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

@freepeoplesfreepress I appreciate that. I have always seen your responses as reasonable and respectful. Being able to behave within that mindset is certainly important for a good journalist IMO.

@freepeoplesfreepress

I am not saying he is a bad person, and I too hope he doesnt block you. Just wanted you to have a heads up so you knew he wasnt seeing my comments and that you may get blocked by him based on the fact that he said he would block anyone who defended CNN.

@alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com

@JoshuaHolland Man I would love to see that!

@freepeoplesfreepress

Well said... Sadly me making this comment caused alfredo to block me (he even made a top level post on his account moments afterwards)... So sadly im not sure youll have an adult conversation on this one... he may have already blocked you for taking that stance for all I know.

@alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com

@barney

> My question was, is it okay for #CNN to allow a rapist to slut-shame the woman he raped on national television, and to let him spend 2 hours spewing constant lies, many of which incite violence on a regular basis.

No its not ok, but not because of CNN making that choice. It isnt ok that he has enough support to be a candidate, it isnt ok because the courts havent stopped him... but this has nothing to do with CNN. Given the not-ok situation we are in (he is a candidate, and he is popular) them treating him like any other candidate and giving him a town hall was the correct decision, because it is not their place to pick our candidates for us.

> Your answer included your opinion that Biden is terrible.
>
> It's fine to have that opinion, but that opinion has absolutely no relevance to my question whatsoever. I invite every reader of this thread to consider what went into the thought process that brought it up.

Entirely relevant to the situation because it shows precedence, it shows that news agencies hosting horrible people who do not deserve to be in the running for president at all still get town halls. It is very relevant to show the past pattern and why precedence is continued.

It is also relevant because it shows how it might feel had they unfairly decided for you who had a voice or not, and used the very sort of logic your using on Trump on Biden, as a way to illustrate how unfair it would be if that same logic was applied to a candidate you more likely support, and who would have been just as justified playing by your logic.

@barney I never said you cant fact-check a town hall after the fact.. that is quite common... What is not normal is for the host news agency to fact check or push back against the candidate while the town hall is happening.

Have you even watched previous town halls,a re you even familiar with the format? Im not sure what these links have to do with the precedence set in previous town hall presentations... all those int he past were exactly as you described, two hours of nonstop lies many of which fomented violence.

@barney

> CNN put Trump on TV. They did it because he is a political candidate, and they presumably intend to give his opponents equal time. I question their timing, but not their fairness.

Agreed

> CNN allowed a rapist to slut-shame the woman he raped, on national TV, while the audience laughed at her.

As I said I havent seen the actual town hall yet so I cant speak to this point. do you have the specific quote or a link to a video. Until I see it I cant judge this point either way or if your characterization of it is accurate.

> They allowed him to spew lie after unchallenged lie, for two hours, thereby facilitating a violent insurrection against the US. Is this okay?

Is it ok, nope, is it normal, yup... This applies to every Biden Townhall, every Trump Townhall and virtually every town hall we have had. Fact checking has never been an element of town halls, the format has been the norm for decades to allow Q&A and for the host to do little more than facilitate the audience to ask questions... we have never fact checked and have always let the lies from all candidates fly... maybe we should change that, but Trump is hardly new, why not cry fowl when Biden was allowed to lie and not get fact checked?

> And why is your dislike for Biden relevant to your answer?

Because it shows precedence and is a good litmus test to check if you are being impartial towards the candidates and holding them to equal standards.. Biden as a pro-segregationist has an abysmally racist history, would his racist history be a good enough reason for CNN to refuse to host town halls for him, probably not... Usually applying our standards to the things we support is a good litmus test to see if we truly think our standards are good ones to hold.

@barney

Yes CNN did it not hte courts... the courts are the only ones responsible for denying presidential candidates, not CNN.. so CNN did the right choice, as disgusting as he is. It is not their place to judge which presidential candidates meet their standards to have a voice.. its a shame he got TV time and that he is running at all, but they did right by giving him the same opportunity they will give any other legally recognized candidate.

The **last** thing anyone should be demanding is that news organizations pick what candidates get platforms.

@statmonkey

Wait what, this was a town hall for the republican primaries, not for the presidency... It is perfectly normal for primary town halls to have audiences exclusive to the party the town hall is for.... this is how its been done since forever.... If it were post-primary I'd agree with you, but its not.

@barney To some extent I do agree, if political candidates are lying and still primary candidates and given the airtime that goes with that, there is a problem somewhere.... the problem isnt with CNN though as far as I can tell, the problem lies with some combination of the courts for not acting to curb Trump sooner, or the general public for showing such levels of support for such a horrific candidate.

That said, while Trump is one of the worst examples of a bad candidate by the same token we have a pretty close second in office right now, Biden. So the failure that led to him getting in office isnt much better than the failure that is allowing Trump reach the level of popularity he has.

@alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com Town halls have never had a fact checking element. The format has always been Q&A with the host doing nothing in the light of fact checking...

So I think its fine to say "maybe we should change our traditional format and not do town hall type formats in the future and instead switch to a format where the host pushes back of fact checks and gives the candidate a chance to respond"... thats fair... but we have always given other candidates the ability to lie their ass off in these formats, so lets not get into the habit of complaining about the lack of fact checking **only** when its the candidates we hate and be ok with it when its the ones we like.

@VoxDei Thats fair... yea its a weird format specifically for a news reporter to host I suppose... but its been the norm in the USA to do this town all format since forever.

I would be ok with changing the format for everyone... in general what I want is something where the news agencies arent deciding who gets a voice and where all candidates are treated by the same standard.

@VoxDei If the town hall format were to be changed and thats the new format I might not mind.. but traditionally that hasnt been the case.

@VoxDei Oh and as for the republican only audience.. if thats the case I guess we would have to judge it by past town halls... it sounds like this is a town hall for the republican primary and not the presidency.. in which case having a rebpulican only audience may be normal.