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DNC PR Firm – MSNBC
"How unfair is it that they found out about your scandal?"
As the media fluffing for the Kamala-Walz campaign shifts into a desperate higher gear, we get this wiffle ball interview with Joe Scarborough and Doug Emhoff. One might be tempted to say that Scar-Joe should be given credit for bringing up the recent story of Emhoff having struck a former girlfriend and issuing a payoff, except for the manner in which he introduced the subject.
Emhoff was challenged on the subject, he was asked by Scar-Joe essentially how it makes him feel:
SCAR-JOE: (Trump)’s spreading it about you, saying that, tabloid stories about your personal life, saying it should be front and center, he's saying it about your wife and making incredibly crude and lewd suggestions about her past life. I'm just curious. I know I seem like a very zen, mindful person, but I think I'd be pissed off, and I'm just wondering how do you all stay centered? How do you stay disciplined and not really go off and not really push back hard at these things?
EMHOFF: We don't have time to be pissed off. We don't have time to focus on it. It's all a distraction. It's designed to try to get us off our game.
That is an entirely lawyer-like answer. It was a non-denial denial, and the framing was all about how unseemly it is for Trump to bring it up, despite the story originating with the woman – who we were told in the past we all need to believe.
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"We don't have time to be pissed off. We don't have time to focus on it. It's all a distraction. It's designed to try to get us off our game."
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) October 11, 2024
— @SecondGentleman weighs in on Trump's attacks on Harris in a exclusive sit down with @JoeNBC, which is set to air Monday, Oct 14. pic.twitter.com/EjBRGBaI7h
Legalized Press-titution – VOGUE
The follow-up question should have been, "Were you not given a phone as vice president?"
Vogue Magazine does its dutiful best to serve the administration – yet again – by placing Kamala on the cover just before the election. In the copy of the feature, Harris was asked about what she would do on her first days in office:
One of my first calls—outside of family—will be to the team that is working with me on our plan to lower costs for the American people.
It is yet another time in which she promises to undertake policy action that she was incapable of doing the past four years.
Here’s the Annie Leibovitz-shot Vogue cover and story. https://t.co/qpJco1NuGY pic.twitter.com/M3e96rIzma
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 11, 2024
Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – ABC NEWS
You know, they expected a more friendly exchange with a fellow footballer!
Continuing the media blitz (see what we did there?), the Harris campaign felt it was a great idea to sit in for an interview with Michael Strahan on "Good Morning America." After all, Strahan is a former NFL player, and Walz was an assistant defensive coach. This will go great!
Except Strahan actually asked serious questions, and Walz looked completely lost, expecting Strahan to block for him instead of hitting him with questions.
WATCH: This was undoubtedly the WORST part of the interview for Walz. My goodness....
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 11, 2024
Strahan: "Let's talk about your record and you call yourself a knuckle head. You call yourself a knucklehead because you made some statements that just aren't true. And the comment about… pic.twitter.com/US1vX31mRj
Matching Media Memorandum – POLITICO
POLITICO does the job of running as a press release outlet for the Democrats, suggesting that Tim Walz is going out there and drawing in men. After burying the man away from the press pretty much from the time just after the Democratic convention, Walz is now dispatched to the press. Why? Because the internal numbers show that male voters are a demographic where Harris is in big trouble.
So, here is POLITICO pimping this new effort, even going so far as to lapse back into the press-approved narrative that Walz represents a "folksy relatability" that men will be drawn to.
Walz to launch media blitz to woo male voters https://t.co/DXHC4bEEoe
— POLITICO (@politico) October 10, 2024
Both Kinds of Standards – VARIOUS OUTLETS
One of the main arguments heard from Democrats and the press for the past four years is that questioning election results is the worst thing possible, and especially noted were the Republican politicians who were not willing to certify the results in January 2020. This was deemed as a threat to our democracy, and questioning the integrity of the elections is the kind of thing seen from those who are in Vladimir Putin's back pocket and all other manner of hyperbole. At many news outlets, it has been a required litmus test for a Republican guest to assert Joe Biden was legitimately elected, then becoming a challenge that they will certify the upcoming election was legitimate.
That said, the silence heard in response to this report of Democrats refusing to go on the record that they will certify the election if Trump wins is rather significant.
Scoop: Some top House Democrats won't commit to certifying a Trump victory https://t.co/cMSgORbcNM
— Axios (@axios) October 11, 2024
News Avoidance Syndrome – THE NEW YORK TIMES
At The Times, a four-person team, including Maggie Haberman, covered how Elon Musk is an avowed supporter of Donald Trump. This seems to have been sparked by Musk appearing at the last Trump rally, and this is something that bothers the brain trust at The Times:
In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the richest man in the world has involved himself in the U.S. election in a manner unparalleled in modern history.
Apparently, it is problematic that a billionaire with a media company is supporting a candidate. That is, supporting a Republican candidate. As we all know, and that we detail here at RFtH, most of the news outlets are fully in support of the Democrats, and many of those are owned by billionaires. An incomplete rundown:
WASHINGTON POST – Jeff Bezos
LOS ANGELES TIMES – Patrick Soon-Shiong
BOSTON GLOBE – John W. Henry
TIME MAGAZINE – Marc Benioff
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL – Sheldon Adelson
"In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the richest man in the world has involved himself in the U.S. election in a manner unparalleled in modern history."
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) October 11, 2024
Team @nytimes on how Musk is using money, his voice, and his control of Twitter to help Trump win.…
