🎓 Dr. Freemo 🇳🇱 @freemo@social.cleverlibre.org

@MargaretSefton yes if Trump wins we certainly will be in a dangerous place as far as fascism goes, I agree.

@VoxDei If we want to start fact checking town halls we have to do the same to Biden when he talks... and other candidates... and pretty much every word out of either of their mouths tends to be a lie... so that would be fun to see.

@MargaretSefton I would be very happy to hear Trump is proven to have done things that make him ineligible for presidency. That would be wonderful.

If I had one wish from a magic genie I'd probably wish that Biden and Trump were ineligible to run for president in 2024.

@SallyStrange hahah, right, cause addressing fascism means letting the news pick our presidential candidates for us...yea ok...You have some pretty backwards views of what facism is.

@MargaretSefton I dont think Trump should get a fair shake at all..I think the courts should e3xpose his crimes and once proven he should be barred from running...

What we shouldnt expect is CNN or any other news agency to pick which candidates get a voice and which dont.

@VoxDei

I havent watched it either, so maybe i will change my mind after watching it...

But...

To point #1, I dont seem to recall them **ever** fact checking a town hall.. Generally they faciliatate Q&A and dont get into fact checking. That is for debates and even then the host doesnt fact check thats for the other candidates to do on eachother.

#2 That sounds like more an issue with the general public... If the town hall was open to everyone and they happened to favor trump supporters, likely because anti-trump people refused to go, thats not CNNs fault... What almost certainly happened is Trump supporters overwhelmingly wanted to go and non-trump supporters overwhlemingly didnt and wanted to boycott it... so everyone who actually showed up was 99% Trump supporters... cant blame CNN for that, only person to blame would be the ones boycotting it and not going to ask those tough questions

Town halls have **always** been about the candidate saying whatever they want, thats how its always been, thats kinda the whole point of a town hall, to hear the candidate speak without being challenged (the other formats we have are where they are challenged). At least by the host, obviously questions from the audience can challenge the speaker, and should, but thats the democrats mistake for not bothering to show up.

@realcaseyrollins Yea, though this is worse than usual, to want to ban a whole network for simply hosting a town hall...

@barney That could be a valid argument... like if they gave this meeting to Trump and Biden requested a similar venue and was denied, then id completely support your stance and see CNN as making a mistake here.

As far as I know that didnt happen, they didnt show Trump preference over Biden as far as I know.

@deegeese then it wasnt whataboutism if thats the definition you want to use.

@deegeese yup, and what aboutism is not a bad thing... that is how you can see your logic being applied to things that arent just helpful for your biases but against your biases and see why its a horrible idea to news agencies deplatform presidential candidates based on their personal judgements (rather than that of a court).

@deegeese Ok let me rephrase.. would you be ok with them choosing not to give biden a platform by refusing to host him in debates and town halls?

@deegeese In townhalls they dont "pushback" or fact check... never have as far as I know.. the format is always typically Q&A without much interference fromt he host.

And yea, an unbias news agency has a moral (and arguably a legal one) to host the front-running political candidates equally. As for white supremacy, would you be ok with them blocking any coverage of Biden ont he basis of his pro-segregation stance in politics? Or would you scream foul if they intentionally black balled him for his extremely racist career?

@TruthSandwich Im sure you have, you are under no obligation to discuss it here of course.

@marchuff@mastodon.social We have a court in place for that, which is the proper place to judge his crimes and decide if he can or cant run for president (and id be more than fine with him not being allowed to run)... it is not however CNN's right to decide that for the country, and they made the right decision not to decide that.

@marchuff@mastodon.social

Sure, I never claimed trump was a great guy or that any of that isnt true... Buit none of those statements have yet to be proven out in court, and until they are and he is thus barred from running as a candidate then CNN has no business acting as a court and deciding that for themselves and choosing which candidates have a voice or not.

@TruthSandwich Feel free to discuss if you wish, otherwise im not sure your comment has much value without commentary, but people are always welcome to discuss in my comments if you wish so feel free.

Interesting fact of the day... there is a species of dog that is a single-cellular species.