Prepare for tonight’s presidential debate - Poynter

The final time there was a presidential debate, all the election modified.

That’s not hyperbole.

President Joe Biden actually dropped out of the race not lengthy after his disastrous debate in late June. His efficiency began a wildfire of requires him to exit the race, one thing he ended up doing 28 days later.

And so tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will debate for the primary, and perhaps solely, time. ABC Information will host the occasion in Philadelphia with “World Information Tonight” anchor David Muir and ABC Information Reside “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis serving as moderators.

Whereas nobody is predicted to drop out after tonight, it definitely may go a good distance in deciding the following president of the USA.

The Washington Post’s Tyler Pager and Josh Dawsey wrote, “And but for all of the assaults they’ve exchanged, Harris and Trump have by no means met. The occasion is probably going to attract the most important viewers for both candidate earlier than November, and either side agree that the faceoff, hosted by ABC Information, carries unusually excessive stakes, given the marketing campaign’s compressed timetable and the truth that polls present it’s primarily tied.”

Pager and Dawsey report that Harris has been hunkered down in a downtown Pittsburgh lodge having an intense “debate camp,” whereas Trump “spent a lot of the weekend at his golf membership in Bedminster, N.J., choosing ‘coverage periods’ with aides and allies as a substitute of conventional follow runs.” These periods included reviewing Harris’ document and tips on how to reply if Harris assaults his character.

We’ll get to ABC in a second, however the strain is totally on the candidates.

For Harris? NPR’s Elena Moore writes, “Harris has principally campaigned from the path in her temporary time as a presidential contender — excluding a single sit-down interview with CNN on the finish of August. She has additionally struggled up to now with unscripted moments as vp, which can put the highlight on her means to carry out in a debate whereas additionally laying out a few of her platform and occurring the offensive towards Trump.”

And but, Harris will definitely be a way more formidable debater than Biden was in June, and is unlikely to let Trump get away with most of the lies that went unchecked when he debated Biden. And as a former prosecutor, Harris doubtless shall be simpler in going after Trump.

In a pre-recorded interview for “The Rickey Smiley Morning Present,” a syndicated radio present, Harris stated she is prepping for “untruths” from Trump, including, “There’s no flooring for him by way of how low he’ll go. And we ought to be ready for that. We ought to be ready for the truth that he’s not burdened by telling the reality.”

There’s additionally strain on the third occasion of this debate: ABC Information.

Rick Klein, the community’s political director, told The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum, “Our job is to fulfill the second, and it’s an enormous second and a humbling second. Nothing that’s stated about us or anybody else issues as soon as the sunshine goes on and the cameras are rolling.”

As I discussed in Monday’s newsletter, there’ll all the time be a, nicely, debate about whether or not or not moderators ought to get entangled when fact-checking candidates in actual time. Is that the moderators’ accountability? Or is it as much as every candidate to test the opposite? Is it each?

Grynbaum requested Klein if there’s a function for fact-checking from the community throughout a debate.

Klein instructed him, “I don’t assume it’s a ‘sure’ or ‘no’ proposition. We’re not making a dedication to fact-check the whole lot, or fact-check nothing, in both course. We’re there to maintain a dialog going, and to facilitate a very good strong debate, and that entails loads of issues by way of asking questions, transferring the dialog alongside, ensuring that it’s civilized.”

That reply may not fulfill lots of people who consider that a part of a moderator’s job is to fact-check.

However extra essential than the fact-checking would be the questions requested by Muir and Davis. Will they grill the candidates on in the event that they’ve flip-flopped on previous positions? Will they ask Trump about his continued false allegations of rigged elections? How a lot will they ask Harris about President Joe Biden?

Largely, how a lot will they ask about coverage and the way a lot will they ask about character?

The editorial board of The Philadelphia Inquirer (the paper within the host metropolis of tonight’s debate) wrote, “Harris’ each response and clothes alternative shall be hyper-analyzed as she is pressed on all kinds of points, together with crime, taxes, immigration, and abortion. However parsing Harris’ coverage positions and pantsuit preferences appears trivial given her opponent lacks the character, temperament, and health to be president. That’s why the largest problem on Tuesday falls to the controversy moderators at ABC Information, and subsequently the media at giant. Will ABC’s Linsey Davis and David Muir press Trump to offer substantive responses to their questions?”

