Serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) sat down for a lengthy interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, which I did not watch. Of course, one does not need to watch any SSAT interview to know that he will issue his usual litany of lies and whines about how he is being persecuted and Welker has been criticized in some quarters for not refuting all the lies. But William Saletan says that such criticisms are unwarranted and that she did a good job because she did remind viewers of what kind of awful person SSAT is.
Here is the beginning. and end of his article.
THROUGHOUT HIS 78-MINUTE interview with Kristen Welker, Donald Trump spewed lies and delusions. The NBC News journalist, like others who have interviewed the former president, tried to parry his propaganda but let some of it pass so she could get on with her questions. For this reason, many of Trump’s critics judge Welker’s performance a failure.
I take a different view. I’m less interested in what Welker failed to do than in what she did. She exposed, up close and at length, Trump’s psychopathologies.
Let me take you through a few examples.
…IF YOU CAME TO THIS INTERVIEW hoping that Welker or NBC News would refute every lie Trump told, you’ll be disappointed. But I don’t think exhaustive refutation is what we need. In polls, Trump is running even with Biden because many Americans are unhappy with the economy, and most see Biden as old and tired.
These people need to be reacquainted with the reality of Trump. They need to be reminded how recklessly he makes decisions, how poorly he controls his impulses, how ruthlessly he lies, and how impervious he is to correction. They need to be reminded how callously he disregards his oath of office and how little he cares about anyone but himself. They need to be reminded what a psychopath he is.
That’s what Welker accomplished. She has done her job.
This interview still gives Trump a platform to disseminate his lies. Even if there is some pushback on some of them, it still has an impact on some people, consciously or not. Also this interview may have broken the NBC rules and might be under internal investigation as explained here.
Aside from his True Believers, who the hell has forgotten his habits??
He made a speech that makes people question his mental competence
https://youtu.be/P_xlkWlS5ms
The media should cooly decline to interview him, explaining that since all he does is interrupt and lie, he’s not worth the screen time.
I didn’t watch the whole thing either, but seeing clips of Trump come out as Pro Choice was pretty freakin awesome. I’m sure he’ll try and walk it back, but that’s a deal breaker for some.
Of course, they won’t vote Biden, but they may skip this election or go third party.
re: Marcus Ranum, #4. Exactly. To me, the problem is that SSAT brings eyeballs, which brings ad revenue, and so the media have an incentive to give him air time. Look at how much attention has been focused on this MTP interview.
Write him off as a horror show and let him die in the dark.
joelgrant, um, this very post is about him. You are writing about him.
(Not exactly ignoring him, is it?)
@ ^
We’ve heard this enough times we could call it the “Morales fallacy”:
“Any criticism of a thing receiving unwarranted attention is self-refuting”.
That’s because you are a dolt, BobusQuietus.
This post is, indeed, about him.
joelgrant did indeed write about him. Opined, even.
And you, as is proper, write about me.
Me, me, me.
Trump? Bah.
Me!
But hey, if you want to call being utterly correct a fallacy, go for it.
If you want to call calling it as it is
(I do love the ‘we’ part)
Heh heh heh.
The concept of reflexiveness is beyond you, isn’t it?
Am I getting unwarranted attention?
Are you criticising me?
(Yes, and yes)
—
You know, I remember when clever people (more than one at once) used to try to harass me. Back in the day. Good ol’ SGBM, for example. Ing. Others.
Ah well.
Out of pity, be aware I was alluding to the fact that calling for someone to be ignored is exactly the opposite of ignoring someone. Reality is.
everybody still harasses your for your insular and evidence free viewpoints. you just got tired of noticing, and we got tired of you not changing. you’re just “uncle curmudgeon” now. Just… take that in.
Shorter Saletan:
“There IS SO such a thing as bad publicity!!!” (commences whistling in the dark).