PBS opened its fourth and final night of coverage from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with reporting from the PBS News Hour, with congressional reporter Lisa Desjardins, reporting from D.C. a segment on the Republican’s “counterprogramming” of the convention. She proceeded to defensively explain Trump rhetoric to her viewers as if they were toddlers.
Lisa Desjardins: Those who have been listening to the Trump events this week have seen he's tried out some different tactics, different messages, but sources around the Trump campaign and in Trump world tell me they think that that is kind of settling down into sort of a three point of attack. The first was something that you reported on, Amna, this idea that Kamala Harris is liberal to the extreme. That nickname now that he's settled on, it seems like Comrade Kamala. Obviously, she is someone who is a part of a democratic republic. She is not a communist. But that is something that they're going to try and tag her with.
Another condescending and biased explainer followed a soundbite from former Trump press secretary Stephanie Graham, accusing her former boss of denigrating his own supporters as “basement dwellers.”
Desjardins: In response, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung wrote to me, wrote this statement: "Stephanie Grisham is a stone-cold loser who clearly suffers from Trump Derangement syndrome and many other mental issues. She's a liar and a fraud." That obviously a very strong statement. There isn't really a Trump Derangement Syndrome. That's a phrase that they're using.
Wait, you mean TDS is not an actual medical diagnosis out of the DSM-IV? Thanks for clearing that up, guys!
Once the actual Night Four convention coverage started, the empathetic, identity-obsessed “vibes” started early and never let up. Convention co-anchor Amna Nawa asked White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez, on the convention floor.
Amna Nawaz: Laura, we know we’re gonna hear about the history being made. Have you been able to talk to anyone on the floor about this moment this moment in which a black woman for the first time will accept a major party’s nomination for president?
Barron-Lopez talked about the delegates calling Harris’ nomination “historic” and forwarded ethnic enthusiasm from the Democratic delegates in embarrassing and repetitive fashion.
Barron-Lopez: And delegates here are eager to talk about it, and say that they also feel seen. There’s so many aspects of Kamala Harris that make them feel seen, whether it’s -- she comes from an immigrant family, she’s black, she’s of South Asian descent. A lot of her story makes many of the Democrats here tonight feel as though they’re being seen, sometimes for the first time.”
After Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech wrapped up, to a rapturous reception in the PBS booth (quite the opposite to how Donald Trump’s own speech was received last month) coverage co-anchor Amna Nawaz enthused:
Nawaz: Speaking before a packed arena hanging on her every word and making history in the process of her remarks tonight as the first black woman of South Asian descent to accept her party’s nomination for president.
Minutes later she turned to PBS journalist Judy Woodruff for confirmation of her feelings. (Let's guess if Kamala were Republican, there wouldn't be this enthusiasm.)
Nawaz: This moment, set aside about anyone as a Republican or Democrat or independent or whatever, but to have arrived at this moment, for all of us as journalists, you’ve covering as many elections as you have, this is a moment hundreds of years in the making.
Judy Woodruff: It is.
