The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Jimmy Kimmel On The Dueling Town Halls

    By rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 8:40am |

    During his late-night monologue on ABC Wednesday night, Jimmy Kimmel waded into the brewing controversy over dueling town hall events happening Thursday on both his network and NBC.

    “You know, there was supposed to be a debate tomorrow night, but since Trump would not agree to the virtual format that they wanted to have because he tested positive for the coronavirus, he backed out altogether,” the host explained. “So because there was no debate, Biden agreed to do a town hall on ABC that night.”

    Then came the announcement that Trump would also be doing a town hall on NBC at the exact same time. “So that settles it,” Kimmel joked. “Now I know what I’m gonna do, I’m going to vote for both of them.”

    “Thanks, NBC,” he continued. “First The Apprentice and now this. Why not a new Bill Cosby special while we’re at it?”

    Noting that there is “no good reason to hold these events simultaneously,” Kimmel insinuated that “obviously Trump wanted this because he knows he’ll get better ratings than Joe Biden,” given that getting a town hall on NBC means it will likely air on all of NBC’s other channels as well, including MSNBC and CNBC.

    “Of course more people will watch Trump,” he said. “That doesn’t mean anything. If my choices are watching a documentary about the Bill of Rights or a guy getting hit in the nuts with a shovel, I’m going shovel every single time!”

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/abcs-jimmy-kimmel-attacks-nbc-for-airing-trump-town-hall?ref=home

    Comments

    Criticism of NBC comes in

     

    George Takei

    Other Hollywood figures including actor George Takei, who became famous on NBC's "Star Trek" in the late 1960s, voiced their displeasure as well.

    "Don’t watch the Trump Town Hall tomorrow on NBC. Catch the highlights later," Takei tweeted.

    Dean Obeidallah

    #BoycottNBC is the top trending topic and they earned it. NBC could've scheduled its town hall with Trump LITERALLY any other date/time as the town hall previously scheduled with Biden for Thursday on ABC. But they choose the same time. Then again NBC gave us The Apprentice

    Former MSNBC editor-in-chief 

    A former editor-in-chief at MSNBC.com, Merrill Brown, argued that the network's executives must "explain ASAP how agreeing at last minute to add a town hall with President Trump opposite an @abcnews Joe Biden Town Hall is in the public interest."

    "Even doing it at 10 ET just after Biden would have been a better decision," he tweeted.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/521068-nbc-show-creator-actor-criticizes-network-airing-trump-town-hall-on-debate


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 11:08am

    It was the only way Trump could find to interrupt Biden again.


    by moat on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 1:52pm

    NBC had a choice, They went full "Apprentice".


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 2:28pm

    Why in the Creative Corner?

    As politics as it gets


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 3:31pm

    Slow learner


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 3:38pm

    No blogger left behind ;-)


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 6:41pm

    Over 100 NBC employees are against NBC creating dueling town halls.

    More than 100 prominent actors, writers and producers are protesting NBC News’s decision to carry a town hall meeting with President Trump on Thursday night opposite a previously scheduled Joe Biden town hall on rival ABC News.

    In a letter to NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell, NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde and Brian Roberts, chief executive of NBCU parent Comcast Corp., the group said the decision to give Mr. Trump such a platform after his refusal to debate Mr. Biden is “enabling the president’s bad behavior while undercutting the Presidential Debate Commission and doing a disservice to the American public.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/nbc-actors-producers-protest-networks-decision-to-host-trump-town-hall-at-same-time-as-bidens-abc-town-hall-11602772346?mod=hp_lista_pos4


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 3:51pm

    Senile Donald doesn't know if he took a COVID test on the day of the debate.

    Dotard Donald doesn't know "anything" about QAnon, then he talks about the group rejecting pedophilia.

    Trump is too mentally infirm to be president.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/15/2020 - 9:04pm

    More people watched Biden on ABC than Trump on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC

    Joe Biden's town hall on ABC averaged 13.9 million viewers on Thursday night, easily surpassing the Nielsen ratings for President Trump's town hall on NBC. That alone was a result virtually no one in the TV business expected. And that's not even the most surprising part.

    The Trump town hall was simulcast by two of NBC's cable channels, MSNBC and CNBC, but even when those channels are included in the total, Biden -- on only one network -- still prevailed.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/media/town-hall-ratings-biden-trump/index.html


    by rmrd0000 on Fri, 10/16/2020 - 2:36pm

    As both were on broadcast TV where special cable or other more expensive service was not necessary, I find this a hopeful sign for the democracy. Most people already know what the Trump show is about and the MSM would have us believe that even those who don't want him to be president can't resist watching his antics. But more took their responsibility as citizens seriously and tuned in to "boring" Joe to hear what he was promising to do.


    by artappraiser on Fri, 10/16/2020 - 2:54pm

    That is one way of looking at it but I came down differently on which to watch. I have already formed pretty strong opinions, good and bad, about Biden who I have already decided to vote for. I was more interested in seeing what kinds of questions Trump was asked and how he answered them in trying to figure out how he maintains such a large base. I certainly felt no "responsibility as a citizen" to make one choice over the other of which to try to learn from. 


    by A Guy Called LULU on Fri, 10/16/2020 - 3:16pm

    well, like it or not, to me what you say pegs you with the MSM talking heads and political cognescenti, you are more interested in looking at the accident and analyzing why it happened.That's how they get ratings, they don't get ratings talking about policy. And like it or not, Trump appreciates your ratings, that's part of the reason he acts like he does. Might as well try to figure out why some people find a toddler having a tantrum is cute, or try to figure out why some loved the Jerry Springer show and miss it a lot. Not denigrating your choice here, just pointing out that it's very like enjoying pro wrestling.


    by artappraiser on Fri, 10/16/2020 - 3:32pm

    Or more vital to see (if) Trump melt(s) down, rather than whether a guy with 40 years experience stays unsurprising.


    by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 10/16/2020 - 3:57pm