MSNBC Host Lawrence O’Donnell Slams His Own Network on Air Over Trump’s Press Conference

https://www.thedailybeast.com/msnbc-host-lawrence-odonnell-slams-his-own-network-on-air-over-trumps-press-conference

43 comments

  1. Lawrence doesn’t get enough credit for how he goes after Trump and MAGA. Glad he spoke up about how the press is making the same 2016 mistakes all over again, including his own network.
    It’s like the press is afraid to challenge him at all or even fact check

  2. I wish people were talking about this more. It’s something we should all be angry about. Trump’s lies and incoherence have been so blatant and normalized. And yet, they pick apart how Kamala “hasn’t done an interview” despite rallying and answering questions coming off the plane yesterday.

  4. Listening to his opening remarks live on MSNBC, I was kinda surprised they didn’t cut away and fact check his absurd claims at least until he started taking questions.

  5. Watched O’Donnell last night. Seriously went in on T. Got some Newsroom vibes. He’s right, the media does a horrible job with campaign coverage for both parties. It’s pretty transparent that even though T brings a threat to democracy – a threat to the very existence of free press – T gets this special treatment because he brings ratings. For every time Biden had a fumble of words it was met with criticism. Any time trump goes some bullshit about electrocuted sharks it’s met with applause because the discourse and division and controversy brings in viewers. The bottom line with today’s media is not the truth, it’s the cash flow. The treatment of these candidates is night and day and Kamala’s message of joy cannot be left in the dark. Poor Joe got eviscerated while trump continues to gets special treatment. If it weren’t for double standards the republicons wouldn’t have any standards at all! Thanks to O’Donnell for the fair, gloves-off commentary.

  6. This was an epic moment and O’Donnell’s takedown of the press, including his own network, was brilliant. It should be required viewing in every journalism school in America.

  7. This is as awesome as fuck. We saw how journalists are supposed to treat people during the Black Journalist conference. **Journalists and news papers are supposed to not have any friends.**

  8. They fucking deserve it! Tur and Mitchell are a disgrace on MSNBC. Truth be told the entire MSM is a fucking disgrace allowing the child rapist, life long scammer to grow and prosper without the proper pushback of the horseshit that has spewed out of him and his Parasite Family for the last number of years!

  10. All news media should be forced to watch this for 7 hours on repeat Clockwork Orange style.

  11. LOL!

    >“Many of the falsehoods Donald Trump spread today in his responses came from that vast well of stupidity that takes up most of his brain,” O’Donnell said. “The stupidest person who has ever won a nomination for president stood there in front of those reporters and said his opponent isn’t smart enough to do what he was failing at right in front of those reporters.”

  12. Lawrence doesn’t fuck around and he sticks to the truth, which I love.

  13. I’ve always liked this guy, but seems to always go under the radar. He’s not confused about the threat fascism poses and is vocal about it. They’re going to be trying everything under the sun, even after they lose the election. The media cannot be complicit in that.

  14. The biggest problem is that not only do they insist on carrying Trump whenever he speaks, but they don’t give equal coverage to Harris. Not even close, and when they do, it’s nit picking what she says or how she says it.

  15. >“It’s 2016 all over again,” O’Donnell added. “The same mistakes are being made. I have never seen an industry slower at learning from its own stupid mistakes than the American news business, and you cannot expect them in the next 89 days to figure out what they haven’t been able to figure out in nine years: how to cover a Trump for president campaign.”

    He’s right and it’s good to see people in media and journalism pushing back on the industry before they frog march us into fascism.

  16. Obsequious reporters who refuse to push back on Trump are a disgrace to their profession. The networks’ behavior is equally shameful. They made a decision to provide Trump a nationally televised broadcast to lie to the American public. They knew that is exactly what he would do and they did it anyway. Controversy and advertising dollars are all they care about.

  17. Trump just gets to ramble the same incoherent talking points no matter what question he gets asked. Zero push back.

  18. I think that’s like an FEC/FCC violation. To give full 90 minute coverage to one candidate and little to no coverage for the other. 

    In 2016, it was estimated that Trump received over $2B of unequal airtime over Clinton in various news programs.

  19. >“It’s 2016 all over again,” O’Donnell added. “The same mistakes are being made. I have never seen an industry slower at learning from its own stupid mistakes than the American news business, and you cannot expect them in the next 89 days to figure out what they haven’t been able to figure out in nine years: how to cover a Trump for president campaign.”

    Yep, but you know, Lawrence, it’s only a mistake if it isn’t on purpose.

  20. He’s right, too. That pack of morons need to quit focusing on the big, orange shiny object and do their goddamn jobs.

    “Trump Appears Proud Of J6 Role In Lie-Laden Press Conference” is the only headline that needed to be written.”

  21. he had some of the best insights into the complacent press I’ve heard… it should be mandatory listening for all “journalists”

  22. They should report that Trump inflated his real estate prices to get bank loans from Deutchbank, that were Russian money laundering. Why is no media company showing this?

    Edit: and the Deutchbank loan agent was Justin Kennedy, the son of Justice Kennedy who resigned from SCOTUS bla bla bla it’s ridiculous how much apparent kompromat is going on here

    Also report on the Wyoming private LLCs hiding money laundering and that’s why there’s so much I teresr in Wyoming, and also Montana where Rupert Murdoch bought a ranch from the Kochs ehhhh

    Jeez I hate sounding like a conspiracy person but the whole thing about money laundering from Russia is very not-covered by news sources and it’s not that hard to understand.

