MSNBC is hosting a "Vaccinating America" coronavirus special in the Lawrence O'Donnell hour tonight. O'Donnell will interview the president, followed by a town hall with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Politico Playbook reports they committed a "journalistic no-no" in offering to pay for an audience (like he can't draw one?)
It's apparently about assembling some er, vaccination diversity in the crowd. You might have to pay the anti-vaxxers to attend? Since MSNBC pretends there are no leftist anti-vaxxers?
RENT-A-CROWD FOR FAUCI? — Tonight, MSNBC hosts a coronavirus town hall forum with Anthony Fauci. To find a mix of attendees with different vaccination statuses, the outlet hired MediaBarn, a company that specializes in focus groups and surveys.
News organizations do not typically pay attendees to take part in live audiences — it’s a journalistic no-no. But in the invitation sent out by MediaBarn, the company offered to pay people $100 to attend the event in Alexandria, Va.
After we asked MSNBC about this , MediaBarn updated its online invitation with a “correction” stating that they would not be paying audience members, and that it was “incorrectly sent out.” Now we’ll have to see if they can still fill a room for Fauci.
We can guess that this "town hall" is going to be much, much softer on this president than NBC's Savannah Guthrie was with President Trump last October. We counted 25 liberal/oppositional blasts at Trump. It was screechy.