• The New York Occasions’ Peter Baker with “As Debate Looms, Trump Is Now the One Facing Questions About Age and Capacity.” Baker writes, “At 78, former President Donald J. Trump reveals extra power and speaks with extra quantity than President Biden does at 81, however he, too, has blended up names, confused info and stumbled over his factors. Mr. Trump’s rambling speeches, typically incoherent statements and excessive outbursts have raised questions on his personal cognitive well being and, in keeping with polls, stimulated doubts amongst a majority of voters.”
• The New York Occasions’ Jess Bidgood with “How Trump Has Used Debates to Belittle Women.” Bidgood wrote, “Mr. Trump has, after all, handled males with intense bellicosity, launching a blizzard of interruptions towards President Biden throughout their first debate in 2020 and lobbing private insults on the likes of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz through the main in 2016. However a assessment of his onstage clashes with girls exhibits how, over 9 years in politics, he has honed a playbook of explicitly gendered assaults towards each feminine candidates and journalists that he’s doubtless to attract from on Tuesday when he debates Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump has used his bodily presence and physique language to intimidate girls, made veiled threats, complained that they had been uniquely imply and belittled their {qualifications} in a method that many ladies view as open sexism.”
• The Related Press’ Jill Colvin with “What the Trump-Clinton debates might tell us about Tuesday’s match with Harris.”
• Politico’s Alex Isenstadt and Meridith McGraw with “Trump’s debate playbook: Call the rules ‘rigged’ and undermine the moderators.”
• McClatchy’s David Lightman with “Kamala Harris’ main goals in the debate with Donald Trump. Look presidential, keep her cool.”

OK, so I promised myself to not delve too deep into critiques for Tom Brady’s first sport as an NFL announcer. In spite of everything, to repeat, Sunday was his first sport. How good is anyone doing one thing for the primary time?

However whenever you’re the best quarterback who has ever lived and a community has signed you to a 10-year, $375-million contract, and also you’re scheduled to name the Tremendous Bowl in 5 months, it’s not fully unfair to see how you probably did in your opening sport within the sales space.

And for Brady, it may have gone higher.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand summed it up pretty well: “Tom Brady — the 47-year-old, seven-time Tremendous Bowl champion — gave the impression of a rookie out of the gate Sunday. His syntax was stilted. His attention-grabbing ideas had been restricted. It was a bit awkward.”

Yeah, that’s a great way to explain it. He gave the impression of a rookie. I’ll add a rookie with promise.

Social media was a lot harsher. (Isn’t it all the time?) Whereas I went in pulling for Brady to do nicely, it wasn’t nearly as good as I had hoped, however it wasn’t as unhealthy as many made it out to be.

The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch wrote, “Brady got here off as somebody making an attempt to be taught the craft in actual time. That’s not a criticism. It’s simply actuality. He first spoke on-air at 4:23 p.m. ET with the same old scene-setter stuff and was very deliberate over the primary quarter. All the pieces felt just a little gradual, with him and (play-by-play announcer Kevin) Burkhardt nonetheless discovering a dialog rhythm. Brady obtained extra snug as the printed continued, and I’d count on that to be the sample because the season continues. When you desperately need me to grade him, I’d give him 2 1/4 goats out of 4. Fox will take that for his first regular-season sport.”

Brady is nowhere close to Tremendous Bowl-ready, however as USA Today’s Chris Bumbaca wrote, “… this was on no account a catastrophe for Brady or Fox.”

Brady’s first-game critiques are additionally compounded by the truth that he’ll get in comparison with the opposite prime (and actually good) analysts on different networks — Troy Aikman (ESPN), Tony Romo (CBS) and Cris Collinsworth (NBC). He is also getting in comparison with Fox Sports activities’ Greg Olsen, who was demoted from the highest broadcasting crew at Fox to No. 2 to make room for Brady. Olsen is a giant fan favourite and gained a Sports activities Emmy for his work final season.

Marchand wrote, “Whereas in right now’s social media setting, it may really feel like an individual has 5 seconds to make a primary impression, in actuality, Fox and Brady simply want Brady to construct through the season so he’s at his greatest when the playoffs and Tremendous Bowl come round.”

Beyoncé accepts the Innovator Award on the iHeartRadio Music Awards, in April, in Los Angeles. (AP Picture/Chris Pizzello)

The 2024 Nation Music Awards nominations got here out Monday and there was one identify curiously lacking: Beyoncé.

