NBC criticized for scheduling its President Trump town hall against ABC's Joe Biden town hall

Deadline

NBC News has announced its own town hall with President Trump in Miami on Thursday, moderated by Savannah Guthrie, six days after ABC News announced a George Stephanopoulos-moderated Biden town hall from Philadelphia on the same night as the canceled second presidential debate. Both town halls will air at the same time starting at 8 p.m. ET. (Both town halls will run an hour, but ABC's follow up its town hall with a half-hour of analysis). NBC's announcement prompted the hashtag #BoycottNBC to trend on Twitter. NBC News was boxed in by ABC's announcement Monday that the Biden town hall would start at 8 p.m. and last for 90 minutes. According to Deadline, "NBC wanted the same format, duration and time slot. A later primetime event would have meant starting at 9:30 p.m. ET or 10 p.m. ET. The New York Times' Michael M. Grynbaum notes that Trump is almost guaranteed a ratings victory because his town hall will air on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, while Biden's will only be shown on ABC. As James Poniewozik argues, NBC isn't serving the public interest by having the two candidates on at the same time. "The problem isn't hosting a town hall with a president in an election," says Poniewozik. "(At least it wasn't when you didn't have to worry about him and his entourage getting people sick.) ABC did one a few weeks ago. It's agreeing to schedule it to divide the audience in  an either-or choice. I assume NBC will have some public-interest rationalization for the decision and timing. An actual public-interest act might be, say, for NBC and ABC to link up their feeds and turn the two town halls into a virtual debate. If it's not about ratings and competition, why not? I will just add: taking what started as a civic-minded debate and turning it into a dueling preaching-to-the-choir spectacle where the actual content will be secondary to a ratings competition is just about the perfect TV capstone to Trump's first term...Maybe the NBC town hall choice is about ratings, maybe it’s about 'showing we’re not leftists'—take your pick. But there’s a tendency in media outlets to see a lead like Biden’s as a bank account, from which they can make harmless withdrawals. I’d watch for that these next weeks."

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• NBC enlisted the National Institutes of Health for outside proof of President Trump's medical condition: The NIH "collected & analyzed" a PCR test on Tuesday and concluded he is "not shedding infectious virus." NBC did not explicitly say the PCR test was negative.
• NBC News is setting a new mark for spineless cynicism: It is "borderline unconscionable that NBC News has swept in at the Eleventh Hour to throw a life preserver to its former Apprentice star, this morning announcing that they will be running a competing town hall with the president across their platforms," says Kyle Koster. "It takes a Herculean effort to emerge from a crowded pack of cynical actors and the cravenly blind, but the Peacock has managed to do it. The event will be hosted by Savannah Guthrie, and has reportedly been cleared as safe to the network's satisfaction. One wonders how the hundreds of others in the news division feel to once again see ethics and integrity punted to the moon in exchange for ratings and dollars. Because, let's be clear: this is disturbing. And not because it's Trump. It's not about his policies or his opinions. It's about a process that rewards him for dropping out by giving 90 minutes of airtime without his opponent. Worse, by airing it concurrently, NBC is forcing people to choose between candidates or consume both events with a whim and a remote-control prayer. This is not informing or serving the audience and everyone involved knows it. It'd be the same gross malpractice if the shoes were on the other feet and it was Biden who was being offered the unearned olive branch. Forgive me for being momentarily naive enough to wonder how so many people can work together in suppressing their own backbones. To wonder how they can not only be the dog in the This is Fine meme, but willingly add fuel to the fire in torching their own credibility."