Tag Archives: Meet the Press

Sound Advice For Future Interviewers of TFG

Posted on by under Election 2024, Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Okay, so I’ve spent the last two hours reading various accounts of the interview Kristen Welker did with the former guy last Friday.  From all accounts, NBC should have kept Chuck Todd as moderator for Meet the Press, though I was not a fan of Mr. Todd.  Not one single story I’ve seen had anything whatsoever positive to say about the interview … apparently Ms. Welker let Trump dominate with his lies which were allowed to stand uncontested, and Ms. Welker even went so far as to address him as “Mr. President”, a big faux pas in my book.  I did not watch the interview, nor will I, for I refuse to allow Mr. Trump and his annoying voice anywhere near my computer, but from all I’ve read, I think Ms. Welker is not ready for prime time.

David Pepper, former Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, author of several books and an astute political analyst, is a voice I recently discovered on Substack. He has some advice for media personalities on how to interview Donald Trump and others of his ilk, and it seems like sound advice to me.  See what you think …

How to Interview Trump …

… Without It Becoming a Disinformation Forum

By David Pepper

18 September 2023

After yesterday’s Meet the Press interview with Trump , NBC released an after-the-fact fact check documenting 11 of the lies he told.

News flash: if you allowed someone to lie 11 times in such a short amount of time, you did something wrong.

And if you are a major media outlet, if you let it happen such that you need that hefty of a fact check, you are acknowledging that you provided a national forum for disinformation.

Which means you failed.

But if you are going to interview Trump, knowing he will lie repeatedly, how can you stop this?

Here’s my simple suggestion:

Never move on from the FIRST lie until he acknowledges it’s a lie.

NEVER.

Literally….end the interview rather than moving onto the next topic.

Why does this matter?

Because Trump and other dishonest subjects go into these interviews KNOWING they can get away with endless lying, for two reasons.

First, in many cases, they’re not even fact-checked.

Second, even if they are fact checked, they KNOW that the interviewer’s goal is to get through a long list of questions.

Which means they KNOW that if they simply dodge or repeat the lie just one or two more times, the interviewer will move on to their next topic they’ve planned out.

Which gives them their next opportunity to lie, and start the cycle over. And then they repeat the same pattern for the rest of the interview.

Again, the interviewer’s need to “move on” to the next question is the key…the best friend of the dishonest interviewee.

Repeat the lie enough, run right through the initial fact check (if there even is one), and you exhaust the interviewer until she or he feels like it’s time to move on to the next question. And the next lie.

And that’s how you get so many lies and so much misinformation spewed into one interview.

One other thing: every time you “move on,” if done incorrectly, it can come across as a white flag of surrender. A declaration of “both sides” having a point. As if it must not really be a lie. Or as if the truth of the matter is subjective. Or that there are perhaps multiple views of the matter.

And once that impression is left, the lie just won. The liar just succeeded. And then when the next questions come, he gets to do it again.

So what’s the answer?

Do NOT move on from the first lie.

Don’t do the very thing they count on you to do to get their next round of lies.

STOP at that first lie and dig in.

For as long as you need to.

Rebut that lie with every fact and figure and proof point there is. (Having of course planned in advance). Air video clips showing the truth. Whatever it takes.

Just keep going and digging and rebutting.

Make it clear to your audience (and the person you are interviewing) that there is an objective truth on the matter, and also make clear to the person you are interviewing that you will not move on until they acknowledge it.

Do it for as long as it takes to force Trump or the lying subject to acknowledge the lie.

And most importantly, for as long as they refuse to acknowledge it, as much as you want to move to the next question, do NOT!

Yes…if that means end the interview rather than moving on, end the interview.

And make it clear that you will not move to the next question—that you will end the interview if necessary—if they do not acknowledge that what they said is not true.

When this leads to awkward silence or hostility, which it will, stick to it. (Trump counts on that awkwardness and silence so that you will move on. It’s a form of his bullying).

And amid that silence, if Trump still won’t acknowledge the lie, just end the interview.

Get up and go.