Again in March, Beyoncé put out a 27-track album known as “Cowboy Carter,” which featured hit songs “Texas Maintain ’Em” and “16 Carriages.” As CBS News’ Mary Cunningham noted, the album “broke streaming information upon its launch, turning into Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2024 and incomes the title of most first-day streams of a rustic album by a feminine artist on Amazon Music.”

Along with that, The New York Times’ Ben Sisario wrote, “The album — with a canopy picturing Beyoncé as a red-white-and-blue rodeo queen, using a horse sidesaddle and hoisting an American flag — was a cultural phenomenon, stirring debates and intensive information media protection in regards to the historic function of African People in nation music and their persevering with struggles to be accepted by the Nashville institution.”

But Beyoncé was unnoticed of the nomination for “Album of the 12 months,” “Single of the 12 months” and “Entertainer of the 12 months.”

Sisario wrote, “However the snub was not sudden. Eight years in the past, Beyoncé obtained a cool reception on the 2016 CMAs when she carried out her music ‘Daddy Classes’ with the Chicks (then nonetheless referred to as the Dixie Chicks). That have apparently performed a job in Beyoncé’s choice to make a rustic album, with the star saying that ‘Cowboy Carter’ was ‘born out of an expertise that I had years in the past the place I didn’t really feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t. However, due to that have, I did a deeper dive into the historical past of Nation music and studied our wealthy musical archive.’”

Sisario additionally famous that the album “was given solely restricted promotion on nation radio stations, the place the business typically indicators its preferences and decisions. Whereas ‘Texas Maintain ’Em’ went to No. 1 on Billboard’s principal nation chart — in addition to its all-genre Scorching 100 chart — its success was pushed by streaming and downloads. On Billboard’s nation airplay chart, a extra telling barometer for any performer’s success within the extra particular area of the nation institution, ‘Texas Maintain ’Em’ stalled at No. 33, and her remake of Dolly Parton’s traditional ‘Jolene’ by no means made it increased than No. 56.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the CMAs are voted on by members of the Nation Music Affiliation, which incorporates artists, executives, songwriters, musicians, publicists, touring personnel and different business professionals.

Bianca Betancourt, the tradition editor at Harper’s Bazaar, wrote, “Whether or not you’re a die-hard Beyoncé fan or not, there isn’t a debating the musical, lyrical, and vocal excellence of Cowboy Carter. To me, such a blatant snub solely tells me the CMA nomination committee members couldn’t bear the considered a Black lady who doesn’t match their thought of a rustic star sweeping the largest classes of the night time — so that they opted to not acknowledge her in any respect.”

Vox’s Aja Romano wrote, “Whereas there could also be some logistical arguments behind the business’s snub of Beyoncé that don’t have anything to do with id, the CMA has a noticeable sample of erasing and sidelining Black girls, even in their very own artwork. Beyoncé is actively conscious of this gatekeeping; ‘Cowboy Carter’ is constructed on the marginalized contributions of centuries of Black artists that got here earlier than her. It’s hardly any marvel she distanced herself and her album from the nation institution from the beginning; she doubtless knew nicely earlier than the remainder of us that the CMAs had been by no means going to let her within the door — even with all the world clamoring for her to be let in.”

• Jorge Ramos, some of the revered journalists in Spanish-language tv, will depart Univision on the finish of the yr, ending a 40-year run with the community. TelevisaUnivision, which operates Univision, stated in a statement that Ramos and the community “mutually agreed to not renew their soon-to-expire contract settlement.” The New York Times’ Jesus Jiménez has more.
• My Poynter colleague Roy Peter Clark with “A eulogy for America’s greatest living obit writer — Robert McFadden.”
• And right here’s McFadden with “James Earl Jones, Actor Whose Voice Could Menace or Melt, Dies at 93.”
• CNN’s Brian Stelter with “The Washington Post is giving its homepage a facelift as it seeks a turnaround.”
• The Washington Publish’s Philip Bump with “Rumors about an Ohio town show the scale of the right-wing bubble.”
• The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin and Rob Copeland report that Jamie Heller, the enterprise editor of The Wall Road Journal, is predicted to be named editor-in-chief of Enterprise Insider.
• Sally Buzbee, the previous govt editor of The Related Press and, extra just lately, The Washington Publish, has been named a Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard College for 2 months, starting in mid-September.
• Semafor’s Ben Smith with “OffBall launches as new sports culture brand.”
• Natalie Korach is moving from TheWrap to Self-importance Honest to cowl the media.

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Have suggestions or a tip? E-mail Poynter senior media author Tom Jones at [email protected].

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