Kamala’s canned debate answers wowed the media — but didn’t convince voters
By Joe Concha
Published Sep. 11, 2024, 6:10 p.m. ET
Oftentimes there’s a decided, night-and-day gap between the media’s idea of public perception and actual public perception when it comes to Donald Trump: Just think back to the 2016 campaign.
After Tuesday’s big debate in Philadelphia between the former president and Kamala Harris, we may be looking at another big disconnect between the press and the public.
“Harris Dominates as Trump Gets Defensive” was the lead headline in The New York Times.
“Harris dominated Trump in debate, but will it matter?” was The Washington Post’s take.
Along with “dominating,” Kamala also “commanded” the debate, according to MSNBC’s John Heileman, the aforementioned Times and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — almost as if a memo with instructions and approved verbiage had gone out.
For Harris to dominate, she needed a big assist from the moderators.
The hopelessly biased David Muir and Linsey Davis obliged and then some, fact-checking Trump five times without correcting the veep even once — despite her repeated lies, as dutifully documented by The Post.
But after the debate, as many in the media swooned over their commanding new queen, a funny thing happened: Polls and focus groups emerged showing her winning on style points, but Trump winning on substance.
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https://nypost.com/2024/09/11/opinion/kamalas-canned-answers-wowed-media-didnt-convince-voters/
