In his first campaign appearance, President Obama encourages Black men to support Harris
Plus, Jennifer Schulze gives CNN the business.
On Thursday, former President Barack Obama made his debut on the campaign trail as the final stretch of the election gets underway.
At the rally, which took place in Pittsburgh, Obama derided his successor, former President Donald Trump.
“We don’t need four more years of arrogance and bumbling and bluster and division. America is ready to turn the page,” the two-term Democratic president said. “We are ready for a better story, one that helps us work together instead of turning against each other. Pennsylvania, we’re ready for a President Kamala Harris.”
Obama also spoke specifically to Black male voters, who have proven less enthusiastic for Vice President Kamala Harris than pollsters would have expected.
“My understanding, based on reports I'm getting from campaigns and communities, is that we have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running," Obama said. According to him, it “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”
While Harris has 78% of the votes among likely Black voters — as compared to 8% for Trump — almost 10% of that constituency is undecided. Meanwhile, in 2008, the Obama campaign garnered 95% of the Black vote.
Obama is not the only former commander-in-chief hitting swing states for Harris. Bill Clinton, the 42nd president, was in Georgia and North Carolina this week. In the case of the former, Clinton will be tackling counties where Trump was victorious in 2020.
OPINION: CNN needs to ditch its lying pundits
By Jennifer Schulze
“Don’t we have a responsibility to say what is actually true?”
For someone like me, who has spent her life believing in the values and standards that make journalism so essential to our democracy, hearing this question from a news anchor during an on-air segment is troubling.
CNN anchor Abby Phillip was right to ask it in response to a former Trump spokesperson who told a MAGA lie about Kamala Harris. But since the answer is unequivocally “yes,” perhaps a better question would be why does CNN continue to mix credible news coverage with lying pundits?
These segments on CNN feel like a game show, with competing sides eyeing one another across the shiny, glass table waiting to score the first point. The news anchor — often seeming more like a ringmaster than a journalist — pops in with a fact check, but it’s never enough.
The liars have accomplished what they came there to do — undermine our shared sense of reality by using an old fascist playbook: put lies, disinformation and conspiracy theories out into the mainstream on equal footing with hard evidence and verifiable truths. With weeks before a critical election, continuing with this daily spectacle seems like journalism malpractice.
It’s a myth journalists tell themselves that they “fact-check” their way out of this. We are literally drowning in lies. As good as CNN’s fact checker Daniel Dale is, his fact-checking cannot compete with the vortex of lies created by Donald Trump and his supporters.
Lies have consequences. In Springfield, Ohio, schools had to be closed because of bomb threats. In North Carolina, precious rescue teams wasted time trying to determine who was actually stranded and who was a deep fake pretending to be stranded. There is no world where the proper journalistic response to this danger is to give liars one more second of airtime.
But that’s the decision CNN and others make every day. The pundit battles often undermine otherwise dependable news reporting. This recent segment had my head spinning. It began with a detailed fact-check of the many dangerous lies and conspiracy theories promoted by Donald Trump and his supporters about Hurricane Helene relief efforts. It’s 5+ minutes of good, solid journalism. Yet moments later, the news network goes to a panel discussion with a Trump acolyte who immediately starts to tell lies about… wait for it… hurricane relief.
Yes, CNN’s Brian Stelter did do a credible job of pushing back against these particular lies, even going as far to say “why did you lie just now?” But why let liars use your platform to spread falsehoods begin with?
And that brings me to “senior political commentator” Scott Jennings, who actually gets paid to lie on CNN. Former Republican and political activist Reed Galen says: “What start’s in Trump’s brain, on 4Chan, or on Steve Bannon’s podcast ends up in the mainstream through useful idiots like Scott Jennings.”
Jennings comes under fire quite frequently for his misinformation and bigotry, like here when George Conway repeatedly called Jennings a liar live on air. Political scholar and editor Norm Ornstein adds, “It is past time for CNN to think seriously about whether they want to continue to soil themselves by featuring him.”
CNN knows Jennings regularly tells lies. Viewers know it, too. So, what’s really going on? Is the toxic mix a ratings ploy? Does CNN pine for the spicy takedowns to go viral on social media? Is it a misguided attempt at “both sides” journalism? Is CNN trying to placate Donald Trump by regularly airing his grievances, talking points and falsehoods through his ardent supporters because it fears Trump will take regulatory action against the company if he’s re-elected? I think it’s all of the above.
Media critic Justin Baraga also has questions.
“I get that turning Abby Phillip’s show into a nightly food fight has led to a lot of viral clips, but what news value is being served here? Is anyone getting informed by this? Hell, what entertainment value is being served? Is anyone out there being entertained by any of this?”
While I’m calling out CNN for its lousy practice of platforming lies and made for TV food fights, it’s important to note that it’s not just CNN that regularly invites guests on the air to tell lies. The Sunday shows are famous for it. A regular guest across multiple networks is U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-TN) who has long struggled with anything close to the truth. Cotton has told enough lies and dodged enough questions for a lifetime.
I fully recognize that elected officials should be heard. But nothing requires a network to repeatedly bring them on news shows when they undermine the very trust that news requires. The show bookers need to break that bad habit and look for more trustworthy people to interview.
And let me dispatch with the crazy idea that not giving liars platforms amounts to censorship. It does not. Journalism is about truth and trust. Journalists can and should discuss uncomfortable and discredited and dangerous ideas. But lies are not ideas. Lies are the antithesis of truth, and they destroy trust.
I say ditch the lying pundits. Now. Today. Don’t subject viewers to another segment like this where the flurry of lies from a Republican congressman caused an exasperated panelist to ask, “Why do you let this man lie on national television like this?” Find another way to make your newscasts interesting and relevant. Platforming liars cannot be part of the answer. If it is, then journalism as we know it is dead.