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Jimmy Fallon faces backlash for Donald Trump interview
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Chie Satonaka
Member
Donald Trump is a racist and white supremacist.
I'm not surprised that people are giving Fallon the pass on this, given that we live in America, a land built on racism and white supremacy, where we give people who hold those views the pass all the time!
In other words, business as usual.
¯\_(ツ
_/¯
I'm not surprised that people are giving Fallon the pass on this, given that we live in America, a land built on racism and white supremacy, where we give people who hold those views the pass all the time!
In other words, business as usual.
¯\_(ツ
_/¯Easy for you to say that if you aren't affected by Trump's racist rhetoric.
LordOfChaos
Member
I get it, I guess my point was you get upset at someone when they do something you don't expect, Fallon is the witless fop show so I had zero expectation of him grilling Trump where he deserves.
I can see why you'd be upset at legitimizing him by hosting him though.
RustyNails
Member
Its not Fallon, it's NBC. They have gone incredible lengths to humanize this flaming piece of shit: Morning Joe, SNL, easy Matt Lauer interview, easy Fallon lolz, etc. And guess who's moderating the first debate? NBC's Lester Holt.
Reasonable. Apologies as I came off as stand-offish. I really enjoyed Fallon so to see him go to Trump so easily like this was a stinger.
teacupcopter
Banned
Did anyone catch Samantha Bees but on gallon?
She made a good point in that people who have privilege may not care but they won't be affected under a trump presidency anyway
She made a good point in that people who have privilege may not care but they won't be affected under a trump presidency anyway
Sorry didn't know Fallon was robot programmed by NBC. He is his own person. He could've at least made the interview extremely boring like most of his interviews and no one would've said anything.
Chie Satonaka
Member
Good point. Colbert and Kimmel tickled Trumps balls too. There weren't any hard hitting questions. They had him on solely for the ratings, just like Fallon.
no no he's just some desperate little grunt trying to put a few scraps of bread on the table. Not a multimillionaire with a big platform
EatinOlives
Member
I guess it bears repeating a few of these points, since the same dismissive posts still seem to get repeated with little variation:
1. "He's just doing it for ratings!"
This is just a simple re-statement of the problem, not an explanation in and of itself. Of course we know this done just for ratings, that's actually exactly what we're arguing in this case. Having someone like Donald Trump, who perverts everything that is decent about western civilization, just to joke around with him is extremely tone deaf at best.
2. "It's just a fun, lighthearted show, this isn't 60 minutes!"
Well, it's certainly not the only late-night talk show in existence, and practically every other show has spent plenty of time tearing into Trump. With some shows it's literally a daily occurrence. Mainstream comedy doesn't HAVE to be 100% vanilla and safe, but here's the thing, what Fallon's show did was pretty far from what anyone would call "neutral". Chumming around with Trump and glossing over the horrible shit he says on a daily basis is pretty pro-Trump, it isn't just neutral like many people like to say.
But the bigger point to make here is that if you look at any other fun, lighthearted show, in order to solve this problem they steer clear of politics altogether. Ever see some comedy TV show or podcast or what have you say "OK we are NOT getting into politics!" as they laugh off the potential rabbit hole? That happens frequently, and that's the correct response. Instead of diving headfirst and attempting to be impartial by simply ignoring the horrible shit of the subject matter, they simply choose not to engage in its entirety.
3. "Quit making it a big deal!"
We aren't? I've yet to encounter a post who says this is what'll get him elected, or that he'll get a huge bump in the polls, or that the world is ending. But simply discussing it, simply criticizing the show runners for doing it, does not automatically mean we're "making it a big deal".
4. "Focus on the REAL problem, the mainstream media not doing anything about him!"
This isn't a zero sum game. Most of us peeved at this are far more annoyed at the mainstream media constantly letting Trump get away with bullshit on a daily basis in a blind devotion to appear "neutral". That doesn't mean that the two issues are mutually exclusive. We can criticize The Tonight Show for doing this AND criticize the mainstream media. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
5. "You're advocating censorship just because he did something you didn't like!"
