

34. Ah...

Well...he STILL sucks.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

35. FACT! nt

[Dr Hobbitstein]

32. Are you thinking of Kurt Loder?

Matt Lauer got his start in local TV news before moving to the Today Show in the early 90s.

Kurt Loder, however, was a reporter on MTV.

[brush]

39. You're right. He was on a mid-day talk show in Jersey. A total lightweight.

[magicnpoetry]

53. To Be Fair,

Jon Stuart was also on MTV and I think he'd be an awesome moderator.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

56. Truth.

MTV brought us a lot of greats.

They also brought us a lot of shit.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

68. IIRC, Lauer was out of work and painting houses when the Today show hired him.

[calimary]

48. But... but... but... what about the emails?

He's probably feeling all smug and proudly self-righteous because he wanted HIS chance to ask her about the emails. Poor baby never got his chance to try to trip her up on the fucking emails.

I'm SQUARELY with Bernie Sanders on this one. I'm "sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails!" I suspect, by now, that most of America is. Only the partisans and Hillary haters and those in the press who want to be the next Woodward & Bernstein because they got famous and became Pulitzer Prize-winners and got to the "top of the ziggurat" of the reporting profession for having brought down a President. I was just starting in the business after that whole Watergate era was winding down. That's what EVERYBODY in my peer group wanted to do: bring down a President and be the new Woodward & Bernstein. That's why so many of us wanted to get into journalism to begin with. Because of the possibility of having that kind of impact.

There also was a corollary to that, for women breaking into the news business in that new era. Any and every young woman I knew who had ambitions in the news biz wanted to be the new Barbara Walters.

[tanyev]

7. Hey! Maybe that will give him a great idea for this year's on-air Halloween costume.

"Yea, can the props department make a really large cross that looks like wood, but is super lightweight?"

[okaawhatever]

45. +100 nt

[LynneSin]

8. This is what you get when you let a morning show personality do these types of interviews

Matt Lauer is actually a very good interview which is why he has been on 'The Today Show' for decades. Morning shows are filled with celebrities and colorful personalities watched by people drinking their morning coffee who want fluff on the TV before they go to work.

Lauer interviewed Clinton and Trump about the same way he'd interview the latest movie starlet or someone whose dog does silly tricks - Light, airy, easy lob ball questions.

Morning show hosts are never meant to ask the challenging questions nor question a guest if their answer is not truthful.

That's what we got with Matt Lauer - piss-poor choice to do real, hard-hitting, fact-checking interviews.

[malaise]

9. Which is why I didn't watch

Lauer is just a silly hack

[LynneSin]

24. I didn't watch - I can't listen to Trump speak for more than a minute before wanting to hurl.

And all those low IQ sentences he says has my eyes rolling so fast I'm afraid I might break them (or possible drop IQ points from listening to him).

[TeamPooka]

59. I didn't watch it because of lauer. I knew what was going to happen there and it did.

he's such a lightweight idiot.

[PatSeg]

17. What on earth were they thinking?

Lauer is a lightweight and obviously wasn't prepared for a serious forum. Did he prepare for this at all? How original to ask Hillary about emails. Perhaps no one told him that this was suppose to be about Veterans' issues.

The way he treated Hillary was disrespectful and dismissive. I hope he doesn't plan on having any exclusive one-on-one interviews with a President Clinton in the future.

There was plenty of talent for MSNBC to choose from and they came up with Matt Lauer. Just imagine what it would have been like if Joy Reid had moderated the forum.

[LynneSin]

25. Might as well use Kathie Lee Gifford

[PatSeg]

41. Exactly

I am not a big fan of weekday morning shows. I find them shallow and superficial. I would hardly go looking there for a moderator for a Commander in Chief forum. I think it is possible that they chose Lauer to draw a bigger audience from the less politically inclined. Obviously Trump would have already pulled in the reality TV show watchers.

[spanone]

10. mission accomplished. how sad our fucking media has become.

the today how is a 'news joke'

matt lauer is a major lightweight

[mainstreetonce]

12. The format was wrong

It should have been all questions from veterans about veteran issues.


Major problem was him starting out on emails. I'm almost glad he did it because no one can say Hillary refused to answer, but it took half of her time.


I think he did it to prove he would be hard on Hillary as he planned to be on Trump. However he wasn't hard enough on Trump.


Do some googling on Lauer's recent personal life.

The Today show is going to suffer.

He should not have gotten involved with this forum.

[underpants]

13. I mentioned this last week - front of National Enquirer last week

Lauer cocaine story.

Trump is good buddies with the publisher of that rag (Cruz's father JFK story), think this was intimidation? "Working the ref"?

