John Fetterman and the messy media midterm
NBC got exactly what it wanted
Welcome to a Thursday edition of Progress Report.
Over the next few days, we’ll roll out some exciting candidate interviews, new endorsements in critical legislative races, and stories with both deep analysis and original reporting. Want to help support this work? Become a premium member!
Tonight we’re going to talk about a tightening Senate race, this week’s epic media failure, and how myopic journalism plays a key role in our political decline. Before we get to that, though, please enjoy this:
Just imagine Nancy Pelosi decking Donald Trump in front of the rioting pig people as they stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Now keep imagining it. This is your happy place.
My son turned three weeks old today, and even in that short period of time, he’s developed a pretty distinct personality. One of Shea’s defining traits right now is his need to suck on something at all times. A pacifier, bottle, one of his fingers, his entire hand, a onesie sleeve, my shirt sleeve, my wife’s hair — he’ll lunge for anything that rests near his mouth for more than a few seconds.
I’m sorry to report that the same principle seems to apply to much of the Beltway political media as well. Major network reporters have an unquenchable appetite for empty stimulation and will mindlessly latch on to and suck up any old garbage that gets put in front of their faces, which is how NBC News got snookered into a misleading and entirely tasteless story on Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate John Fetterman.
A quick summary for the lucky people that don’t pay attention to this stuff: Fetterman suffered a stroke in May that forced him off the campaign trail for much of the summer. After a few months of recovery, he’s is back on the grind, holding events and making public appearances. While comfortable speaking to crowds, Fetterman currently uses screens with closed captioning to make it easier for him to conduct one-on-one interviews.
Fetterman has used the software since July, and both his verbal skills and use of transcription software has been noted in most interviews he’s conducted, but NBC still found it necessary to frame its coverage with misleading commentary on Fetterman’s ability to make small talk.
The focus on Fetterman’s health is undoubtedly a product of a terminal inability to concentrate on actual issues or quiet the cynical right-wing noise machine that’s designed to hijack legitimate news cycles and fill time with misleading trash. Dr. Oz’s campaign has spent months mocking Fetterman and raising unfounded questions about his health, which Fox News turned into one of its most-covered stories in September and into this month. Fetterman was mentioned on Fox News primetime more than every other major Democratic candidate for Senate combined in September, as the networked worked diligently to erode the giant lawmaker’s lead.
Here’s just a tiny sampling of what they’ve put upon the web, most of which is based on their primetime programming, as well as some coverage of their provocations:
“Media puts more emphasis on Fetterman's health as Pennsylvania election heats up”
“John Fetterman owes voters an 'honest assessment of his health': Dr Oz”
“Fetterman's string of misfires after stroke fuel questions about fitness”
“Fetterman only has done four nationally televised interviews since May stroke”
Tucker Carlson Chyron Says Fetterman 'Walking Vegetable' During Dr. Oz Chat
'Literally a hologram': Dr. Oz bashes Fetterman as 'fictional' candidate
It’s not inherently wrong to report on a candidate’s health, and NBC would have been justified in doing so here had Fetterman either not been transparent about his situation or admitted to facing serious long-time impairments that threatened his ability to do the job. But neither of those things are true. The campaign has been very open about the stroke, to the point that Fetterman has stressed the experience on the campaign trail in his arguments for broadly affordable health care. His doctor has also said that he expects the candidate to make a full recovery, so his minor lingering auditory processing issues will be temporary.
What’s gone unsaid thus far is the fact that even if Fetterman were working at a somewhat diminished capacity, he would still be infinitely more capable and cognizant than the collection of zombified 80-somethings and total morons that are currently serving in the Senate. For example, look at Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, who is 89-years-old, author of the least comprehensible Twitter feed in DC. He’s running for re-election this year without the least bit of scrutiny about his age or capacity.
If you’d prefer to leave age out of it, take a look at Herschel Walker, who should only be babbling nonsense as a warning to young football players about the long-term effects of CTE.
