Lawrence O’Donnell straightened our MSNBC reporter rather quickly
Lawrence O’Donnell asked this MSNBC reporter a question, and he did not like the answer as it immediately delegitimized the mainstream media. Why? The media world is surprised that Milwaukee Wisconsin conservative radio host Charlie Sykes acted like a journalist. He did not allow Donald Trump to spin out of answering questions. He was relentless.
Had many journalists done their jobs months ago, it is unlikely that Donald Trump would have been able to garner the popular support he has now. What is worse is that Trump used the media’s dereliction of their duty against them. He painted them as irresponsible, unreliable, and untruthful. In effect, Trump has likely inoculated himself from future media scrutiny in the eyes of many.
Lawrence O’Donnell told MSNBC Reporter Tony Dokoupil that both he and Charlie Sykes were surprised that the tough question Sykes gave to Trump had not come earlier. Tony Dokoupil started describing how Sykes started out with platitudes while interviewing Trump and then went for the jugular. Dokoupil would shortly spill the beans. He told exactly why reporters on the beat coddle, Donald Trump.
“Charlie Sykes, he took his opportunity,” Dokoupil said. “He knew it would be one and done. He does not have to go back to Donald Trump ever again. People who are on the beat, people who work for our network, they have to keep that relationship going for a long, long time. Charlie did not have that burden. And as a result, he had that luxury of being incredibly blistering.”
In other words, America suffers because reporters want to have a longer term relationship with their subjects. Lawrence O’Donnell immediately caught the reporter’s faux paux.
“Well I don’t think the fact that we have to cover Donald Trump means that you then play softball with him so you can guarantee he will speak to you another time,” Lawrence O’Donnell said. “Once the mission of the interview is to get the next interview with the same person we know how soft that interview is going to be.”
Chuck Todd are you listening? One still remembers when you accidentally told a similar truth.