I've also yet to counter a post who insists on censorship. Nobody wants some totalitarian government agency to march around and censor a particular candidate we don't like. What we do want is for show runners and people with platforms that access tens of millions of people to exercise a modicum of judgment in how they behave around political figures, especially those that have proved themselves to be a miserable icon of impotent hatred.
6. "Half the country wants Trump, so of course he'll get mainstream coverage!"
Again, kind of uses the same attitude of fastidious adherence to neutrality when the actual logical response is to NOT stay "Neutral". One does not "stay neutral" on xenophobia, racism, racial profiling, and miserable hatred. At some point, I think we have to realize that if people are arguing things like that, they've already normalized Trump in their own minds. To them he's no longer the single most dangerous candidate for presidency in our lifetimes, no he's simply "the Republican nominee" which apparently somehow affords him not only the benefit of the doubt, but ample coverage in non-political "lighthearted and fun" (their words, not mine) shows and nobody really has to say boo about the abhorrent views he peddles on a daily basis. It's as if the entire country is some kind of non-sentient machine and if some horse shit leaks into the machine then for some bizarre reason everyone is powerless to stop it and nothing can be done. No no no, get that mop away from here, you're interfering with the machine! Let it run its course!
The other side of this argument (which I'm not sure is being made in full honesty by the people who say it, if I may add), is a simplistic appeal to popularity. "Yes, Trump is a neo-Nazi, but he's a popular neo-Nazi, so you can't just EXPECT popular cultural outlets to point that out!!" Uh, yes we can. The question really should be: why SHOULD we expect popular cultural outlets to enable this abhorrent behavior just to make a quick buck? Yes, yes, I understand the edgy cynical view of "the whole country chases the almighty dollar and has no scruples!", but I'm operating under the assumption that people saying that statement don't like it that the country is that way, so why simply accept it? Worse yet, why argue in FAVOR of that status quo? You guys can talk all you want about how we're "naive", but I guess I don't quite grasp what ultimate point you guys want to make. That this is OK, that it should be accepted? That we shouldn't ever expect any better?
1. "He's just doing it for ratings!"
This is just a simple re-statement of the problem, not an explanation in and of itself. Of course we know this done just for ratings, that's actually exactly what we're arguing in this case. Having someone like Donald Trump, who perverts everything that is decent about western civilization, just to joke around with him is extremely tone deaf at best.
2. "It's just a fun, lighthearted show, this isn't 60 minutes!"
Well, it's certainly not the only late-night talk show in existence, and practically every other show has spent plenty of time tearing into Trump. With some shows it's literally a daily occurrence. Mainstream comedy doesn't HAVE to be 100% vanilla and safe, but here's the thing, what Fallon's show did was pretty far from what anyone would call "neutral". Chumming around with Trump and glossing over the horrible shit he says on a daily basis is pretty pro-Trump, it isn't just neutral like many people like to say.
But the bigger point to make here is that if you look at any other fun, lighthearted show, in order to solve this problem they steer clear of politics altogether. Ever see some comedy TV show or podcast or what have you say "OK we are NOT getting into politics!" as they laugh off the potential rabbit hole? That happens frequently, and that's the correct response. Instead of diving headfirst and attempting to be impartial by simply ignoring the horrible shit of the subject matter, they simply choose not to engage in its entirety.
3. "Quit making it a big deal!"
We aren't? I've yet to encounter a post who says this is what'll get him elected, or that he'll get a huge bump in the polls, or that the world is ending. But simply discussing it, simply criticizing the show runners for doing it, does not automatically mean we're "making it a big deal".
4. "Focus on the REAL problem, the mainstream media not doing anything about him!"
This isn't a zero sum game. Most of us peeved at this are far more annoyed at the mainstream media constantly letting Trump get away with bullshit on a daily basis in a blind devotion to appear "neutral". That doesn't mean that the two issues are mutually exclusive. We can criticize The Tonight Show for doing this AND criticize the mainstream media. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
5. "You're advocating censorship just because he did something you didn't like!"
