It’s even worse than this. Sometimes they don’t even have to fish around.
Some reporters from the supposedly liberal media rely on Republican operatives to recruit man-on-the-street sources.
The folks handed over are, of course, Republican operatives themselves, playing a fictional role. That role is to lie about their background (“I’m a Democrat/liberal/ex-Biden supporter/undecided/moderate”) and then shit on the Democrats/liberals/Biden. The reporter then gets to write yet another “disaffected Dems” story.**
That is to say, I don’t believe for a minute that the New York Times panel is composed of actual undecided or moderates. Those are Republicans, man. (Does this sound too conspiracy-theory-ish for you? Well, check out the fine print! It says right there that “[Luntz] chose the participants.” Luntz is a Republican operative! This is known!)
And this all contributes to how Trump can win at this point. I lack the optimism of many posters in this thread. I suspect the race is incredibly close right now. But I know for sure that even if Harris/Walz start to pull away, the supposedly liberal media will continue with such absurd coverage, which will help, in its own small way, to narrow any gaps that might develop. This thing is going to be portrayed as dead heat no matter what.
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**Why would a reporter do this? Not because of any ideology. They don’t know they’re being duped. They do it out of laziness. Why fish around for the mythical lifelong-progressive-who-feels-driven-to-vote-for-Trump – a rare breed, difficult to find in the wild – when you can custom-order one from your Republican source?