[mainstreetonce]

14. I didn t read about cocaine

I was referring to many stories about women. Some of the women in stories are
Today colleagues.

[okaawhatever]

47. I saw that at the grocery store. I think you're on to something there. nt

[BlueCollar]

16. You absoloutely nailed it.

The format should have been active duty and veterans, equally balanced between branches directly posing questions to the candidates.

What the hell does Layer know about the military other than that they exist?

First question...how many branches of the military are there?

Flunk that one and we call Skittles....

[LisaM]

65. Well, what about diplomats and our diplomatic efforts?

Foreign policy extends beyond active military, not to denigrate them in any way, but it's a huge, complicated arena, and asking a few people serving now for questions hardly addresses global policy issues.

[duncang]

20. This! The questions should have been solely driven by the Veterans.

They should have allowed the questions from the crowd first. Matt acting just to keep the candidates on subject and watch the time. Next since it was a IAVA forum have questions submitted through them for veterans who could not make it there. If there were questions that addressed other concerns those could be used next. He could read them and make sure the format is followed. I think what the Veterans concerns and questions should have been the focus. Not matt's concerns.

[mcar]

15. Good

He was terrible.

[ejbr]

18. Let's hope

this puts future moderators on notice

[bullsnarfle]

19. I watched an interview he did

with Tom Clancy. Of all the million interesting things I could think of that I would have asked Clancy, Lauer asked the most stupid drivel you can imagine. He actually asked him (drum roll, please) "Where do you get your ideas?" I am not kidding, he really did!!! Of all the stupid things you can ask an author, "where do you get your ideas" is THE stupidest.

[klook]

74. I heard a writer -- I forget who --

on the radio a couple of months back saying when he gets that question he says, "Oh, I subscribe to an idea service. They send me a few a week. It's expensive, but worth it."

[quitnesset]

21. anyone other than Lauer and...

tRump would not have agreed to the "show"... He knew he would not be challenged by Lauer and therefore it was the next best thing to one of his Faux News interviews.

[pangaia]

22. The thing was doomed from the get go.

Just the fact that there was some TV show called COMMANDER IN CHIEF- THE FORUM is all one needs to know.

Did anyone actually take the whole idea seriously? Anyone with a brain? I mean, it's TV, folks. it's unreal reality TV.

I just heard about it yesterday afternoon while on the eliptical at the gym and haven't laughed so hard in weeks.. I almost fell off.

[Chakab]

23. The only person that I've ever seen Lauer really go after was Kanye West

for interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech.

This guy is not a serious journalist and has no business whatsoever moderating anything related to the Presidential race.

[AgadorSparticus]

77. Lauer is not well liked. I remember reading about it after Anne Curry left NBC.

I read somewhere that he got this moderating gig because he is friends with Jash or some guy in charge of it. Bet this never happens again.....

[MFM008]

26. he gave the maggot

lots of wiggle room.

[lillypaddle]

27. Good!

Rake that MoFo over the coals - he deserves every bit of it.

[bagelsforbreakfast]

28. This is Matt Lauer...a small step up from...

Or step down; not sure.

[LynnTTT]

29. Intelligence Briefing

Lauer should never have asked Trump any questions about the briefings and when asked, Trump should simply have said that he was not going to speak about the briefings at all.

[KPN]

30. Matt Lauer submitted himself to the dark side years ago.

His Today Show success went to his head early, after only about 2-3 years and ever since he's believed that he is a among the "deserving" upper tier. His performance as a journalist and his sense of self-esteem have been wildly out of whack for decades now. Why would anyone be surprised by his ridiculously poor performance on this stage.

[lpbk2713]

33. "Matt Lauer You Suck"

... just to sum up.

[SHRED]

36. How many of these outlets are guilty also??

Oh the FAUX outrage is comical.

[niyad]

42. a most excellent point

[wheniwasincongress]

37. Someone on DU pointed out how his poor performance is a good thing

the debate moderators are seeing this, and probably will be better, more serious mods because of it

[adigal]

38. Laure did push Trump on the rape in the military issue

And I thought he did an OK job with the Generals remark. He got Trump to double down on it in front of a national audience and the military in the room.

[backscatter712]

40. He wasn't nearly subtle enough in his presstitution.

He was in fact, blatantly obvious. He was clearly Donald Trump's rent boy.

[Iggo]

43. He did his job. He cashed his check. He don't give a shit. (n/t)

[lark]

44. So galling!!

What pissed me off the most was jerkface Lauer didn't even mention drumpfs total disrespect for a fallen military hero and the utterly horrible disrespect he showed the heros family, soley based on their religion. That was 100% relevant and to the point in a Commander in Chief forum. We've seen what's Lauers forte is - being a total sycophant to Drumpf.

