TallGuyJohninBKK

Thanks for posting an earlier article that pretty much reinforces those in the original OP here: How the Real Mainstream Media Bias Favors Donald Trump It’s not liberal vs. conservative. It’s called “inversion of expectation,” and it poisons coverage every single day. July 9, 2024 Watching and reading American media, a certain bias becomes immediately evident. Stories proliferate about pundits and a handful of Democrats calling for President Biden to drop out of the race, but they are almost never “balanced” by pointing out the massively larger number of Republicans (many now “former” or “never Trump” Republicans, but Republicans nonetheless) who are calling for Trump to drop out or be defeated. Why would this be? Why wouldn’t the American media at least try to balance their coverage of two “flawed” candidates? After all, Trump has been disowned by the former head of his own party (Michael Steele), something like half of his own former Cabinet officials (including his Defense and Intelligence officials), and even his own former vice president. (more) https://newrepublic.com/article/183583/real-mainstream-media-bias-favors-donald-trump Sounds a whole lot like the OP report of this thread -- How the Media Sanitizes Trump’s Insanity

Hardly... see above for what his post didn't make clear regarding those polls.

You kind of neglected to mention that most of the polls cited in the above link were done up to a month ago dating as far back as mid-August... including even a couple prior to the Democrat National Convention. The current reported RCP polling average for Pennsylvania has the two candidates in a "tie", and the one most recent poll cited done in early September also has the two candidates in a tie. Also, all of those polls were reported via RCP well before Trump's debate meltdown yesterday. I believe that kind of post comment would aptly be considered misleading by omission.

Examples from the New Republic's report of Trump "sanewashing": "The general practice went like this: The press would take something Trump said or did—for instance, using a visit to the Centers for Disease Control to ask about Fox News’s ratings, insult then–Washington Governor Jay Inslee, rant about his attempt to extort Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden, and downplay the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S.—and write them up as The New York Times did: “Trump Says ‘People Have to Remain Calm’ Amid Coronavirus Outbreak.” And further: "While speaking at an event put on by the extremist group Moms for Liberty, Trump spread a baseless conspiracy theory that “your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation,” referring to transition-related surgeries for trans people. In their write-up of the event, a glowing piece about how Trump “charmed” this group of “conservative moms,” the Times didn’t even mention the moment where he blathered on and on about a crazy conspiracy that has and will never happen."

This is one of those instances where I find myself having to agree here with some who constantly complain of a news media bias in the U.S. Indeed.... When it comes to Trump, it's a establishment media bias to present an arguably mentally unstable and divorced from reality aging politician who spouts falsehoods by the bucket full as a somewhat "normal" political candidate -- just because he happens to have become the Republican nominee for president. If anything, his nonsense during the debate was treated by mainstream news media more as just what it was (nonsense) than it would have been from most other campaign events. Because all that he was saying was seen directly and live by tens of millions of Americans, making it more difficult for the news media to reframe and sanitize his comments in "normal" politics speak. I'm sure for many ordinary folks who just casually follow political news, it was a somewhat shocking wake-up call to just how far out into the loony-sphere Trump has gone.

Trump is 78 and barely coherent. Where's everyone who questioned Biden's age and fitness? Where are the headlines screaming: 'Deranged old man peddles nonsense while threatening violent deportation of immigrants'? ... Trump's bizarre rants get sanitized. Biden got no such special treatment. If Biden, as the Democratic nominee, had gone on a rambling verbal tear like that, GOP lawmakers would be calling for him to be institutionalized and cable news panels would be discussing how the 25th Amendment works. But The New York Times' initial report on Trump’s babble said this: “In a jumbled answer, he said he would prioritize legislation on the issue but offered no specifics and insisted that his other economic policies, including tariffs, would ‘take care’ of child care.” Oh, c’mon. A 78-year-old convicted felon running for president rants nonsensically, demonstrating an inability to hold a thought or understand an important issue, and it’s deemed “a jumbled answer”? (more) https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/09/09/trump-old-incoherent-biden-age-mental-fitness/75138026007/

A particularly apt discussion after Trump's debate meltdown yesterday and the media's reporting of it: The political press’s efforts to rationalize Trump’s incoherent statements are eroding our shared reality and threatening informed democracy. Four years ago, in an article for Media Matters for America, I warned that journalists were sanitizing Donald Trump’s incoherent ramblings to make them more palatable for the average voter... This had the effect of making it seem like Trump’s words and actions seemed cogent and sensible for the vast majority of Americans who didn’t happen to watch his rant live. Flash-forward to today, and it’s clear this problem has only worsened. As Trump’s statements grow increasingly unhinged in his old age, major news outlets continue to reframe his words, presenting a dangerously misleading picture to the public. ... "This “sanewashing” of Trump’s statements isn’t just poor journalism; it’s a form of misinformation that poses a threat to democracy. By continually reframing Trump’s incoherent and often dangerous rhetoric as conventional political discourse, major news outlets are failing in their duty to inform the public and are instead providing cover for increasingly erratic behavior from a former—and potentially future—president. (more) https://newrepublic.com/article/185530/media-criticism-trump-sanewashing-problem

