Former CNN anchor Brian Stelter sought to minimize former President Donald Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson on X, arguing it was a “total flop.”
According to the liberal media personality, Trump’s effort to counterprogram the debate, given that the interview dropped a few minutes before GOP presidential candidates took to the debate stage, “didn’t really work.”
"Nothing changed Trump's status as the GOP frontrunner last night," he said. "He is still clearly the frontrunner, but, you know, both of these men, Tucker and Trump, they both want to seem independent, free of the RNC, free of Fox, and that is appealing to their base audience."
By the end of the debate, it was as though the interview on X “never happened,” he said.
Stelter also took issue with the massive number of views the interview had.
"It was irrelevant, and now, this morning, Trump and Carlson fans are trying to claim that the interview was widely viewed, it was more popular than the debate, but that is bologna," he said of the interview, which was viewed more than
"Twitter view counts are widely overstated. So, the truth was this interview was an afterthought."
.@brianstelter downplays Trump's interview with Tucker because nothing changed in the race: "He is still the front runner...but by the end of the debate, it was as if this Trump interview had never happened, it was irrelevant." pic.twitter.com/4yMMlBvyeu
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 24, 2023
Yes, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the interview attracted a very big audience, and was a coup of sorts for Tucker, and a convenient platform for Trump. Debating the minutiae of how ratings work is absurd, and trying to avoid something very obvious.
— мαηιsн (@_manishkapoor) August 24, 2023
While Stelter noted it is not an apples-to-apples comparison between the way X measures views and television ratings, he’s missing the broader point about how Elon Musk’s social media platform is “breaking the media landscape forever,” as conservative commentator Benny Johnson points out. “Broadcast with no ad breaks, no corporate filter & no censorship. Just raw, fascinating insight & honesty that users devour.”