NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham appeared on Newsmax on Wednesday night to hammer the liberal media for fake and misleading fact checking. Talking about the grilling Donald Trump endured during his Tuesday night town hall on ABC, Graham dismissed the efforts of host George Stephanopoulos as “I'm a Democrat. I'm going to stick up for the Democrats.”
He zinged, “It's not fact checking. It's just playing the Democratic Party rebuttal.” Regarding the ABC event, Graham explained, “I think obviously those of us watching the tenor of the questions here, those people did not sound uncommitted to anyone. And a course [one questioner] came out after the show and said, ‘I’m voting for Biden now. I didn't like the answer.’ Well, I'm sure the question you were asking suggested who you are voting for.”
If you want any more example of just how open journalists are about going easy on Biden, CNN’s Oliver Darcy stated that attempting to aggressively correct the Democrat’s lies is unnecessary.
The notion that Trump should be interviewed in the same fashion as Biden is absurd. Trump has no allegiance to the truth and it shows every single time he is in front of a camera. He lies, misleads, and promotes conspiracy theories at an unprecedented rate in modern American politics.
For more on faulty fact checks, see Graham’s “Fact-Checking the Fact Checkers” series.
A transcript of the Greg Kelly Reports segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Greg Kelly Reports
9/16/2020
10: 18 PM ETGREG KELLY: Well actually not too many people were watching that town hall last night. I watched about half of it. it was poorly produced in my opinion. And the ratings three point eight million viewers that's a very low Number ABC was hoping for a lot more. too many commercials in my opinion. our next guest was watching. Tim Graham, Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center. From time to time over the years he's analyzed my work. And I'm glad to meet you on television. Tim how are you? Great to see you. Welcome to Newsmax.
TIM GRAHAM: Thank you. We're doing great.
KELLY: So. Last night overall thoughts- again I'll just start with this and then I'll leave it to you. They said it was gonna be uncommitted voters I've never really heard of an uncommitted voter. I think that was trickery.
GRAHAM: Look we've been seeing this for a very long time. you can go back to the presidential debates in, like 1992 and they have this town hall formula. And they always say, “We picked uncommitted voters I think a year like this, it's got to be extremely hard to find somebody who hasn't made up their mind at this point. And I think obviously those of us watching the tenor of the questions here, those people did not sound uncommitted to anyone. And a course came out after the show and said, “I’m voting for Biden now. I didn't like the answer.” Well, I'm sure the question you were asking suggested who you are voting for.
KELLY: So here's my thing about uncommitted you know usually the term of art is undecided. And I got hung up on this later on this later. Uncommitted. Nobody as a civilian you know without a newspaper or without delegates, you don't make a commitment to a candidate. So I think that was a weird legal trick or editorial trick that they use so they could say that these are uncommitted voters. Even though they clearly made up their mind.
GRAHAM: This is the kind of thing we're going to see a real contrast here because CNN’s scheduled a town hall meeting with Joe Biden on Thursday night. And I don't think we're going to see this sort of an anti-Biden slant to the we saw a very serious anti-Trump slant in the questioning last night. I mean when you have a guy stand up and basically say, “When is America ever been great? Your slogan is racially insensitive. You don't understand how tone deaf you sound.” You know these guys were coming to hurt the president they were coming to make a moment. And I think what made this so interesting for a lot of people whether you like Trump or you don't like Trump. He was very calm and he did not get shaken. And he did not assault the questioners to reporters were like, “Well, this isn’t what he does to us.” That's because- Trump understands that those people are sent into the White House briefing room to yell at him and make trouble.
These are the actual people, not some media elites.
KELLY: That's a very interesting point. I didn't know that they were, “Hey! He’s nicer to them than he is to us. Those folks are- are pretty out there. George Stephanopoulos himself, he's got all kinds of attitude and conflicts. Let's face it. And here's a moment from last night.
[Clip from town hall.]
KELLY: All right. This up instantaneous fact checking always blows up in their face. In my opinion, George Stephanopoulos didn't care about the woman asking the question. Didn’t care about the audience. He cared about his colleagues at ABC News and his friends in the media elite- that's who he was playing to.
GRAHAM: Well you can just see the way he jumped at the words, you know, “they can't guarantee you health care because it's socialized medicine. And he hears in that all this stuff where he says, “Biden didn't support Medicare for All.” Well, Trump didn't say he did. But basically he's saying the Democratic Party will make a big show out of “We're going to protect you and provide you with health care.” You'll remember — yeah he didn’t say Obama also promised that “you can keep your plan if you like your plan." That didn't exactly work out so— but it’s that hostility that “I'm a Democrat. I'm going to stick up for the Democrats.” Yeah it's not fact checking. It's just playing the Democratic Party rebuttal.
KELLY: I'll say this. At least when- Trump called him out as a Democrat he didn't try to correct them on that. He knows he's a Democrat. We all know he's a Democrat. I do think that instantaneous fact checking and I think that's what he was trying to do is you know it sounds great fact checking who could have a problem with fact checking? But you know it doesn't work in these forums. And people see things differently. Candy Crowley famously did it in 2012.
GRAHAM: Yep.
KELLY: Disastrous effect. Never paid a price for it, by the way.
GRAHAM: Tim Graham, Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center. We appreciate it pal. Thanks a lot.
