Oliver Darcy/CNN:
New ‘Meet the Press’ moderator Kristen Welker fails to meet the moment as Trump unleashes flurry of lies in debut interview
The Kristen Welker era of "Meet the Press" is off to a bleak start.
The high-stakes sit down with disgraced former president Donald Trump was all risk and little reward for Welker as she assumed the esteemed moderator chair of "Meet the Press" for the first time Sunday. Television executives I surveyed before and after the interview were baffled that NBC News and Welker willfully chose to take on such a fraught assignment, given Trump's notorious propensity to lie. As one television executive put it to me, "It was a crazy way to set the tone of what 'Meet the Press' would be under her."
A real fact-check of Trump's appearance on Meet the Press
The unmistakable message was fact-checking Trump was less important than the spectacle of Trump and, therefore, relegated to the website. NBC also published a list of the "11 top moments" from Trump's interview. None of those moments highlighted any of the false statements by Trump.
"The television event also highlighted a problem that traditional news outlets have faced since Trump emerged as a potent figure on the political scene in 2016," LA Times TV critic Lorraine Ali wrote. "Treating the former reality TV star like any other presidential candidate or victor before him assumes that he’s playing by the same set of rules as his predecessors. News flash: He’s not."
After airing the interview, [new host Kristen] Welker transitioned into the standard Meet The Press roundtable discussion. Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, noted that Trump was "a bulldozer, shoveling falsehoods and lies throughout your interview." Baker, however, claimed that Welker was "fact-checking him all along the way."
The truth is that most of Trump's lies were not addressed by Welker or the online fact-check that likely reached a tiny fraction of the viewing audience. Popular Information has identified at least 10 false claims by Trump that were ignored by NBC News during the interview and in the online fact check.
Michael Tomasky/The New Republic:
We Have Two Medias in This Country, and They’re Going to Elect Donald Trump
If the press doesn’t get involved in the civic health of the nation, there may not be a nation in which a free press might reside.
It’s often asked in my circles: Why isn’t Joe Biden getting more credit for his accomplishments? As with anything, there’s no single reason. Inflation is a factor. His age is as well. Ditto the fact that people aren’t quite yet seeing the infrastructure improvements or the lower prescription drug costs.
There is no one reason. But there is one overwhelming factor in play: the media. Or rather, the two medias. It’s very important that people understand this: We reside in a media environment that promotes—whether it intends to or not—right-wing authoritarian spectacle. At the same time, as a culture, it’s consistently obsessed with who “won the day,” while placing far less value on the fact that the civic and democratic health of the country is nurtured through practices such as deliberation, compromise, and sober governance. The result is bad for Joe Biden. But it’s potentially tragic for democracy.
Michelle Cottle/The New York Times:
Maybe Matt Gaetz Is Right
The dysfunctional dance taking place in the House between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his right flank has driven me to consider something I never imagined possible: that Matt Gaetz is right.
A House speaker can be successful only with the confidence of the members who put him or her in charge, when he or she can follow through on promises made and concessions extracted. Indeed, there may be no job in American government that calls for crackerjack deal-making skills more than that of speaker: so many egos, alliances and grievances to manage to keep things moving.
Mr. McCarthy, in his desperate pursuit of the speakership last winter, ran around making promises willy-nilly to the House’s small band of right-wingers, and he will now rise and fall on how he handles those commitments and expectations. So far, things are not looking good for Kev — and, by extension, for a functional Congress.
Lindsey McPherson/The Messenger:
How a Vote to Oust McCarthy as House Speaker May Play Out
‘We would ram it up their rear ends,’ one McCarthy ally said
If a motion to vacate is triggered, there's three main scenarios for how it may play out: McCarthy prevails with the vast majority of Republicans sticking by his side; the Californian survives with a little help from Democrats; or he's removed as speaker but his allies nominate him again in the absence of an alternative speaker.
McCarthy this week admitted he’s “frustrated” with the demands from his right flank. In an angry outburst, he dared his GOP critics to trigger a vote on his ouster.
Greg Sargent/The Washington Post:
This is what taking on election deniers really looks like
Democrats won a whole lot of elections in 2022, in no small part on their vow to strengthen and defend democracy. But if they hope to turn the issue into a sustained political winner, they have to deliver on that promise by showing voters what a pro-democracy governing agenda actually looks like.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is set to make a big move in this direction by unveiling a big change on Tuesday that will implement what’s known as “automatic voter registration” statewide.
Automatic registration makes getting on the voter rolls something you have to opt out of, rather than actively sign up for in advance. An underappreciated success story, it has been put into effect in two dozen states, mostly by Democrats. It typically works by automatically registering customers at state Department of Motor Vehicles offices (or other agencies) or by automatically extending them that option, while offering an opt-out alternative.
Margaret Sullivan/The Guardian:
Jann Wenner’s bias against women and Black musicians is shocking – but not surprising
One of my older brothers subscribed to Rolling Stone magazine in its early years, and while I saw women and musicians of color gracing its cover from time to time, they certainly seemed like a rarity.
“Clapton, the Stones, Clapton, the Stones,” was the way a friend of mine recently characterized the magazine covers, for decades, after its start in 1967, when co-founder Jann Wenner was calling the editorial shots at what quickly became rock’n’roll’s bible. I would only add: the Beatles, the Who, and, inevitably, a bare-chested Jim Morrison.
Wenner stayed true to his biases through his decades-long career as a powerful magazine and music-industry mogul. And though it’s hard to quantify, it’s also undeniable that his prejudices elevated musicians who looked a lot like him and cheated those who didn’t.
Apparently, Wenner never found much reason to question his world view. And finally, just days ago, that unbridled egotism sullied his reputation – and got him booted from the prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation board.
His own words – ugly, clueless ones – brought him down.
Cliff Schecter on John Fetterman: