The ABC News interview between Terry Moran and Donald Trump on his first 100 days in office emphatically demonstrated why the networks should stop interviewing him live, or live to tape, and with conditions that include no editing or fact-checking.
The Tuesday night interview with Terry Moran was filled with inaccuracies, exaggerations, and outright lies. A torrent of propaganda and distortion that Moran valiantly tried to correct by including facts in the questions. Example, on tariffs: Moran said “It’ll raise prices on everything from electronics to clothing to building houses.” Trump said, “You don’t know that. You don’t know whether or not China’s gonna eat it.”
I’ve known and worked with Terry Moran for 20 years. He is an experienced, solid reporter who did his homework. He covered the Bush White House, Europe as chief foreign correspondent, and then came home to replace me as Senior National Correspondent in Washington D.C. when I left the White House. The problem, in this case was not the interviewer, its with his bosses.
According to Trump, the President was given the right to pick which correspondent would do the interview, choosing Moran, who he claimed he had never heard of. But also avoiding George Stephanapolous — the best political reporter ABC has to offer — because he had sued him, David Muir — the lead anchor — and Linsey Davis — the weekend anchor — presumably because they fact-checked him during the ABC News-sponsored campaign debate. Oh, and Rachel Scott, whom he had insulted repeatedly during the campaign.
Allowing the interviewee to pick the interviewer violates the ABC News standards I worked under during my two decades of service there. Other violations? Agreeing to no fact-checks or analysis during or after the interview.
Moran’s hands were effectively tied by corporate decisions, made way above his pay grade.
There are those who say Trump would have walked out of the interview if Moran challenged him on facts. In fact, the President threatened several times to walk out. I say let him. It would vividly demonstrate his unwillingness to face tough questioning.
Critics also complain that ABC News had to agree to terms that violate their standards or else Donald Trump would not have agreed to the interview, period. And again, I say let him.
In fact, mainstream, legitimate television networks should not ask or agree to interviews with Donald Trump with preconditions that allow him to spew falsehoods to millions of people. CBS News made that brave decision just before the election, asking Trump and Kamala Harris to be interviewed separately for the same program but with no preconditions. Harris sat down and faced 60 Minutes, while Trump did not appear. The show went on without him.
It’s not that his voice won’t be heard after all. Fox News will continue to interview him and so will other right wing outlets who do not challenge or fact-check him. Let his ‘friendly” outlets continue to provide the President with an unfiltered message. Respectable news organizations should not bend their standards for access. It’s a decision that damages their reputations as independent, first amendment protected members of the free press.
The plain fact of the matter is, if you want to hear lies, such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s knuckles bearing the tattoo representing MS-13 — when experts agree the image Trump continues to show and refer to has been photoshopped — Fox News, Newsmax, or Breitbart will provide it unchallenged with facts.
Or the lie that other countries flooded our borders with inmates released from jail and mental patients from their facilities, when no expert on immigration has heard of any such policies.
Or that the U.S. is losing “$2 trillion a year on trade,” says the President, when it’s actually less than half that at $92 billion.
In the past, when a president wanted to speak, the networks made room, even in primetime. And if a president wanted to be interviewed or agreed to an interview, it had to be unconditional. Something Trump will not agree to. This President has made a practice of breaking norms. CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and even CNN should break the norm of Presidential access and say no to Donald Trump. Something he doesn’t hear often, but would benefit from.
Unless a news organization is willing to real-time fact-check, or at least deliver analysis after the interview, two things unacceptable to President Trump: let him walk away. The general public and mainstream audiences are better off letting him walk.
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Why didn’t he ask about all the good things President Trump has done in his first 100 days? Oh that’s right, you’re a democrat.
It would be more accurate to mention that $92 billion is less than 5 percent of two trillion dollars, not anywhere near half. Thank you.