OPINION
Premium

Harris-Ruhle Managed to Undermine Expectations, and a Defamation Suit Is Settled Without Numbers

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Sep 26, 2024
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Get access to Brad Slager's "Riffed From the Headlines," a daily VIP feature where he looks to bring accountability to the mainstream media. Use promo code FAKENEWS to get 50% off your VIP membership.

Reporting on the Mirror – NEWSMAX

  • The lack of firm numbers will not stop the press from speculating.

News has come out that the defamation case between Newsmax and Smartmatic Voting Systems has been settled before a judgment. The issue is that the terms of the agreement are sealed, so nobody is sure what the final figures might be. That is not stopping the criticisms flowing from media figures.

Legalized Press-titution – MSNBC

  • We had low expectations, but still...

Stephanie Ruhle held her interview with Kamala Harris, and it was about as bad as expected. No, actually check that. It somehow became worse. Harris had a deeply supportive pundit in a friendly environment, and she still managed to come off sounding like a babbling lost soul desperate to fill up airtime with empty platitudes. It was…a holistic time.

Recommended

They're Trying to Do It: Dems Are Pushing Legislation to Pack the Supreme Court. Here Are the Details. Matt Vespa
October/September Surprises! Victor Davis Hanson

As bad as it was, Ms. Ruhle managed to expose herself anew after the fact. When addressing the results, her explanation for Harris not answering her questions – not swinging at her underhand wiffle ball tosses – she explains to Chris Hayes that Harris did not answer clearly because the issues are not clear.

Just…wow.

Pre-Written Field Reports – FOX NEWS

  • This alters the broad narrative about the debate, does it not?

Brett Baier has a revealing detail for the proposed debate dates that his network had offered for the presidential candidates. Fox News proposed three dates in October to stage a debate, and there has been little in the way of movement. But even as we have heard reports that the Harris campaign is lobbying for a new debate on CNN, Baier indicates that he has been in regular contact with both campaigns and had a surprising conclusion. He tells Hugh Hewitt that the main reason there is not a debate settled on at Fox, in contrast to most reports from either side of the political aisle, is that it seems mostly due to the hesitancy by the Trump camp.

Gilded Reframe – VARIOUS OUTLETS

During a panel of journalists held at the Texas Tribune Festival, we see some signs of journalists coming to terms with the manner they had buried reports of Joe Biden's mental slide. MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire, Peter Baker of The New York Times, Laura Barron-Lopez of "PBS NewsHour," and David Smith of The Guardian were discussing the prior coverage of Biden, and there was a noticeable pattern: Yes, maybe they should have been more journalistically diligent on the matter, and as a result, they need to call out Donald Trump being so old now:

  • SMITH: "There was perhaps, even on an unconscious level, the notion that if you focus so much on Joe Biden's age, you are somehow helping Donald Trump."
  • LEMIRE: "I think that even though that led to the, shall we say, unhappiness of some of the MSNBC's viewing public who felt like, 'Hey, why are you focusing on this? It shouldn’t matter. He's doing a great job.' And I think our job is to simply call it like we see it."
  • BARRON-LOPEZ: "It is and was a valid question. Many times when I was on the trail, even before the debate, voters would bring it up. Almost every single voter I spoke to would bring it up."
  • BAKER: "I can sit down and make the case that we did too little about it. I can make the case we did too much. I can play it either way. But the truth is, it's an important issue. And President Biden himself said it was a legitimate issue."

And in the wake of this soul-search – while it has been encouraged by the likes of us for some time – it leads to an obvious conclusion. Now that Biden has stepped away, it is a great time to do their jobs. This means leaning into the issue of Donald Trump's age.

  • LEMIRE: "There has been more scrutiny on Trump's age in recent weeks."
  • BAKER: "Trump is very loud and loud seems to cover in some ways for the, you know, the un-diagrammable sentences."
  • BARRON-LOPEZ: "Compared to now, I definitely think that Donald Trump's age could be covered more by the press."

Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – WASHINGTON POST

  • Allow us to judge the unambiguous coverage of this proposal.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has come up with a proposed dose of legislation to address what is perceived to be a problem in our government. In covering this plan, we see this language from the Washington Post reporters:

  • "One of the most ambitious efforts to date."

  • "The goal of the bill is to restore public confidence."

What is this proposal that has the Post excited?

Court packing.

Wyden has a radical idea to expand the size of SCOTUS over a 15-year period, restrict how often future presidents make appointments, remove the ability of the Senate to withhold votes, and put justices under strict oversight, along with other standards.

To underscore the slant of this piece, one of the causes leading to this grand idea is "the conservative supermajority that now dominates the court." WaPo also lists off some controversies involving some of the conservative justices and how liberal justices have said publicly they support a binding ethics code.