The political media is running itself out of business
While the media has decided to make a controversy over the debate (bear in mind there was an actual debate-gate 40 years ago when Ronald Reagan’s camp got hold of President Carter’s reelection playbook and used it almost verbatim at the only debate the candidates had that year), things seem to be bouncing back at the pundits themselves that aren’t getting the brokered political convention they’ve hungered for since…well, at least 2020 or 2019.
Now, they’re beginning to feel some of the backlash for the calls they made earlier – among them George Stephanopoulos, who found himself apologizing to comments he made in public about the state of the race – after he was asked a question about not right now but four years from now – but it’s not hard to see how he invited it after asking some of the questions he did during the Friday interview where he mostly spent time asking if President Biden was actually withdrawing, more than anything else.
We can probably expect to see more in the days ahead, with CNN preparing for over 100 layoffs as it revamps its digital efforts – including a premium service (which collapsed in embarrassing fashion the last time they tried one. It shows that trying to turn this into a played out drama for ratings actually didn’t help their ratings, which leads me to believe that viewers are wising up. Canceling subscriptions and tuning out are in fact taking their toll.
As sorry as some might feel for the people included in that number, CNN could probably turn this around if they decided to once again turn their attention to either the Trump campaign or the right-wing think tanks involved in the creation of Project 2025, something that voters are also sobering up to – there’s actual scandals there and they won’t need to make things up to disprove. If you’re hoping for easy days during this election, unfortunately, those will be few and far between – but the important thing is you’re overcoming the hard part – staying glued to your screen isn’t being vigilant – getting President Biden and Democrats re-elected on Nov 5 is.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making