DECISION 2020: TRUMP TOWN HALL
NBC & MSNBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL: On NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC, Donald Trump holds court with a town hall event of his own – televised live from an outdoor event at Miami’s Perez Art Museum, moderated by Savannah Guthrie. His event will be spread across three NBC networks, not just one – and because Trump is, by definition and design, more unpredictable and outrageous on live TV, he’s quite likely to walk away boasting of a ratings victory against his presidential rival. If Trump wins the ratings battle but loses the election war, Biden supporters should be very happy – but NBC’s decision to schedule Trump’s town hall in the exact hour when Biden and ABC already had announced theirs was poor citizenship. Of course , many viewers have the technical capability to watch one town hall while recording and replaying the other – but having the capability and the inclination are two different things. NBC already has hosted a town hall this election cycle with Biden, so giving a similar platform to Trump is commendably fair – but scheduling it in a time-slot duel against Biden on ABC is media mismanagement. It should have been scheduled as a doubleheader: Biden on ABC first, because he was first to schedule his own event after Trump walked away from tonight’s scheduled debate, followed by Trump on the NBC networks. That would have been fair. But if you’re still expecting fairness from anything regarding the 2020 presidential election – well, welcome back to planet Earth. Where have you been?