More in overnight poll say Harris won debate Respondents in a new survey say Vice President Harris soundly won Tuesday night’s debate over former President Trump — a reversal of Trump’s showing when he faced President Biden on the debate stage three months ago. Forty-three percent of respondents in a YouGov poll conducted Wednesday morning said they thought Harris won her first — and possibly only — faceoff against Trump, compared to 28 percent who said they thought Trump won the debate. Another 30 percent said they were not sure who came out on top. The poll echoed the findings of a CNN flash poll conducted by SSRS immediately after the debate, in which 63 percent of voters surveyed said Harris won, while 37 percent said Trump was the victor. (more) https://thehill.com/homenews/4873826-harris-trump-debate-winner/

House Republicans bemoan Trump debate performance: ‘Not good’ House Republicans are bemoaning former President Trump’s performance in the first — and potentially only — debate against Vice President Harris, acknowledging that the Democratic nominee successfully got under her GOP opponent’s skin. Several times throughout the more than 90-minute debate in Philadelphia, Harris appeared to try to bait Trump with attacks on matters that hit close to home — the size of his rallies, the magnitude of his family fortune, world leaders “laughing” at him — in an effort to thwart his composed posture. Some House Republicans say she succeeded. “I’m just sad,” one House Republican who is supportive of Trump told The Hill. “She knew exactly where to cut to get under his skin. Just overall disappointing that he isn’t being more composed like the first debate.” (more) https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4873509-trump-harris-debate-house-republicans/

Johnson is an overt Trump partisan and acolyte who wouldn't hold Trump responsible for anything anti-Trumpish, including the end of the U.S.'s presence in Afghanistan. Examples: Trump’s private demand to Johnson: Help overturn my conviction ... "It’s a campaign he orchestrated in the days after his May 30 conviction on 34 felony counts in New York, starting with a phone call to the man he wanted to lead it: Speaker Mike Johnson. ... Johnson sympathized with Trump’s frustration. He’d been among the first batch of Republican lawmakers to appear alongside Trump at the Manhattan trial. He’d been harping on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case and the alleged broader abuse of the justice system since before he took the gavel. [emphasis added] The speaker didn’t really need to be convinced, one person familiar with the conversation said: Johnson, a former attorney himself, already believed the House had a role to play in addressing Trump’s predicament. The two have since spoken on the subject multiple times." https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/13/donald-trump-conviction-mike-johnson-00163128 Along with: Speaker Johnson says Trump ‘clearly prevailed’ in debate "House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that former President Trump “clearly prevailed” in the Tuesday ABC News debate against Vice President Harris, praising his “authenticity” and arguing the moderators leaned in favor of the Democratic nominee. “Well, I will tell you what, President Donald Trump is the reigning presidential debate champion, and even though the contest was three to one last night, he clearly prevailed,” Johnson said during his Wednesday morning appearance on FOX Business Network’s Mornings With Maria with guest anchor Cheryl Casone." https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4874212-trump-harris-debate-speaker-mike-johnson/ Johnson is delusional!

The House Republicans have their unfailingly partisan political opinion for what transpired and why. The U.S. government's Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction had a different opinion: Inspector General Blames Trump’s Taliban Deal for Afghan Collapse Although the report criticized the Trump administration’s deal with the Taliban, it also highlighted severe structural deficiencies in the Afghan security forces. May 19, 2022 "The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the task force assigned to review U.S. spending in Afghanistan, said in its quarterly report that it believes the abrupt collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government was in large part due to the deal the Trump administration made with the Taliban in February 2020. [emphasis added] The report, which was released on Wednesday, argued that the deal had been the “single most important near-term factor” explaining the Afghan security forces’ disintegration during the Taliban’s offensive in the summer of 2021. It described the impending departure of U.S. forces as a “catalyst” that intensified Afghan forces’ existing problems, including persistent low morale and a perception that the government’s defeat was inevitable. Gen. Sami Sadat, a former Afghan National Army (ANA) general interviewed by SIGAR investigators, claimed that the signing of the deal—in which American negotiators promised that U.S. troops would withdraw from the country by May 2021—had an outsized “psychological impact” on “the average Afghan soldier,” motivating them to enter “survival mode and bec[ome] susceptible to accepting other officers and deals.” (more) https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/inspector-general-blames-trump’s-taliban-deal-afghan-collapse-202534

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/11/politics/video/trump-fact-check-debate-cnn-daniel-dale-digvid CNN fact checker Daniel Dale -- "The fact check story of the night was the staggering dishonesty of former President Trump..."