But what about all those other questions you wanted to ask?

Forget them!

Those questions (and the lies they would’ve elicited if you move on from the first lie) aren’t nearly as important as making a clear statement that you will not move on from a blatant lie being shared on your airwaves.

Doing this may be the only thing that convinces the interviewee not to lie. Or to admit it was a lie. Because at some point, they too will want to move on to other questions.

But even more importantly, this approach is the ironclad guarantee that the forum you provide will not be used as a place for anyone to foment lies and disinformation.

Because you have established that if they even try it once, and you show them clearly they are lying, and they still keep trying to lie to you and your audience, you will close the forum immediately.

That guarantees that you won’t host a forum of disinformation.

Now, if all those who decide to interview the likes of Trump conducted interviews this way, things would be pretty different, wouldn’t they?

Hoping someone tries it.

From Hero To Laughingstock …

Posted on by under Humour, Political commentary

I am quite certain that I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  I once had tremendous respect for New York’s former mayor, Rudy Giuliani.  Nothing can or should take away from the fact that he, more than any other single person in the U.S., brought calm in a stormy sea, brought reason into chaos, and earned the respect of New Yorkers in the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  His was the voice of reason, he was the one who said, “Calm down … BREATHE … we can do this … we can get through this.  Yes, we have been hurt, but … we are NEW YORKERS and we will be okay.” Nothing can take that away.  However, at some point between September 11th 2001 and August 19th 2018, the man lost his bloody marbles!!!

Giuliani frequently appears on the Sunday morning news shows to lie for defend Donald Trump, and yesterday was no exception.  Appearing on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, Giuliani proved once again that “Yes, I am an idiot”. After a question from Todd regarding the Mueller investigation …

“No, it isn’t truth! Truth isn’t truth!”

Say … huh???  Truth isn’t truth?  Kellyanne warned us some 19 months ago that there would be alternative facts, and later she even proved there is an alternative history, when she spoke of the “Bowling Green Massacre” that never happened.  So, it follows that if there are alternative facts, and alternative history, there must also be an alternative language, right?  Up is down.  Black is white.  Left is right.  Candy is healthy, and broccoli will cause your teeth to rot.  Truth is lies and lies are truth.  Donald Trump is wonderful, and Barack Obama was a lying, dirty scoundrel who was born in Kenya.  Applause, applause, applause …

They had fun with this on Twitter, of course …Tweettweet-2

tweet-3

And then, naturally, Andy Borowitz writing for the New Yorker got in on the act …

Putin Reportedly Close to Firing Giuliani

MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—Vladimir Putin is reportedly “very close” to firing Rudolph Giuliani as Donald J. Trump’s attorney, a source close to the Russian President confirmed on Monday.

According to the source, Putin allowed Trump to hire Giuliani in the first place because “it’s important to let Trump think that he has some autonomy from time to time,” but now the Russian President has apparently determined that “enough is enough.”

Over the next few days, the source indicated, Putin is likely to replace Giuliani with a handpicked successor, Arkady Lubetkin, a criminal-defense attorney who has represented several prominent Russian Mob figures.

After hearing anecdotal reports of Giuliani’s appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Putin initially theorized that the nonsensical nature of Giuliani’s utterances had to be chalked up to “an error in translation,” the source said.

After reading an official transcript of Giuliani’s statements, however, the Russian President was apparently “flabbergasted.”

“Pravda is not pravda?” Putin reportedly said. “What is this bullshit?”

Today, Giuliani attempted to extricate himself from his own words …

“My statement was not meant as a pontification on moral theology but one referring to the situation where two people make precisely contradictory statements, the classic “he said,she said” puzzle. Sometimes further inquiry can reveal the truth other times it doesn’t.”

Sometimes it is best just to learn when to keep one’s mouth shut, Rudy.

It is rather a sad statement on our present situation that 99.5% of our humour comes from our own government.  Equally sad when a man who was once a hero is now a laughingstock.

