Paul Cantrell
To hell with the sliding scale.
When I hear the highlights from the presidential debate tomorrow, I expect candidates to be intelligent, articulate, in command of facts and ideas, and thinking in ways that stand to help instead of harm the millions they’ll impact.
That's just my lowest baseline standard here. The baseline doesn't move.
Harris and Trump are running for the same job, and it's about damned time the press started applying the same standards to both of them.
Mastodon Migration
Say it again for the correspondents in the back, and for A. G. Sulzberger...
"Harris and Trump are running for the same job, and it's about damned time the press started applying the same standards to both of them."
Paul Cantrell
Wednesday morning, a bunch of people are going to be dissecting some minor detail of an esoteric detail of a subclause of an offhand Harris remark about some perfectly well-formed policy idea…
…and the same people are going to be drooling down their chins in awe because Trump formed •three• nearly coherent sentences when he only formed •two• yesterday.
Paul Cantrell
To hell with that.
One of these people is going to end up steering complex, half-broken systems that can help or harm millions of people. Billions.
One of these people is going to end up in control of a bunch of nuclear weapons.
One of these people is going to, according the SCOTUS, exist outside the reach of the law while in office.
I am not here to pat them on the head and give them doggie treats.
Paul Cantrell
Harris and Trump are running for the same job. It’s an enormous job. It’s a job that involves enormous power that probably no single human being should have — but •somebody• is going to end up having it regardless.
It’s a job that matters. It matters who does it. It matters if they can think. It matters if they’re a fascist.
I think it matters. I’m not sure the political press does, though.
Tofu Golem
@inthehands
The press will always hold Republicans to a different standard because at the end of the day, the only real difference between the NY Times and FOX News is the average syllables per word.
Paul Cantrell
@tofugolem
20 years ago, I would have vehemently disagreed.
Paul Cantrell
Somebody who's going to be at that debate is really, really confused about the difference between reality TV and real life. They think that the only thing that matters is what the showrunners do to the characters to keep things interesting for the audience.
No, I'm not talking about Trump. I'm talking about the press.
Paul Cantrell
One last thought:
If you’re running a reality TV show, you protect your stars. Never, ever let the competition be fair: that one contestant who’s driving viewership might be eliminated! If they royally screw things up? When they’re a star, you let them do it.
This is entertainment, after all. It’s not like lives hang in the balance, right?
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