Predictable comments from MAGA types, as the Newsweek headline correctly reports -- "MAGA Attacks ABC Moderators After Debate" Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that CNN, as earlier cited and sourced in this thread, reported that Trump had made more than 30 false claims during the debate, while Harris had at most made a couple disputed or in question claims. Trump was a literal tidal wave of falsehoods during the debate, and it's to their credit that the ABC moderators at least challenged him on a couple of many he uttered. CNN Fact-Checks ‘Staggeringly Dishonest’ Trump Debate Circus ‘UNTETHERED TO REALITY’ The network did not have time to go through all of the 33 lies Trump spewed during the 90-minute debate but concluded it was “just lie after lie.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-fact-checks-staggeringly-dishonest-donald-trump-debate-circus "Trump again delivered a staggering quantity and variety of false claims, some of which were egregious lies about topics including abortion, immigration and the economy. Harris was far more accurate than Trump; CNN’s preliminary count found just one false claim from the vice president, though she also added some claims that were misleading or lacking in key context." https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/politics/fact-check-debate-trump-harris/index.html

Your posts above are full of snarky generic comments and opinions, with rarely anything of any substance or credibility to back them up. That's what happens when pretty much the entire political world is saying your candidate was the clear loser. For clear evidence, see the numerous media report cited and sourced above on this page and earlier in this thread.

Democratic watch parties finally relish a debate night performance From San Francisco to Chicago to D.C., Democrats were thrilled to see their nominee land some attacks against Trump. SAN FRANCISCO — A lively crowd gathered at a political watering hole in San Francisco, where Vice President Kamala Harris was previously district attorney, was in stitches throughout much of the two-hour debate. The mood at Manny's in the Mission was so jubilant that the gathering often felt more like a comedy roast than a presidential debate, with the audience howling as former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that immigrants are “eating” household pets — and then wrangled with ABC’s moderators tried to fact-check him live. The laughter continued as she baited Trump by mocking the size of his rallies, and the Harris-friendly crowd cheered and whistled as the Democrat landed one-liners like, “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. Clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.” (more) https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/09/10/trump-harris-presidential-debate-tonight/dems-cartwheel-over-harris-performance-00178547

Harris gets under Trump’s skin, over and over She taunted the crowd size of his rallies and got him on the defense over Project 2025. Kamala Harris set a hook. And Donald Trump took the bait — over and over again. In the first face-to-face showdown between the two presidential candidates, she taunted him for his crowd sizes, his past bankruptcies, his inherited wealth and more. Mocking Trump’s stature on the global stage, Harris claimed that world leaders laugh at him — a barb aimed squarely at his personal insecurities. The result left Trump on the defensive — and struggling to land hits even as the discussion turned to territory friendlier for him like immigration and the economy. (more) https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/10/harris-trump-debate-taunts-analysis-00178517

I'll believe it when I see it... They've been spouting this kind of stuff for years as regards to reduced rail transit fares and system integration in BKK, and not much has come from it thus far.

Harris won the debate — and it wasn’t close Kamala Harris showed up — and then some. The vice president’s performance against Donald Trump, in which she repeatedly baited him and knocked him off balance, was a far cry from President Joe Biden’s disastrous June debate. And it gave Democrats the role reversal they had hoped for after their switch at the top of the ticket. The two candidates entered the debate deadlocked in the polls — and in a deeply polarized nation, the race is still likely to remain close. But voters got their first look at Harris going toe-to-toe with Trump, and she did more than hold her own. (more) https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/11/harris-biden-debate-winner-takeaways-00178442

CNN instant poll: Kamala Harris ran away with it A survey of debate watchers showed a clear victor. A majority of voters who watched Tuesday’s debate picked Kamala Harris as the winner, according to an instant CNN/SSRS survey. In the poll, 63 percent of those who watched the debate — a group that is not representative of the electorate as a whole — said Harris won. Just 37 percent said Donald Trump won the debate. Harris’ apparent victory is notable because the same group of voters went into the debate with mixed expectations. Asked before the debate whom they thought would win, 50 percent predicted Harris, and 50 percent chose Trump. (more) https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/09/10/trump-harris-presidential-debate-tonight/cnn-flash-poll-harris-won-00178566