I've also yet to counter a post who insists on censorship. Nobody wants some totalitarian government agency to march around and censor a particular candidate we don't like. What we do want is for show runners and people with platforms that access tens of millions of people to exercise a modicum of judgment in how they behave around political figures, especially those that have proved themselves to be a miserable icon of impotent hatred.
6. "Half the country wants Trump, so of course he'll get mainstream coverage!"
Again, kind of uses the same attitude of fastidious adherence to neutrality when the actual logical response is to NOT stay "Neutral". One does not "stay neutral" on xenophobia, racism, racial profiling, and miserable hatred. At some point, I think we have to realize that if people are arguing things like that, they've already normalized Trump in their own minds. To them he's no longer the single most dangerous candidate for presidency in our lifetimes, no he's simply "the Republican nominee" which apparently somehow affords him not only the benefit of the doubt, but ample coverage in non-political "lighthearted and fun" (their words, not mine) shows and nobody really has to say boo about the abhorrent views he peddles on a daily basis. It's as if the entire country is some kind of non-sentient machine and if some horse shit leaks into the machine then for some bizarre reason everyone is powerless to stop it and nothing can be done. No no no, get that mop away from here, you're interfering with the machine! Let it run its course!
The other side of this argument (which I'm not sure is being made in full honesty by the people who say it, if I may add), is a simplistic appeal to popularity. "Yes, Trump is a neo-Nazi, but he's a popular neo-Nazi, so you can't just EXPECT popular cultural outlets to point that out!!" Uh, yes we can. The question really should be: why SHOULD we expect popular cultural outlets to enable this abhorrent behavior just to make a quick buck? Yes, yes, I understand the edgy cynical view of "the whole country chases the almighty dollar and has no scruples!", but I'm operating under the assumption that people saying that statement don't like it that the country is that way, so why simply accept it? Worse yet, why argue in FAVOR of that status quo? You guys can talk all you want about how we're "naive", but I guess I don't quite grasp what ultimate point you guys want to make. That this is OK, that it should be accepted? That we shouldn't ever expect any better?
Is that "bit on Fallon"?
Should be yeah. She ripped into him and NBC as a whole, pointing out the latter's long history of putting Trump on TV.
Monocle
Member
Solid post. Good clear thinking to counter the excuses and deflection.
The Matt Lauer thing gets too much criticism. Lauer isn't running for president, they aren't debating, Lauer's job was to ask questions. And did anyone think that Trump came off looking better than Clinton after that hour? Lauer tossed Clinton balls on the email "scandal" and she smacked them out of the park. Trump couldn't even handle a woman from the audience asking him about soldier suicide. Lauer got Trump to call US generals bad and reiterate his platform of plundering foreign nations for resources.
They made a whole movie in Frost/Nixon about a multi-day interview where a journalist got a former president to admit that he "disappointed" some people.
David Frost wishes he got as much out of Nixon in three days as Lauer got out of Trump in 30 minutes flat.
Shamrock7r
Member
I will say this about Morning Joe, since the primaries they have been one of Trumps biggest critics. Every day their show is essentially a segment of "please don't vote for this guy"
Lol
Not that the Trump interview offended me, but I hate this dumb argument that has been brought up at least 20 times in this thread. Here's your train of thought:
1. NBC only cares about money.
2. ???
3. Therefore it is illogical/irrational to criticize the ethics of content aired on NBC.
Maybe you can help me fill in #2.
Heaven Shard
Banned
I think it is a simple reason why this happens (and not just with the annoyingly giggle Fallon): Hilary is viewed as a serious politician. Drumpf is viewed as a has been joke.
Just watched the Samantha Bee bit. She really tore into them, and pointed out now all of NBC is complicit, not just Fallon
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=urMYjS97omY
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=urMYjS97omY
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