I watch and listen and read a lot of Trump, including all of his interviews, even with FN. I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to do what would traditionally be thought if as a good interview with him.
He is unconstrained by facts (Kevin mentions numbers, but that is just a specific example of the general case), he not only has no personal sense of shame, but he knows he will never pay a price for either lying or saying outrageous things. He has almost no attention span, and will lose interest in even his own answer half way through, much less care or attend to or understand the question the interviewer is asking. You might think a persistent and courageous interviewer could pin him down by laser focus on simple facts, no, they can not. Trump says grass is pink, the interviewer points to the lawn right in front of them and says “no, Mr. President, that grass right there is green”, and Trump will unblushingly either say it’s pink not green, say that green really is pink, or claim he never said grass was pink. Most likely he will do some version of all three of those, and more. And if you tried to pin him down on every lie and inconsistency, your 90 minute interview would cover two, probably trivial, topics. In the context of the Trumpocolypse, Swan’s interview was top tier, probably top 5%. I doubt Mike Wallace (whose son also did a pretty good job) or Ted Kopell (or whoever else you think of as a top interviewer) could have done any better. On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 3:51 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 2:29 PM Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Here's the problem with that: the people that know that already know it. >> The people that don't know it don't care. >> >> Here's a snippet: >> >> Swan: Lyndon Johnson! He passed the Civil Rights Act. >> Trump: Ask, ask: how has it worked out? If you take a look at what Lyndon >> Johnson did. How has it worked out? >> Swan: You think the Civil Rights Act was a mistake? >> >> "Trump changed the subject back to his administration and the fact that >> black unemployment was low. (Before it became very high.)" >> >> If you argue that Swan should've tried to force Trump to answer that >> question, then ask what the outcome of the answer would've been. Had Trump >> given an honest answer (Yes), then we'd have said "He's exactly as racist >> as we said he was" and they'd have said "And it *was* a huge mistake!". Had >> Trump lied (no), then we'd have said "What a liar!" and they'd have said >> "Trump's no dummy: he's not gonna talk bad about it." >> >> By leaving that at that point, Swan did the job: he got Trump to question >> one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation in the >> country's history. >> >> You want to hold Trump accountable. But here's the thing: narcissists >> (especially sociopathic narcissists) don't believe they have to be held >> accountable. They're too good for the rest of us. Speaking as someone whose >> father married one: this woman couldn't find fault with herself if her life >> hung in the balance. Accountability is for other people. >> > > You nailed it... it isn’t about Trump feeling accountable... it is about > the press holding him accountable to the rest of us. I don’t care what > Trump thinks or how Trump feels. Just as I don’t care what drives Darth > Vader, a villain’s motivation does not interest me. A journalists job is to > use facts and evidence to uncover and report truths. They are the public > record. There isn’t much of a public historical record of Andrew Jackson > being held to account for his unbelievably racist politicking which > resulted in the mass murder of countless Native Americans, so he gets to > stay on the $20 bill. It needs to be clear that whether a decade from now > or a century from now, the very name of Trump will be synonymous with > everything wrong with humanity. Even if a third of this generation refuses > to believe it, subsequent generations should recognize the Trump name as > akin to failure, stupidity, ignorance, and intolerance. It ain’t that > history is written by the victors, it is that history is written by > journalists who are compelled to keep pushing and never give up. > > >> As for wanting something to be able to show to people and go "SEE? SEE?": >> they don't see, because to see would be to admit they're as much of a piece >> of shit as he is (or that they're proud to be as much of a piece of shit as >> he is). >> >> >> On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 3:55 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 1:26 PM Jon Delfin <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 4:24 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> [snip] >>>>> >>>>> That said, this wasn’t an especially good interview... it’s just that >>>>> the people who typically interview Trump are so bad at even basic >>>>> follow-up >>>>> questions or on-the-spot fact checking that it appears to be a great >>>>> interview. >>>>> >>>> >>>> What would you have had Swan do to make it a better interview? >>>> >>> >>> What Swan did well was prepare questions and lead Trump into his usual >>> lies, blustering, and non-answers. But that’s not difficult to do; asking >>> Trump anything will almost guarantee a Trumpian non-answer. What needs to >>> happen (and what I’d like to happen at the debates) is to keep pressing >>> Trump not on his dumbass statements, and not even about the habitual lying, >>> but about his actions and the actions taken by this administration. He’s >>> enacted the most discriminatory policies in my lifetime. He’s plunged the >>> nation deeper into debt (prior to Covid) faster than any point in my >>> lifetime. He’s destroyed foreign policy... it genuinely does not exist. >>> Long serving ranking members of government and the military have >>> quit/resigned out of embarrassment at even being associated with Trump’s >>> actions... that doesn’t get talked about enough. Instead of focusing on >>> what he has said or proving (once again) how genuinely stupid Trump is, get >>> into the substance. But if a reporter wanted to focus on Trump’s words, he >>> has led verbal attacks on groups and individuals (the media being an >>> obvious example) which directly led to murders of innocent people... that’s >>> worthy of more than an hour of intense interrogation. >>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABCcf4cup4YABAyeGGw1MjFJDr5OhYFkp7c4-e8UU7Smgoa%3Dmg%40mail.gmail.com >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABCcf4cup4YABAyeGGw1MjFJDr5OhYFkp7c4-e8UU7Smgoa%3Dmg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- >>> Kevin M. (RPCV) >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> >> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4AKFXfNrkrkOUm%3D6%3D8j205h1hOAz_9%3D3aN7PbpUMb3oHA%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4AKFXfNrkrkOUm%3D6%3D8j205h1hOAz_9%3D3aN7PbpUMb3oHA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABru7%2BfaiRA%3D6b0vJ_4pEPFEdxs-OSqLyacZ2VV_z43TMqcTNA%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABru7%2BfaiRA%3D6b0vJ_4pEPFEdxs-OSqLyacZ2VV_z43TMqcTNA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4Cb3xffUEw8%3Di6ROeYs8xMK1QUepHC2h4v1t2rcW%3DqCyA%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4Cb3xffUEw8%3Di6ROeYs8xMK1QUepHC2h4v1t2rcW%3DqCyA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKVB%2BB1Mt_8kXrb00J4NJ%2B7h8ytf7_gzuZLBz80gsiX7w%40mail.gmail.com.