Only in deluded MAGA land.... 162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact-checks former President Trump August 11, 2024 ... "7. “Kamala's record is horrible. She's a radical left person at a level that nobody's seen.” It’s debatable how liberal Harris is. Some in California didn’t like her record on criminal justice and thought she was not progressive enough. She’s clearly liked by progressives and her voting scores as a senator are on the liberal end of the spectrum, but is she “radical left” and “at a level that nobody’s seen”? There are plenty of people alive and in history who would be considered far more liberal and more radical." https://www.npr.org/2024/08/11/nx-s1-5070566/trump-news-conference AND Trump calls Harris a Marxist, a communist, even a fascist. Why his wild punches don’t land "So why is Trump’s free-swinging rhetoric failing? For one thing, Harris isn’t — and never has been — a Marxist, and most voters appear to recognize that. In her abortive presidential campaign in 2019, she cast herself as a progressive — but she was still closer to the center than candidates like independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who (unlike Harris) describes himself as a democratic socialist." https://archive.ph/wjUg0 https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-09-02/presidential-election-donald-trump-calls-kamala-harris-a-marxist-a-communist-even-a-fascist-why-his-wild-punches-arent-landing

Per Forbes: "While the betting markets believe the election remains fairly close, this is a strong consensus among bettors that Harris won the debate. Polymarket bookmakers believe Harris has a 98% chance of being judged the winner of Tuesday night’s debate in consolidated post-debate snap polls. Big Number 2.7%. That is the size of Harris’ lead over Trump in national polls, according to FiveThirtyEight’s weighted average." https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2024/09/11/harris-surges-past-trump-in-election-betting-markets-after-presidential-debate/ Also, as reported and sourced previously in this thread, both the Washington Post and Fox News both did post debate focus groups with undecided voters, and in both cases, the majority said Harris won the debate. As for your cited Reuters report: "Reuters interviewed 10 people who were still unsure how they were going to vote in the Nov. 5 election before they watched the debate. Six said afterward they would now either vote for Trump or were leaning toward backing him. Three said they would now back Harris and one was still unsure how he would vote." All of ten people...well, that certainly calls it! 🙂

Sep 11, 2024 Vice President Kamala Harris vaulted past President Donald Trump to become the bookmaker’s favorite to win the November election on Tuesday night, after a strong showing in the first presidential debate. According to the Election Betting Odds tracker, which consolidates betting numbers from four separate markets, bookmakers now believe Harris has a 51.8% chance of winning compared to Trump’s 46.9%. This is a major shift in favor of Harris, whose chances have risen by more than four and half points in the past 24 hours, while Trump’s have plummeted by four. (more) https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2024/09/11/harris-surges-past-trump-in-election-betting-markets-after-presidential-debate/

Sounds like post debate damage control by Graham for this: ‘Disaster’: Lindsey Graham Leads Right-Wing Freak-Out Over Trump’s Debate Right-wing politicians, pundits, and journalists agonize over Trump’s flailing performance, and attack ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis for their rigorous fact-checking. For Lindsey Graham, there was only one word for Donald Trump’s Tuesday night debate performance against Kamala Harris: “Disaster.” Trump was unprepared, and his debate team should be fired, Graham told Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast. (more) https://www.thedailybeast.com/disaster-lindsey-graham-leads-right-wing-freak-out-over-trumps-debate

Never thought I'd be posting from the Trump-favorite New York Post... But today is an auspicious day! If this is what the NYP is saying, they you know just how really bad it was for Trump. Harris campaign calls for second debate less than an hour after Trump’s performance is panned by critics https://nypost.com/2024/09/10/us-news/harris-campaign-calls-for-second-debate-after-trumps-performance-is-panned-by-critics/ Trump debate performance panned as well-prepped Harris gets help from ABC moderators: ‘3 on 1’ https://nypost.com/ Perhaps that's because, as CNN has already reported in posts previously posted here, their count had Trump putting toward more than 30 falsehoods during the debate, compared to just a handful of disputed claims by Harris. It sounds merely like the debate moderators challenged Trump to respond on his torrent of lies.

Trump wins the debate falsehoods derby in a landslide, per CNN: Fact-checking the ABC News presidential debate (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump delivered more than 30 false claims during Tuesday’s presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, CNN’s preliminary count found – as he did during his June debate against President Joe Biden. Trump again delivered a staggering quantity and variety of false claims, some of which were egregious lies about topics including abortion, immigration and the economy. Harris was far more accurate than Trump; CNN’s preliminary count found just one false claim from the vice president, though she also added some claims that were misleading or lacking in key context. (more) https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/10/politics/fact-check-debate-trump-harris/index.html