Listening to about 45 minutes of NPR this morning...

[Orrex]

Their assessment of the debate is: "people's views of their respective candidates were strengthened."

Not "Trump is a fucking disaster and only an idiot would consider voting for him."

Not "Dear God, who let that lunatic within 100 yards of Secretary Clinton?"

Not "Trump is emblematic of all that has ever been wrong with the United States."

No, their takeaway is ""people's views of their respective candidates were strengthened."

That's some insightful commentary, Steve Inskeep. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

For that matter, their only debate coverage at all was a long-format piece in which they discussed the debate with three "typical" voters, including a black farmer from Georgia who enthusiastically supports Trump.

During the whole stretch that I heard during my commute, there was no serious, informed examination of the debate, so that a casual listener would come away with the impression that Trump and Clinton did equally well.


Well played, Liberal Media. Well played.

[stopbush]

1. That sucks, as dozens of people listen to NPR every day.

[Orrex]

3. LOL.

So lonely...

[Curtland1015]

7. HA!

[JDC]

29. That is really funny

[BumRushDaShow]

2. The have to keep him in the race

so that they have something to talk about. So as of this morning, the M$M is "filling in all the gaps" that he left open last evening and there were alot!

[Frank Cannon]

4. I finally gave up on NPR during the Bush years.

Every morning, their idiot analysts tried to convince me that Dubya was some brilliant master statesman on par with Winston Churchill.

Fuck those clowns. I don't need to listen to Prairie Home Companion that badly.

[Orrex]

5. I don't have a lot of options on my morning commute, alas

Mostly it's either NPR, bullshit local radio "personalities" or Bob & Tom.

NPR has good stories just often enough to keep my interest, but their political coverage is abysmal.

[Frank Cannon]

8. I was in the same boat.

A long commute with nothing to listen to. I bought a harmonica and taught myself how to play it. It was fun.

[retrowire]

9. you need podcasts!

Stuff You Should Know
Stuff You Missed In History Class
Serial
This American Life

[Orrex]

11. Good suggestions.

I don't have a direct link for my phone to plug into my radio, but I do have one of those low power FM transmitters. I should use it.

[retrowire]

15. mmhmm!

Nothing better than learning on the commute to work about random things.

And Josh and Chuck of Stuff You Should Know have a very careful approach that is always presented fair handedly when it comes to political subjects like voting or economics but you can tell they're both somewhat left leaning. Animal rights and women's rights get mentioned every so often for example.

[Ligyron]

10. Me too!

It's either that, RW BS or classic rock and I get tired of classic rock after awhile.

I need to get more CD's or taped book readings. Or something...

[Codeine]

6. Christ, that fucking farmer.

"It's all just like free corn to the hogs!" is how he described Clinton's plans to help the working class. "You have to encourage the entrepeneurial spirit."

Motherfucker, you're a FARMER!!! Every single mothershitting thing you do is subsidized and assisted by Uncle Sugar! Assnugget!!

[retrowire]

12. best post of the day so far. nt

[Orrex]

17. LOL--excellent!

If NPR were an actual news outlet and if Inskeep were an actual journalist, then that point might have been made on-air in real time.

Instead, we're told that "people's views of their respective candidates were strengthened."

[Nay]

24. That fucking farmer, indeed. 35 years ago I was living in Montana amidst a bunch

of wheat farmers. Every day at the cafe they railed on and on about the cheating, lazy welfare mothers bleeding them dry by getting $25 a month to feed the goddamned brats . . . while every year their hundreds of thousands in farm subsidies allowed them to go to Arizona for 6 months in the winter!! And when I was there, they were getting extra subsidies for NOT planting! And get this . . . one of these holier-than-thou farmers ran out and chopped down the only stand of cottonwood trees within 50 miles so that he could claim several more acres to NOT plant on!

Grrrr. Don't get me started.

