Memos I took on Bluesky during and shortly after the livecast debate, as organized by CNN.
“So far, Trump speaks just like a modern AI. Straight bullshit crawled from questionable corners of the internet and simply circling back to a couple of keywords all the time, but with a super-confident delivery. Biden, on the other hand, talks like a considerate human… which disadvantages him.”
(Afternote: I will probably expand this thought further, to talk about AI media ethics, from both the producer and audience sides.)
“Biden: decent policy content, with dismal communication performance. Trump: laying out a clear vision of semi-fascism, with assertion. And somehow way too many people, especially journos, simply normalize the latter in the name of ‘who won the debate.’
Trump spewing out dystopian lies and destructive plans has become a “dog bites man” story for many of us, lowering its so-called “newsworthiness.” Yet, if we stop emphasizing them and the stakes involved over and over again, many people will continue to get bitten.
Yes, I know many people have chosen to conveniently wipe the memories of the disastrous COVID response, the rise of Asian hate, Charlottesville, the hate towards BLM, strangling support to Ukraine, retreat from international efforts against climate change, and so on. Heck, even the Jan insurrection.”
(Afternote: again, a media ethics issue about how to focus on the substance instead of the attention-grabbing. The newsworthiness concept needs to be reconsidered if for public responsibility: “dog bites man” stories need to be recirculated again and again until we solve the problem of the dog bite. Some connections to be made to ‘agenda-KEEPING’ role and some larger ideas of ‘solutions journalism.’)
“On another note: in today’s media environment of massively networked self-confirmation and spread, no consequential political debate should be ever done in a format without on-screen, near real-time fact checking. This should be taught as media ethics 101.”
(Afternote: no, I don’t expect an antiqued tabloid… I mean cable TV news organization such as CNN to be willing, or be able, to pull it off.)