With less than a month to go before an election that will decide the direction of a nation being torn apart from the inside, there is no shortage of policy issues or candidate controversies to fill an editorial calendar. We’ve got corporate greed that’s driving inflation and hurting workers; the millions of Americans suffering with lack of access to health care, including reproductive health services; existential threats to democracy; white nationalists overtaking government and society; and the planetary meltdown that grows more destructive with every storm and shriveled lake.
So why does the media wind up producing pieces like NBC’s Fetterman story? After more than a decade in the media industry, I can reveal the news business’s deepest, darkest secret:
It’s filled with messy bitches who love the drama.
More specifically, there’s a premium placed on easy-to-digest, easier-to-report storylines that have no clear conclusion, because they allow for almost endless speculation. If they present the illusion of objectivity and foster tighter and more exciting horse races down the stretch, all the better.
Speculation is a renewable resource
Assessing Fetterman’s small talk skills does not require a reporter to do research or understand policy, and speculating about the political impact of his health requires only healthy doses of self-importance and myopia. Very few voters would be thinking hard about Fetterman’s use of close captioning absent the media’s own fixation on the matter, which reporters always seem to conveniently forget.
Reporters are addicted to inside baseball, especially when they’re at the center of the story, which means that we’re now in day three of the John Fetterman Uses Closed Captions During Serious Conversations news cycle.
Fox News has grabbed on to the NBC story as vindication of its own cynical concern-trolling over Fetterman’s health;
CNN, in the midst of a top-down shift to the political right, spent a full day discussing the matter, goosing its regular coverage of Fetterman's health;
The Washington Post wrote a mild defense of Fetterman based on actual medical input;
The AP published a story about backlash to the story;
Right-wing media jagoffs, from Fox News to campaign hacks, used the backlash as evidence of the media being somehow biased.
And of course, Republicans have feasted on the story, which they’ve turned into proof that Fetterman’s too sick to serve.
The only real response worth reading has been pushback from disability advocates, who are rightfully incensed over NBC News’ ableist reporting. The editorial team was so focused on creating a self-sustaining fountain of useless takes that it wound up insulting millions of Americans that live full and productive lives with the same auditory processing disability that Fetterman is temporarily battling.
NBC eventually tried to walk back parts of its reporting, but the damage has been done. Unfounded questions about John Fetterman’s health have taken up three days of TV news, and it will require some sort of serious scandal to turn the focus back on Dr. Oz’s tendency to lie about literally everything.
Perhaps this one will do.
Normalizing the Terror
Now that the January 6th commission has revealed the extent to which Donald Trump was involved in the insurrection, keep an eye out for interviews with prominent candidates that have supported his Big Lie and lauded the right-wing maniacs that stormed the Capitol.
For example, Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake has deep connections to all kinds of fringe racist militia freaks and happily accepts the endorsements of insurrectionists. Will she be asked about it going forward? I’m sure she’ll get a question or two, but most of the Arizona political media has been preoccupied with drama over the logistics of a theoretical debate between Lake and Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs.
Now, Hobbs should absolutely be debating Lake, who is a total lunatic and would embarrass herself on stage, but Hobbs’ conservative campaign apparatus — her comms guy yelled at me last summer for mentioning Krysten Sinema in a video we made with her about voting rights and the filibuster — is not the most important story right now.
Lake would be an unmitigated disaster as governor, but news outlets are too timid to say that outright. Better to have a tight horse race, even if we’re all galloping toward societal meltdown.
Help Us Make Trouble
Over the last four years, Progress Report has raised over $6.5 million for dozens and dozens of grassroots activists, civil rights groups, and Democratic candidates.
And yet, there is so much work left to do. The goal is to continue to help these grassroots activists and organizers, support progressive Democratic candidates, and interview the experts and leaders so we can amplify their messages. We’re adding freelance contributors and have a major stunt coming to Florida this month.
Help us out by helping others: Donate a subscription to a reader who needs the help…
Or make a one-time donation to Progress Report’s GoFundMe campaign, which gets you a shout-out in the next big Sunday newsletter. The more help we get now, the more we can do going forward.
Excellent reporting, Progress Report!!