Debate moderator Lester Holt, asking a question that did not involve immigration, healthcare or student debt. (image: NBC News)
Presidential debates do as much to illustrate corporate media priorities as they do to showcase the candidates. They provide a snapshot into what the media, in this case represented by NBC’s Lester Holt, prioritizes as issues worthy of discussion.
A week before the debate, Comcast-owned NBC announced the topics, and one could already tell we weren’t going to be in for a substantive evening: “Achieving prosperity,” “America’s direction” and “securing America.” This generic approach lead to a generic debate that focused mostly on horserace disputes and vague, open-ended questions about taxes and jobs.
Holt didn’t ask any questions about the following topics: poverty, abortion, climate change, immigration, healthcare, student debt, privacy, LGBTQ rights or drug policy. (NBC reported before the debate that abortion and immigration were two of the policy issues that voters were most interested in, as indicated by Google searches, along with the economy and police shootings.)
What was discussed: jobs, Trump’s tax returns, who did or didn’t support the Iraq War, raising taxes on the rich, race (framed mostly in a way that pandered to Trump’s theme of a country in disarray), Russian cyberattacks, ISIS, Obama’s birth certificate, Clinton’s physical appearance and whether the candidates would accept the election results.
Obviously, a moderator can’t cover every topic in a 90-minute debate, but one can hardly imagine a scenario where the candidates weren’t asked to discuss taxes on the wealthy, ISIS and the specter of Russian cyberattacks—topics, not coincidentally, the average person is rarely if ever affected by, but receive nonstop discussion on cable news and opinion sections. Holt even framed raising taxes on the wealthy—whose share of national income has multiplied six-fold over the last 40 years—as something Clinton had to “defend.”
Total mentions from the moderator and the two candidates combined for ISIS were 24; Russia/Putin had 16 and Iran 19. Total mentions of abortion, poverty, health insurance, LGBTQ rights and voter suppression were zero. Climate change was only mentioned—once—because Clinton brought it up.
As FAIR (5/6/16) noted previously, in nine Democratic Party debates, there were no questions asked about poverty. As Think Progress (4/14/16) pointed out, there were also zero questions about abortion.
Issues specifically affecting the poor, LGBTQ people and women (aside from a question about Trump denying that Clinton had “a presidential look”) continue to be overlooked. To the extent race was discussed, it was framed with the false parity of “race relations.” Holt didn’t ask Clinton, for example, how she would fight racism—a word Holt never mentioned—but instead asked her how she would “heal the divide.” (In Holt’s defense, he did press Trump on his racist “birther” campaign.)
The next debate will be on October 9, hosted by ABC’s Martha Raddatz, a reporter noted for her closeness to military sources (FAIR Blog, 11/14/11).
Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter at @AdamJohnsonNYC.
You can send messages to NBC News (or via Twitter: @NBCNews). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
Lester Holt is a disgrace.
NBC should fire him immeidately
Fitting that all three rings of the circus should be filled by clowns
I think Lester Holt had NO CONTROL over the debate what-so-ever. Donald continued to go over his time and Lester did absolutely nothing about it. I doubt he let him get by with it not because he wanted him to trip over himself and bury himself. Instead to let EVERYONE who was listening (maybe for the 1st time) to hear Donalds stance on these subects Lester was questioning them on. I felt the whole thing was more for ratings of the debate for the media numbers than actually informing people of things they REALLY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT.
I mean, Lester lost control but it is hard to blame him for Trump’s behavior. What was he supposed to do? Tackle one of the candidates?
But his questions were indeed lame. Especially the “will you respect the results of this election?”. I mean – what kind of question was that? What’s next – asking each candidate what kind of rifle they’d prefer be used to assassinate their opponent?
As Doug says above – it was a complete clown show.
I was absolutely shocked that Lester Holt, registered Republican, did not ask the “debaters” why Jill Stein and Gary Johnson were not allowed to participate as each had qualified for the ballot in enough states so that they were arithmetically potential winners in this fair and open national election.
Shocked, I tell you.
Shocked.
Every issue was so shallow. What a waste of time.
I’m was very ashamed how Trump was allowed to interrupt Mrs. Clinton as she spoke. I can just see him around a war table. I’m sure he would listen to the others who did not agree with him. He scares the he’ll out of me!
I’m was very ashamed how Trump was allowed to interrupt Mrs. Clinton as she spoke. I can just see him around a war table. I’m sure he would listen to the others who did not agree with him. He scares the hell out of me!
Lester Holt was very biased and unprofessional. It was very evident that he was for Clinton. Piss poor moderator to put it lightly.
I agree with Miri, he should be fired on the spot!
I OONT KNOW WHY YOU ARE SHOCKED, HE DID WHAT HE WAS TOLD TO DO, PLUS HE IS A REPUBLICANS… STAND BY YOUR PARTY…I WASN’T NOT SURPRISED AT ALL…
wsws.org said it very well: “The first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was a political and cultural abomination. … It says a great deal about the US political system that, out of 330 million people in America, the choice for president has been narrowed down to these two individuals, both members of the financial aristocracy … and both deeply and deservedly hated by a large majority of the population.” This “debate” will be followed by a town hall, where the messages will be even more managed and deceitful. Media in the US continue to be nothing more than PR for the two dominating parties, one of which is clearly bigoted and the other uses identity politics to avoid addressing the real problems of our country and the world.
There was no way this so-called debate was going to be anything but a circus—unless it was a joke—but Holt/NBC/whoever didn’t have to willingly accept it before the curtain went up.
They did accept it to get the only thing that counts to them—ratings.
The hell with them.
FULL SHAME USA
Did Adam Johnson watch the same debate I did?
As a European who closely followed the primaries from across the ocean, I had the ‘pleasure’ to watch this debate live while visiting friends in the US.
I suggested getting pop-corn for this reality show and regretted that we didn’t.
Never saw the moderator before, so no bias here. He was hopeless.
Not only lame questions but he let both candidats rave on & on, repeating the same stale accusations, without even trying to stop them.
If he had set time limits, he could have included many more subjects and possibly made them say something useful rather than silly accusations & sarcasms.
Won’t even bother commenting on Trump – who probably never heard of Aleppo either – but Ms Clinton would be wiser to stop reacting to his buffooning and show some class. For publically ridiculing your fellow candidate isn’t either a trait one hopes for in one’s president. She should have learned from Bernie’s classy refusal to discuss her e-mails, ignore Trumps rants and seriously speak to her own and his potential voters, treating them as intelligent adults and not as judges in a stupidity contest.
Good luck with either of them becoming president, but you at least have a say in this. We – the rest of the world – are also at the receiving end of this farcical reality show, but can only powerlessly wait and see which of them will destroy more of our common planet …