# Press Failure **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 4, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253 "2020-08-04T13:28:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/61 "2020-08-14T19:04:30Z")
No. It’s time for the knives to come out. The current approach doesn’t work. WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO LOSE? Right now their method of “following up on nonanswers and lies” only gets them cut off and their question forgotten, and on to the next bullshit press conference the next day, over and over again. It’s not 1952. We live in an era where the old rules no longer apply. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/62 "2020-08-14T19:08:59Z")
Jeb Bush and John Kasich had your attitude during the 2016 primary, and look where that got them. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/63 "2020-08-14T19:09:05Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO LOSE? Their access to the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/64 "2020-08-14T19:10:38Z")
Their access to the White House already yields them jackshit. These press conferences are the same bullshit over and over again, as I’ve said. There is not a single question that these reporters ask during the press conferences that ACTUALLY advances the anti-Trump momentum in any meaningful way. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/65 "2020-08-14T19:10:46Z")
And their credibility as journalists. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/66 "2020-08-14T19:11:24Z")
Hard disagree. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/67 "2020-08-14T19:14:30Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > There is not a single question that these reporters ask during the press conferences that ACTUALLY advances the anti-Trump momentum in any meaningful way. With Trump continually sinking in the deep end by spouting bullshit like this, do they really need to? > **[Trump calls Kamala Harris a ‘mad woman,’ claims Dems want to tear down Empire...](https://nypost.com/2020/08/13/trump-slams-mad-woman-kamala-harris-claims-dems-will-destroy-economy/)** > > President Trump called presumptive vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris a radical “mad woman” Thursday, said the tax-and-spend policies of the Democratic ticket would wreak havoc on … ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/68 "2020-08-14T19:15:26Z")
I think we need to rebuild trust in institutions like serious journalism, rather than join the Trumpist side in testing it down and adopting the idea that journalists should embrace bias and blatantly advance their own agendas. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/69 "2020-08-14T19:16:19Z")
That’s just bringing a knife to a gunfight. Not even a knife, a wiffle bat. It’s gotten us nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/70 "2020-08-14T19:38:12Z")
They are being authentic journalists, they are reporting the truth of what happens. They ask a question, he ignores or blathers on or lies. This is filmed and because the reporters are there we see these lies, evasions, rants. We know about Trump’s behaviors because it is being evoked by reporters and then their news agencies publish it. This is what journalists do. It isn’t their job to somehow force Trump to say what we want to hear how we want to hear it. Him being asked straight out “why do you lie Mr. President?” and then Trump petulantly stomping off tells all of us what we need to know. A reporter from a real news outlet swearing at him, yelling at him gets that agency’s credentials yanked and then eventually only the extreme right news will be there. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/71 "2020-08-14T19:46:01Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > They ask a question, he ignores or blathers on or lies. This is filmed and because the reporters are there we see these lies, evasions, rants. Exactly. The problem isn’t that reporters aren’t aggressive; the problem is that too many people accept their politicians’ lie, evasions, and rants. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/72 "2020-08-14T21:28:41Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > But its the job of the press (and an obligation) to hold liars of any ilk, but especially the government, to account. That’s the whole point of the 1st Amendment. I know its idealistic thinking but if any time calls for it, its now. Amen to that. I’ve often wondered why the journalists seem to be reporting everything with a straight face and NOT following up repeatedly with examples of where what Trump says is outright fabrications, lies or a 180 degree reversal of something he just said. I mean, when he came out yesterday and said that Biden’s campaign was using the pandemic for political purposes, and that Biden’s plan wasn’t science-based, I about fell over. I mean, WE know that’s not the truth, but I suspect there’s a bunch of low-information voters and mush-headed people out there who need it spelled out for them how Trump has repeatedly politicized the pandemic response and shaped the response based on political, not public health guidelines, and how just about NOTHING he’s said with respect to the pandemic has been science-based. That’s where they’re falling down- they’re not calling out direct untruths for what they are; they’re treating them as if there’s a component of opinion there when Trump says 2+2=3, instead of saying “Yeah, no, 2+2 does NOT equal 3, it equals 4.” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/73 "2020-08-14T21:48:30Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’ve often wondered why the journalists seem to be reporting everything with a straight face and NOT following up repeatedly with examples of where what Trump says is outright fabrications, lies or a 180 degree reversal of something he just said. > … This X 1,000. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253/74 "2020-08-14T23:38:53Z")
> [@HelenGawn](#): > > Someone finally did it. (Later identified as S. V. Date of the Huffington Post.) > > [https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1294033254174150658](https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1294033254174150658) When it’s the first time you’ve been called on in five years … well, you might as well! Lets hope he opens the floodgates > **['Do you regret all your lying?' White House reporter's question startles Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/14/do-you-regret-all-your-lying-white-house-reporters-question-startles-trump)** > > SV Dáte takes the president to task for repeated untruths but is quickly cut off [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-failure/917253.md?page=3)