Let's Face It: Trump and Carson are Right

Let's Face It: Trump and Carson are Right

ByJosh MarshallPublishedOctober 15, 2015, 10:11 PM EDT

When I first heard the news that Donald Trump was threatening to boycott the next Republican debate (news about Carson came later), I thought it was another example of Trump's signature tendency: he cannot thrive without drama and enemies. But I confess that when I heard the demands, I thought they had merit.

To be clear, it's definitely also Trump's love of drama. But here's my thinking on this. The Democrats' debate had opening statements and closing statements. While the opening statements were going on I was hearing people say that Fox did better by going straight to questions and dispensing with the canned opening remarks. I think that may be right that it made for better television. But I think having them made for a better debate. Canned or not, it's valuable to see how a candidate chooses to present their campaign in a minute or two, without a forced question or a back and forth with another candidate.

We can see why the candidates like it. But I think it's valuable for voters as well. Contemporary debates - unlike some in the past - certainly are not lacking for one on one confrontations between the candidates or between candidates and the questioners.

Second is length. Running more than two hours and sometimes as long as three hours, the debates are simply too long. One might argue that the more questions the better and who cares whether the candidates legs get tired. But having watched a few of these, sorry, they're just too long. I get the distinct sense that everybody's getting a bit punch drunk by the end.

I don't know whether the networks are actually stringing out the debates to sell more ad time. But it doesn't seem like a crazy idea. And it's tough for me to think of another rationale, frankly.

So, strange as it may seem and strange as they no doubt are, I think Trump and Carson had a good point on this one.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/...rson-are-right

Let's face it, Donald Trump is right on almost everything. But thank you for supporting him on this one!

Erik Wemple
Donald Trump now officially owns cable news

By Erik Wemple October 15 at 6:58 PM

Those tweets represent the Republican front-runner’s complaints about the proposed format for the Oct. 28 Republican debate set to go down in Boulder, Colo. It will be hosted by CNBC.

As reported by Politico, several campaigns expressed concerns in a call with CNBC that they be allowed to make those unbearable opening and closing statements in Boulder. Following the discussion, the campaigns of Donald Trump and Ben Carson sent a joint letter to the network: “Neither Mr. Trump or Dr. Carson will participate in your debate if it is longer than 120 minutes including commercials and does not include opening and closing statements.”

Sounds like a threat. For context, consider that Trump has complained a great deal about CNN’s marathon three-hour Sept. 16 debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. The longer the real estate titan stands on that stage, the more tired he gets and the more likely it is that he’ll have to talk about policy.

A headstrong network might respond that it’s looking out for the interests of its viewers; that, Hey, we’re running this debate, not you; that if it doesn’t want to do boring, press-release-mimicking, rote, snooze-time opening statements, it’s not going to be bullied into including them.

Now for the actual response from CNBC:

Our goal is to host the most substantive debate possible. Our practice in the past has been to forego opening statements to allow more time to address the critical issues that matter most to the American people. We started a dialogue yesterday with all of the campaigns involved and we will certainly take the candidates’ views on the format into consideration as we finalize the debate structure.

Call that Step 1 toward a Trump victory. Next thing you know, he will be matching hair color with autumnal Aspens and unleashing a boastful opening statement against a backdrop of CNBC iconography.

The moment will mark his assumption of full ownership of U.S. cable news. Not that the guy hasn’t already colonized it: Whenever he pleases, it seems, he picks up the phone and engages in long telephone conversations with the cable news host of the day. For one call-in interview during the CNN morning show “New Day,” network President Jeff Zucker personally authorized producers to blow through a commercial break or two just to keep the party going. Strained relations with Trump following the Fox News Republican debate in early August prompted business-model-oriented convulsions in the network’s executive suite, yielding frantic telephonic efforts at air-clearing diplomacy. A similar process repeated itself in miniature just last month, though the parties have apparently reconciled. Trump is on all the time, to the demonstrable delight of the enterprise.

“Say what you want about Donald Trump, but he ain’t wrong when he says people want to watch him on TV. He changes the ratings on cable television,” CNN host Chris Cuomo told the Erik Wemple Blog in September. He changes the ratings on other media as well. Why else would an Atlanta radio host air a radio interview with the candidate that was pieced together from previous Trump statements? Ratings.

And in cable news, ratings uber alles. Good ratings mean good revenues; good ratings mean bragging rights over competitors; good ratings mean all journalistic sins are expiated. Because ratings. As this blog noted yesterday, Donald Trump has to account for a significant portion of the 8-million-viewer gap between the Republican debates and Tuesday night’s Democratic debate on CNN (24 million and 23 million for the Republican debates, and 15 million for the Democratic one). The Trump dividend alone is several times larger than even the top-ranked nightly cable news programs.

What makes this whole episode so juicy is the way in which Trump and Carson set themselves up to beat their chests. Their statement carries an explicit warning about the time of the debate — no longer than 120 minutes. Meanwhile, a CNBC source says that the network “never contemplated getting anywhere near three hours.” So when the debate ends up concluding at a reasonable hour, Trump can take credit. What a negotiator.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ns-cable-news/

I think the debates would be better if confined to 2 hours. That's a long time, longer than most movies and today when a movie is 2 hours long, people call it a "long movie". So Trump is right about this. Of course I could watch a 3 hour Trump Event and not get weary, because I just love what he's talking about and how he talks about it, not every word all the time, but 99% of it, but the average viewer won't be that involved in the policies or the issues before they tire of it and want to do something else so they don't see the end and the ending is important.

Oops. I posted this in this forum by mistake. It should be in General Discussion. Can someone please move for me? Thank you. My apologies.

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Originally Posted by Judy

Oops. I posted this in this forum by mistake. It should be in General Discussion. Can someone please move for me? Thank you. My apologies.

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Moved from News to General Discussion as requested.

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As reported by Politico, several campaigns expressed concerns in a call with CNBC that they be allowed to make those unbearable opening and closing statements in Boulder. Following the discussion, the campaigns of Donald Trump and Ben Carson sent a joint letter to the network: “Neither Mr. Trump or Dr. Carson will participate in your debate if it is longer than 120 minutes including commercials and does not include opening and closing statements.”

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Good move. CNN hosted the Democrats with decorum to give a "stately" appearance to the candidates. The Republican debates have been engineered to try to turn them into nasty food fights by the line of questions asked the candidates.

The rehearsed email line from Sanders to Clinton to give her cover on her National Security failure and incompetent handling of classified information was contrived and painful to watch.

I think that the majority of the American people are a lot smarter and better informed than the media gives them credit for being and can see through all of these little charades and manipulation.

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Originally Posted by Newmexican

Good move. CNN hosted the Democrats with decorum to give a "stately" appearance to the candidates. The Republican debates have been engineered to try to turn them into nasty food fights by the line of questions asked the candidates.

The rehearsed email line from Sanders to Clinton to give her cover on her National Security failure and incompetent handling of classified information was contrived and painful to watch.

I think that the majority of the American people are a lot smarter and better informed than the media gives them credit for being and can see through all of these little charades and manipulation.

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I totally agree!!

We is SMAAAAAART!

:)

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Originally Posted by Judy

I totally agree!!

We is SMAAAAAART!

:)

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And Fiesty.

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Originally Posted by Newmexican

And Fiesty.

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YES! Very Fiesty.

Keep up the good work everyone. I can feel it, we are in a Movement. Lets get it right and put Donald Trump and a whole bunch of Trump-like Congresscritters in the US Congress so we can start winning again.