Cross Town Thoughts
Grading the debate.
Kristen Welker A+
Joe Biden D-
Donald Trump C+
Trump gets points for kind of behaving. He didn’t bring a Hunter poster, but he did bring Bobulinski. Nobody wanted to comment on Biden’s clear senility. Welker was a model moderator.
Now that the last debate is done. What’s left? Still plenty of time for hijinks. Every day seems like a year. If Biden does win, it will be a “dark winter” for the media. What in the hell will they talk about?
Good book.
The Searcher by Tana French
Football.
Old Guys Tom & Gronk trounce Rogers & Co
Giants post their first W
Extra points are no longer a given
Games all times and days
Normalcy?
mAd Ben returns to the office after 7 months
Hypocrisy.
Holier-than-thou Jeff Toobin master debater
Artsy.
Fargo’s continued gorgeous stagecraft
Dueling Town Halls. Trump. NBC. Biden. ABC.
Savannah Guthrie was blatantly biased and inept. And. It was not a Town Hall. And. On what planet does a professional media person wear a hot pink jumpsuit with clunky black heels. And. Trump ran roughshod over her attempts to wrangle the mike from antithetical questioners.
George Stephanopoulos ran a Town Hall. He dressed appropriately and pushed back and followed up. Biden insulted young Black voters with his anachronistic platitudes and incoherent mumbles. Joe was Joe at his best at the end of the show when he spoke from the heart.
Two cosmos. No one under 65 watched anyway. So.
New normal. Zoom business meetings. Face-timing with family. Does this work for everything?
Presidential campaigning needs energy from in-person interaction with voters. Biden allows small groups in safe venues when he ventures out of his underground den. Trump flouts masks and holds huge rallies even after getting Covid. Risk vs. Reward.
But. C’mon. When you know you’ll be interrogating a Supreme Court nominee in prime time. Do you choose to do it from a remote office with bad lighting and horrible sound? Kamala? Seriously?
Don & Melania have tested positive. Must be October. Surprised? No.
Unnamed persons in the immediate vicinity are having a hard time suppressing their gloat. Joe & Mika are struggling to feign concern. As are most media. Karma’s a bitch oozing out of their ears.
All bets are off.
Rain cleaned out the humidity. Fresh breezes.
Comey himself is testifying to the Senate today about the Steele dossier. While Jeff Daniels is on all media promoting the HBO Show. Amy Coney Barrett meeting with only Republicans before her SCOTUS hearing.
Kelly Ripa of all people had the best solution for a coherent debate. She suggested on her show this morning that they should be virtual with the moderator employing the mute button. Don’t rely on her book advice, though. Mexican Gothic was awful.
No surprise. NYTimes columnists said Biden won the debate. Because he wasn’t Trump.
One of the few rainy mornings on the South Fork this summer. So. Checked into reality for a bit.
Michael J. Sandel’s Column – New York Times caught my eye. That disdain for non-college-educated voters is the last acceptable prejudice. Labeling groups with condescending remarks such as “people who cling to their god and their guns” or “baskets of deplorables”.
Suggestion to media elite:
Read J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. For the first time or again.
Stormy gusts knocking over anything not bolted down out there. Hurricane Isaías here and gone with the wind.
Journalism is also off-kilter as brave women speak out against the corrupt ratings-fueled media news outlets. Bari Weiss of The New York Times and Ariana Perkary of MSNBC did not leave their respective outlets quietly. Each railed against editorial decisions based only on what social media responses would be purely for profit. Rather than requiring balanced content as a core tenet.
Hope their voices will be a catalyst for a return to journalistic integrity.
Triggered. Don, Jr.’s online talk show. Trump family’s answer to Rupert Murdoch? Definitely the prototype for a future cable network. TNN. Holding Company The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Media Group. Run by Don, Jr., & his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle.
As I’ve said. TNN will be staffed with Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Mike & Sarah Huckabee et al. Why do you think Trump has been bashing FoxNews lately? They will be his future competition.
Semantics matter. Defund the Police does not mean Reform the Police. Once you have to explain you’ve lost the cause.
Black Lives Matter elicited backlash from some who took issue that all lives should matter. It took a long time, but now has become the accepted slogan of racial injustice by law enforcement. CHAZ has been dumped and replaced in Seattle for some stupid reason.
Make America Great Again. MAGA is immediately recognized as the Trump supporters’ brand. Whereas Hillary’s was I’m With Her. What?
A new ad attacking Biden has the tag So Wrong for So Long. Don’t have to explain it, so it sticks. Does Biden even have a bumper sticker?
C’mon Dems. Tag lines work. Get better at it!
Side Trek . NYC 