A Lie By Any Other Name … Is Still A Lie

Posted on by under Political commentary

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”  – Albert Einstein

There are facts, and then there are opinions.  There is truth, and then there are lies.  But wait … that is not all!  As George Orwell told us in his now-classic book 1984, there is post-truth and newspeak.  And this morning, I awaken to a new world where there is also something called ‘alternative facts’.

On December 23rd, I wrote a post, Duckspeak – Part I,  in which I said the following:

“NO … OH NONONONONONONO!!!  While it is certainly not the most dangerous appointment Trump has made in the past six weeks, it may be the most detrimental to our health and well-being, and it is the one most likely to drive us all to become either ax murderers or alcoholics!  Yesterday, da trumpeter announced the appointment of Kellyanne Conway as ‘Counselor to the President’.  NOOOO.  Do you realize what this means?  It means that most all information coming out of the White House will come via Ms. Conway!  It means we will be looking at her face on a daily basis, and hearing her ‘newspeak’ explanations that make no sense.  It also means she will be, as the New York Times so aptly described it, the “Trump Whisperer”.” 

I would like to reiterate those words today, as my prediction has come true. Less than 48 hours after Trump took the oath of office, his mouthpiece, Kellyanne Conway, has given us a new phrase to add to our collection:  alternative facts.  On Saturday, the day after Trump’s inauguration, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the inauguration claimed “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” This is not true, therefore it is a lie.  Fast forward to this morning, when one of Americas bimbos, Kellyanne Conway, appeared as a guest on Meet The Press.  Host Chuck Todd asked Kellyanne why Sean Spicer lied … in fact, as is often the case when interviewing Trumpeters, he had to repeat the question several times before getting this answer: “You’re saying it’s a falsehood and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”  Todd responded with, “Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods.”   See interview here.

Alternative facts … what an interesting concept. Let me try this one on for size:

Fact:  I am 65 years old, mousy brown hair with more grey than brown, bags under my eyes

Alternative fact:  I am 35 years old with nice chestnut-coloured hair, and pretty brown eyes

Fact:  It is 1:30 in the afternoon and there is a sink full of dirty dishes awaiting my attention

Alternative fact:  It is 8:00 a.m. and the kitchen is sparkling clean

Or how about this one …

Fact:  Donald Trump is now the president

Alternative fact:  Hillary Clinton won the election and was just sworn in as President of the United States

Well, that was certainly depressing because the first one was disproven as soon as I looked in the mirror, the second was proven a falsehood when I walked into the kitchen to make another cup of coffee, and the third … well, just a dream.  Alternative facts, Kellyanne, are nothing more or less than outright lies. It is rather like when your boss said that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.  That, I suppose, was an alternative fact.  It was a lie, spoken by a ‘man’ who knew that scientists around the globe have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that climate change is a serious threat to our planet AND that the greed of mankind has contributed to this threat.  He knew the actual facts, but instead chose to perpetuate his ‘alternative fact’.

Fact: Donald Trump is a misogynist sexual predator

Alternative fact: Donald Trump loves and respects women

I could go on and on and on in this vein, but the fact is that it is an exercise in futility, and it is making me feel sad and ill.  Alternative facts are untruths, they are lies, and the danger is that some people will believe them, or at least pretend to, because these alternative facts are what they want to hear, what they want to believe.  Alternative facts are a slap in the face to those of us who actually engage our brains on occasion, as it says that Trump and his minions, his ‘team of advisors’, think we are all to stupid to know the difference between truth and lies.  They see us all in the same light as the lemmings who have blindly followed him into the pit of hell that he told them was a place of light and goodness. The word ‘integrity’ has no meaning in the upper echelons of our government.

Our only hope is that the Fourth Estate, the press, continue doing their jobs, even in the face of threats and adversity, and keep the public informed of the actual facts.  For if they fail to do so ….

Note to readers:  Scottish satirist, writer, television director, and radio producer Armando Iannucci wrote a piece that was published in The Guarian yesterday.  It is an “open letter to the new president”, both humorous and prophetic at the same time. It is well worth the read, and I encourage you to take a look.