Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson Wednesday obliterated seven decades of “made for television” presidential debates. The next day the Tucker interview had 210 million views and counting, while a paltry few million folks witnessed the GOP presidential debate on Fox News.
The comparison, for those who watched both events from beginning to end, was substance verses fluff and zingers.
Future presidential candidates will have a different take on media driven and orchestrated televised debates versus individual interviews in which the candidate has time to develop an idea and advocate for it. The substantive discussions will be delivered via the internet.
These TV debates, since the 1950s, have been sold to the public as “must see” TV when in fact they are tightly controlled campaign events with the media making up the rules and controlling the content of the conversation. That is why American politics has drifted left of left for decades.
The advent of the internet is blamed for the demise of newspapers, and to some extent that is correct. This past week we watched as Tucker Carlson presented Donald Trump to a 200 million person audience in a format that clearly showed the man and his ideas. The Fox-staged GOP debate was not informative. It was not useful. It was not helpful to those Americans who care enough to pay attention to political leadership.