[senseandsensibility]

46. So very, very well deserved.

I hope people continue to pile on until it penetrates his tiny pea brain that he did a terrible job.

[ailsagirl]

49. GOOD-- he was terrible

[Spitfire of ATJ]

50. Matt Lauer should be interviewing stranded passengers at the airport during a blizzard.

[flying-skeleton]

51. Matt Lauer who was probably interviewing for show on the future Trump TV Network.

Trump made half a dozen statements last night at the Commander-in-Chief Forum, which in all honesty, should have disqualified him from the Presidency. Such as:

# Trump trashed the US military
# Trump made a mockery of our Military Generals
# Trump lied about his position on Iraq ... again
# Trump lied about the CIA briefing
# Trump professed his love for Putin ... again
# Trump blamed military sexual assaults on the victims

These are just a few of Trump's "WACKY" statements from last night in less than 30 minutes while fielding softball questions from Matt Lauer who was probably interviewing for show on the future Trump TV Network.

And today, all CNN is doing is talking about Hillary's statements about the emails and her statement that she will not want to place ground troops in a war against ISIS preferring instead to use other military means to defeat them once and for all.
Shame on CNN.They're trying to emulate Fox News while pretending to be impartial. America is not stupid and can see what is going on. No wonder CNN viewership is on the decline and their hosts are made a mockery on all the comedy channels.

And NBC is silent on Matt Lauer's XXX rated cozying up to Trump at the Forum !!

[JDC]

52. This just in

Matt Lauer's Thoughtful, Fair and Balanced C-in-C Forum Hailed as Breath of Fresh Air
Fox News

[riversedge]

55. looks like a Hannity headline.

[ailsagirl]

57. I saw that-- nothing but disparagement

which he so richly deserves

[redstatebluegirl]

58. Trump is a bully, plain and simple. He bullies the media and gets what he wants!

Lauer is a lightweight in the media. Although I truly think all of them are talking heads instead of journalists anymore. NBC blew it on many levels, including having chairs more suited to men than women and having a man who is not shy about showing he is Republican as the moderator.

Comcast is a truly evil company, once they bought NBC I knew it would be another Fox news before long. They are moving quickly in that direction. I see Rachel moving to another network soon.

[LisaM]

66. OMG, the chairs!

I'm 5'4" and this is more of an issue than you'd think - I hate being made uncomfortable in chairs that are too big.

[redstatebluegirl]

67. Me too! I'm 5'3" on a good day :-).

It is a major issue!

[Gothmog]

60. Lauer blew it last night

[calimary]

62. "Lauering the Bar" !!!!!!!!!!

Yahoo News. My husband started looking it up on his own device as I read down this list to him. And I hadn't even reached the bottom before he started reading aloud what he was finding. We both had a great guffaw on that one!

That may have just won the year! Now, we actually have his name as A Word. It is now a term! It's a descriptive thing that is now so prevalent that it's liable to wind up in the slang dictionaries.

We may now have a semi-formal, if not official, name for "the act or practice of tossing softballs at an interview subject." "Lauering".
Infinitive: "to Lauer" (Hey dude, you've arrived! You're a verb now!)
Additional definitions: shoddy or lazy journalism, a fact-checking fail, fact-checking opportunities avoided or neglected particularly when subject's public statements have already demonstrated a need for fact-checking.

Besides, it's a trending hashtag now!

#LaueringTheBar

https://www.yahoo.com/news/matt-lauering-the-bar-trump-clinton-forum-142200450.html

[procon]

64. That's a great headline! nt

[Eleanors38]

69. As CNN said they're gonna go EZ on trump 'cause he's a newbie. No. He's a bully who gets his way.

[Hekate]

70. Beautiful, just beautiful

[underpants]

71. Thanks for staying on this

[still_one]

72. I would say 50% of those critisizing Lauer should also be critisizing themselves

[BlancheSplanchnik]

73. SNAP!! ^

I didn't watch..no cable, no regrets.

It sounds vomit-inducing.

Regarding the list of critical headlines, I notice only one referred to the SEXISM.

Of course.

[madisongrace]

76. NEVER liked him! n/t

[madisongrace]

78. OFF WITH HIS HEAD!! n/t

[BlueInPhilly]

79. Somewhere

Ann Curry is overdosing on schadenfreude

[rpannier]

80. He certainly did Lester Holt a favor

Mr Holt couldn't look any worse or any less prepared than lauer did