Taxpayer-funded PBS is inaccurately branded as the fairest, most unemotional TV news outlet. Anyone looking at PBS right after President Joe Biden's disastrous debate would have realized they were more favorable to Biden than anyone else. They steered clear of the dominant panic among Democrats. They sounded more like the DNC than MSNBC.
On the "PBS News Hour" on Friday after the debate, they offered a bland introduction: "Analysis of key moments and fallout from last night's presidential debate." Then the program aired 20 minutes of other news.
The last two-thirds of that hour were dedicated to underlining that Donald Trump unleashed a "torrent of lies," so he lost the debate.
First came PBS White House reporter Laura Barron-Lopez, a staunch Democrat: "Though praised by Republicans for his debate performance, Trump repeated lie after lie, including this one on abortion." Trump said Biden's willing to "rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby." PBS aired Biden yelling, "You're lying!"
That's not a lie. The Democrat platform is clear that there should be no restrictions on abortion. It's merely rude to point out the obvious.
Later, Barron-Lopez announced Biden was trying to reset by calling Trump a threat to democracy. He "pointed out that Donald Trump lied over and over during the debate, which as we all know that he did on immigration, on abortion."
They followed this with an interview of Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) spinning on Biden's behalf. PBS co-anchor Amna Nawaz hammered the line again: "He did deliver a steady stream of lies and baseless information that went largely unchecked. So, to your mind, for viewers watching last night, do you think that contrast was clear?"
In case it wasn't clear, PBS next turned to Samantha Putterman of the liberal site PolitiFact, whose post-debate ratings found Trump was false on 16 occasions, and never true. Biden was on the false side three times out of 11, but PBS skipped those. On PBS, he was always right.
Again, PBS co-anchor Geoff Bennett lamented: "Mr. Trump repeated a false claim that he's made before that Democrats, in his words, will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth." Putterman said it was false, and dragged out the lame argument that since late-term abortions are rare, it's false to say Democrats permit them.
Bennett wrapped up: "What's the consequence when a torrent of lies and mistruths delivered with verve and vigor go unchallenged as they were last night?" Putterman helpfully agreed. "I think that the consequences are quite high."
They concluded the "Trump Lies Hour" with pundits David Brooks and Kimberly Atkins Stohr. She complained Biden failed to counter Trump's lies, like on abortion! "I expected him to come out and make a clear layup on issues like abortion when Donald Trump was standing there lying about it, one of his many lies of that night, and he couldn't even manage that."
Amna Nawaz pounded the line again: "David, as Kim noted there, Mr. Trump once again repeated a number of lies we have heard before on things like immigration and abortion and on January 6, all issues that really do resonate with voters. They went largely unchecked in the debate."
You know who is unchecked? PBS. They tax our paychecks, then relentlessly trash talk Trump as a liar and imply Biden is never false. Biden's only failing is he didn't call Trump a liar enough. PBS made sure no one could lodge that complaint against them.