In every election cycle, there are political pundits who use their position on media outlets as a bully pulpit to share their opinions. One of them is Claire McCaskill, a “political analyst” for MSNBC.
Prior to joining MSNBC, McCaskill was a career politician and United States Senator from Missouri who lost her reelection bid in 2018. After accepting her new role at MSNBC, McCaskill said she would “not hold back.”
She could have also said but chose not to say – In my new role, I will not forget losing my senate race to a candidate endorsed by Donald Trump.
That was confirmed by her comments last week in an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. During her appearance, McCaskill had an epic on-air meltdown over a fact-checking article on Joe Biden in The New York Times.
The article’s headline was “Fact-Checking Biden’s Recent Economic Talking Points.” In the article, The Time’s reporters concluded some of Biden’s statements were either lacking context, misleading, or outright false.
In reacting to the story, McCaskill said “Can I make a suggestion? I move that every newspaper in America quits doing any fact-checks on Joe Biden until they fact-check Donald Trump every morning on the front page. It is ridiculous that The New York Times fact-checked Joe Biden on something. I mean, he vomits lies, Trump vomits lies. Every day, over and over and over again.” She went on to say, “And it’s just ridiculous that the New York Times is doing a fact-check on Biden, while they let Trump, like they’re numb to the torrent of lies coming out of Trump’s mouth.”
In her rant, McCaskill never refuted the conclusions in the Times article.
Regarding fact-checking fairness, McCaskill needs to recognize three facts that she is either unaware of or unwilling to acknowledge.
Fact #1 – Her claim that Donald Trump has not been routinely subjected to rigorous fact-checking is simply not true.
PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking website launched by the Tampa Bay Times, and now owned by The Poynter Institute (a nonprofit learning center for journalists), has regularly tracked Trump campaigns and White House years.
Their website notes that Trump has been fact-checked thousands of times by different news organizations since he entered politics.
After Trump, the three most-fact-checked politicians were former President Obama with 603 fact-checks, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with 301 fact-checks, and President Biden with 286 fact checks.
Progressive national media outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post are not cheerleaders or apologists for Trump.
Fact #2 — On their website PolitiFact reports “The Washington Post’s Fact-checker column sought to collect every statement by Trump during his one term as president. They ended up with 30,753 items.
Fact #3 — New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger responded to McCaskill’s attack by acknowledging the White House has been “extremely upset” over its coverage of Biden. He then said, “We are just stating the truth fully and plainly, but we are also doing that in a way that is unemotional. We are not anyone’s opposition and we’re not anyone’s lap dog.”
In her tirade, Clair McCaskill asked, “May I make a motion?” Without waiting for an answer, she plowed ahead with her suggestion that “every newspaper in America quit doing any fact-checks on Joe Biden until they fact-check Donald Trump every morning on the front page.”
I have a motion too. I suggest every America ignore self-absorbed talking head pundits who are often wrong but never in doubt. This is especially the case with former elected and appointed politicians desperately trying to be important and relevant without interest in or capability of vetting their opinions.
Voters are best served with knowledgeable researchers’ fact-checking every candidate, elected official, and high-level appointed official without regard to their party affiliation or issue positions. Voters are also best served with knowledgeable journalists choosing the best media outlets to share the fact-checking results.
That is what the voting public needs and deserves.
David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant who lives in Easton.
Melissa L Barrett says
I love “Morning Joe,” and I am a Democrat, but I do not delude myself into thinking the politicians on the air are stating facts. They are stating their opinions. Some of their opinions I agree with, and some I don’t. Everyone running for office should be fact-checked, and often they are. I hope when it comes time for the elections, voters will discern who is not only being truthful more often, but also who is actually getting good things done for this country. On the basis of both these criteria, I would disqualify Donald Trump and Andy Harris.
Anne Stalfort says
Agree!
Brian Spector says
Fact check this- The country was far better off under President Trump than under the current incompetent regime.
Donald L Singleton says
Thiis piece is clearly a case of the Biblical “Mote in your own eye before the mite in another’s.” The fact that Mr. Reel is described as a public relations person disconnects him from any relationship with the truth. Public relations personnel are charged with at best distorting the truth and at worst flat out lying for their clients. There is no such thing as an honest public relations practitioner. I have not read the NYC article hidden behind its pay wall, but I note Mr. Reel does not provide the supposed inaccuracies he rails against. I also note Mr. Reel cites the Poynter Institute as some sort of fact checker heaven when I know them as the provider of a seminar on ethics while handing out their wholly owned newspaper containing a full-page ad for Marlboro cigarettes. If accepting advertising from a product widely known for killing people is the benchmark for facts or ethics, I can only say point proven. McCaskill is right on the money. The media have failed miserably to call out Donald Trumps’s vomitus and clear derangement while riding Biden’s missteps ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
Robert Sommerlatte says
Perhaps this should have been titled “pundit to pundit.” Made me wonder what McCaskill had done to Mr. Reel to raise his Public Relations Consultancy ire. His conclusion presents a conundrum for the reader. How can we follow his motion to ignore “self-absorbed talking head pundits who are often wrong but never in doubt?”
THOMAS FANNON says
I tune into a range of media (MSNBC, Fox, NPR, etc.) for some balance in the hyperventilated hyperbole of today’s news, and I miss Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley! Thank you Mr. Reel, for a well-balanced piece, a refreshing contrast to Mr. Dean’s regular rants.
Mickey Terrone says
Hello Mr. Reel. With respect to your #1, Trump is virtually never confronted or even questioned directly by the media after stating his atrocious lies. In reality, he doesn’t even have a spokesperson or press secretary to face direct questions. He simply keeps lying and gets away with it. In addition, he has FOX and others covering for him and often suporting his lies. McCaskell is correct.
Politifact is fine, but on which channel do they broadcast? What network do they own? Which reporters represent Politifact at campaign events and press conferences?
Mr. Sulzberger makes his point well that the media must perform impartially and not as anyone’s lapdog. That said, there are indeed 24-hour per day TV and radio networks that serve Trump and other far right wing fanatics lapdogs and pimps. I’d also say enequivocally that CNN and MSNBC perform their due diligence and cover Biden Administration mistakes and missteps in detail.
I have to say I’m disappointed with the tenor and substance of your article. You seem to be more concerned with Clair McCaskill’s comments than the blizzard of ignorances uttered by utterly misinformed Trump supporters who have bought into his unchallenged lies. When did you condemn the irresponsibility perpetrated by FOX News, OAN and the other anti-democratic, authoritarian shills of Trump’s and his Republican abettors’ extremism? Do you not see the danger in the idiocy of Trump’s zombie-like fanatics regurgitating Trump’s lies word for word on TV interviews? You think Clair McCaskill’s few minutes a day on MSNBC is more dangerous or irresponsible? Apparently so.
I’d suggest you are part of the problem.