    [CSPAN hearing on Russian Money Laundering from 1999](https://www.c-span.org/video/?152263-1/russian-corruption-money-laundering)

  23. Trump got what he wanted. Harris/Walz went on a 12-0 point run and Trump called a timeout to slow their momentum. Now everyone is talking about that stupid press conference

  24. It was *not* a press conference. It was a rally, only with no one to take pictures to show poor attendance.

    They applauded him at the end. When the fuck have you *ever* seen actual journalists applaud at the end of an *actual* press conference?

    O’Donnell is right, this was bullshit. The entire news industry should be ashamed of itself today.

  25. Respect, Mr O’Donnell. This is how it’s done.

  26. I had seen some clips of journalists talking about how Harris hasn’t done a press conference and I wondered what they were going on about. Then I saw this and understood. I think a part of the unequal coverage comes from the fact that at the end of the day, all of the MSM outlets are owned by oligarchs and they direct what we peons see and hear. I hope O’Donnell doesn’t experience consequences for his rant, because it needed to be said.

  27. No network should televise a Traitor, convicted felon, rapist……no matter which party he is the nominee of.

  28. Shareholder greed rules the day and will be the downfall of humanity.

  29. This needs to be watched by and actioned upon by everyone in news and journalism.

  30. Kamala should shine a spotlight on all of the politicians who used to stand up and against trump and then suddenly back him. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, JD Vance.. the list goes on and on.

    WHY Are the supporting him NOW!?

  31. Before Trump, I always believed reasonable minds could disagree on politics. The right or best course of action is debatable. Us humans are fallible creatures who make mistakes.

    After Trump, I don’t see it this way. Only an idiot would believe Trump’s lies. This was true in 2016, and much more so now. Yet, not every Trump supporter is an idiot. The vast majority are. But there are others who are spreading Trump’s lies for their own personal advantage. This in itself would just make them self-centered and not evil. Being self-centered to an extent is fine. But Trump poses such a threat to our country that anyone placing their own self interest over the safety of our country makes them evil.

    So my current view of Trump supporters is they are mostly idiots, but some are just plain evil.

  33. Reminder: Michelle Wolf had the political press pegged back in 2018 and nothing they have done since implies that anything has changed. The truth is the press loves Trump and can’t get enough of him. There’s no journalistic impulse involved, just attention.

  34. This absolutely needs to be at the top of the news. It is utterly atrocious how Dump is given so much deference while he spews utter bullshit and contradictions within a single ‘answer.’ O’Donnell nails it here

  35. The problem, of course, is money.

    Modern media is owned by people who would benefit from a Trump presidency. So journalists are struggling with standing up to their own bosses, not Trump.

  36. All praise to Mr O’Donnell for telling his colleagues what they need to hear.

    Every professional journalist in America should be made to sit and watch this dressing down.

  37. My god when he read back Trumps answer to that question! What the fuck was that answer? It made no sense and sounded like the ramblings of some drunk.

  38. The NY Times front page headline: “Trump reinvents platform in a bid to court voters”

    What?????? The media definitely has failed us. That was an unhinged, full of lies, ranting and raving from a madman. He attacked Jews and attacked Harris’ racial identity. That should be the headline, or words to that effect.

    Journalism has fucking failed us.

  39. I remember when news was just news. Call me old fashioned, but it was just better to get the news once or twice a day, or from a newspaper, rather than having a 24/7 stream of consciousness you can neither confirm or deny half the time. In my youth, we had four big networks and they all basically gave the same news. Like, the slant between right and left was imperceptible. You had Tom Brokaw at NBC, Peter Jennings at ABC, Dan Rather at CBS, and Jim Lehrer of PBS. Once a day, or on the rare occasion of an actual national tragedy or event, you would tune in and you felt like you could trust the words coming out of any of their mouths. They very rarely just spoke off the cuff or without having a fact to back it up first. Hell, if there was breaking news they’d often stop mid sentence and be like wait, we’re getting some real reports from the field now to find out what is going on… And you’d be waiting with them on the edge of your seat to find out more about the Challenger disaster, the fall of the Berlin wall, Princess Diana dying, TWA flight 800, the elections or whatever. The news was very rarely sensational and often, it was quite boring even if the story itself was exciting. You basically got straight news backed up by some journalistic integrity and there was even a time where if a news story ran where some falsity was found out that they would actually apologize for the error to the viewer in a later broadcast. You almost never heard any bullshit and reporters knew how to ask harder questions and suss out bad actors. It was just news. It wasn’t tabloid bullshit, or opinons, or junk stories just to get people’s attention. It was just news. I’d love to live in a world where the phrase, “what’s the news today?”, actually means something again.

  42. It’s shameful the way the press, and not just Fox, lets Trump get away with all the bullshit without challenging him, in contrast to the way they aggressively bombard Biden.

  43. 95% of the media is reprehensible at this point because they don’t call him out.

    The ONE WOMAN who did call him out for not answering a question at the Black Journalist conference was immediately attacked by trump, called names, raged out by a misogynistic adjudicated rapist, and he STiLL did not answer the question.

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