[workinclasszero]

13. I'm sick to death of the media's false equivalency

Hitler would have loved these mealy mouthed bastards.

[Hortensis]

14. Well, as someone elsewhere said about immediate feedback

from viewers, the debate again proves that a large majority of conservatives intent to vote their Republican jerseys.

We need to face the hard truth that most conservatives did not hit bottom with Trump. Neither they nor we know what bottom is for this group. Judging by history, for some there is none.

As for NPR and this election, they're honest enough not to claim they know what they do not. We simply cannot know yet if a narrow margin of wobblers will ultimately decide they cannot vote for Rump based on what they've seen. And winning a few on the edge is all we can hope for from these things.

[Orrex]

16. Holy shit.

We need to face the hard truth that most conservatives did not hit bottom with Trump.

I honestly never thought of it that way, but when you put it like that, it's about the most horrifying thing I've ever read.

I would have thought Trump was the worst of the possible worst. How low can they actually go, then?

[alarimer]

21. I'm trying to image their candidate next time, if Trump is not the bottom.

Carrot-top? Maybe. But my money's on Gallagher, if he's still alive. Some guy up their smashing watermelons is about all ths discourse the Republicans are capable of these days.

[Nay]

25. It'll be a clown. A creepy clown, like the ones snatching kids and scaring motorists. And

they'll line up to vote for IT.

[roscoeroscoe]

31. Randall Flagg, right?

From The Stand?

[Nay]

32. I was thinking Pennywise the Clown from It, but Flagg is a scary guy, too. nt

[Hortensis]

23. Yes, it is scary. Their party is in disarray, though. Perhaps

ultimately out of the Rump debacle will come better leadership that will keep us from finding out what could be worse.

[Cosmocat]

18. Same basic dynamic on MSNBC and to a VERY slightly lesser extent CNN

Scar said at the outside that "by queens rules Hillary won" then spent what little bit of it I could stomache shouting down anyone who dared to mention just how horrific he was, which Mika in an barely audible tone saying Hillary clearly won, but then spending every other moment saying she knows how people are thinking and that it will be good for Trump.

CNN was back and forth a bit, but their main hosts were mostly based in the reality that Trump was a disaster.

[Orrex]

19. News outlets want it both ways

They want to pretend that they're giving an objective account of the debate, but they absolutely don't want to declare that one candidate won the debate by any objective standard.

As has been noted elsewhere, they want the horse race. It's appalling and it's parasitic and it's sadly very true.

[Fast Walker 52]

20. which is why I don't listen to that shit anymore

Jesus god, they are killing this country.

[SHRED]

22. We're not only fighting tRump...

...but the M$M also.

[unblock]

26. i had to turn it off. made me sick.

what's the point of listening to ultra loyalists anyway?

"let's ask a hillary supporter -- who do you think won?"
"hillary"

"ok, let's ask a trump supporter -- who do you think won?"
"trump"

"well, there you have it! a tie!"

[Bradical79]

27. That sort of analysis drives me crazy

People who don't want to talk about what happened and what was said, but just give their opinion on what they think the opinions of the people least likely to change their opinions might be. It's just a waste of air time and a perfectly good chair.

[RobinA]

28. Their Assessment

was about right in my opinion. Hillary "won" hands down, but does that matter to the campaign? Trump acted like Trump usually does, Hillary was presidential and intelligent as she usually is. Effect on the race, I think it was a wash. Sad to say, but Trump having got this far, last night was not going to turn off his supporters.

NPR can sit there nd call Trump out, but we didn't learn anything we didn't know.

[Orrex]

30. I would have preferred them to respond to Trump's bullshit

You're likely correct in that the debate won't persuade strong supporters to switch candidates, but I serious news outlet should tell us more than "Clinton supporters still support Clinton, and Trump supporters still support Trump."

They gave us 20 minutes of zero-value airtime, and afterwards they probably patted themselves on the back for upholding the greatest of journalistic duties.