In a fawning profile of NBC News anchors Savannah Guthrie and Kristen Welker published on Thursday, Vogue magazine laughably hailed the pair as “pillars of the fourth estate” who were “determined to hold leaders of both parties to account.” Guthrie’s Trump-trashing townhall ahead of the election and Welker’s slanted moderation of the second presidential debate were cheered as examples of their supposed journalistic skills.
In the article, entitled “How Savannah Guthrie and Kristen Welker Won the 2020 Election Coverage,” author Michelle Ruiz gushed: “In a season of political tumult, amid an increasingly polarized and partisan media landscape, Guthrie and Welker have emerged as pillars of the fourth estate—two roundly tough-but-fair network newswomen determined to hold leaders of both parties to account.”
Ruiz singled out how Guthrie and Welker were able to influence the election: “Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s attacks on the free press, Guthrie and Welker delivered two of the more improbable journalistic feats of the 2020 election cycle: Guthrie’s interview with President Trump at NBC’s controversial town hall in Miami in October and, one week later, Welker’s moderation of the final presidential debate.”
Describing how “NBC had triggered outrage when it slated the town hall with Trump at the same time as a Biden event on ABC,” Ruiz quoted Guthrie claiming:
I was aware early on that some people didn’t like that NBC had offered a town hall to the president, but almost immediately I shoved all of that out....It’s not the first time I’ve had that experience, where there’s controversy swirling around something that I’m involved with at work....I had no idea until it was over how a certain segment of our population was really mad at NBC and maybe mad at me.
Despite her assertion that she tuned out the left-wing outrage, Guthrie certainly seemed intent on quelling the criticism by unleashing on the President throughout the hostile event. Ruiz marveled: “The backlash wouldn’t last. With a delicate mix of authority and relatability, Guthrie salvaged the town hall with sharp, straightforward questions and unrelenting follow-ups.” She touted other rave reviews from leftists: “Critics applauded Guthrie’s grilling: ‘It was like somebody putting a roadblock right in front of the bs,’ Salon television critic Melanie McFarland told me.”
A similar adoring profile of Guthrie in The New York Times applauded the townhall as a “crucial turning point of the campaign.”
Though Ruiz assured readers that objectivity was paramount to Guthrie: “But as an impartial journalist, Guthrie is loath to be hailed as a Trump-slayer: ‘It’s more important than ever that journalists recognize that we are on no one’s side,’ she asserted, her usually chipper tone intensifying.”
Noting that “Welker studied Guthrie’s town hall closely as she prepared to moderate the final presidential debate,” Ruiz cited Guthrie declaring of the Saturday Today show host: “Fairness is in her bones.” The author sympathized with Welker, whose selection as debate moderator was met with criticism:
Moderating the debate thrust Welker to a new tier of fame and scrutiny. No sooner had the Committee on Presidential Debates chosen her than she drew President Trump’s ire. He assailed Welker, a staple in his briefing room, as “a disaster,” “terrible,” and “unfair,” even lashing out at her parents for making campaign donations to Democratic candidates.
Welker once asked President Trump if he “worked for Russia.”
Ruiz sycophantically proclaimed: “With the gravitas of Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite and poise all her own, Welker coolly restored order and civility after the disastrous first debate moderated by Fox News’s Chris Wallace.” In reality, Welker barely mentioned the scandal swirling around Hunter Biden regarding his shady foreign business dealings (and even tried to blunt it by accusing Trump of having ties to China), not once asked about Democrats scheming to pack the Supreme Court, and advocated on behalf of far-left groups like Black Lives Matter.
Despite their obvious records of hurting Trump and helping Biden during the 2020 campaign, Ruiz wrapped up the puff piece with this:
Looking ahead to the Biden administration, neither woman expects her core responsibility to change. “It’s one thing to campaign,” Guthrie said. “Now it’s on them to govern.” The Biden transition team has signaled a desire to set a different tone with the press than their immediate predecessors, but that doesn’t mean that either woman intends to let down her guard. “I’m going to ask Vice President Harris a lot of questions she probably won’t like,” Welker said, “and she would expect nothing less.”
No one has to wait to see how NBC would cover Biden. During an October 5 townhall with Biden, the Democratic nominee was treated to a series of softballs. During an interview with President-Elect Biden on November 24, Nightly News anchor Lester Holt urged the incoming administration to investigate Trump.
One thing you can say about the left-wing media is they certainly stick together. One set of journalists hammer Republicans and appease Democrats while another set of reporters praise the previous group as the epitome of fairness.
