Re: Kamala Town Hall Attendees Barred From Asking Questions: "All Pre-Determined"

On Wed, 23 Oct 2024 19:05:50 -0000 (UTC), BTR1701 <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On Oct 23, 2024 at 9:39:35 AM PDT, "Ubiquitous" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Vice President Kamala Harris held an event in Michigan on Monday that was 
>> billed as a "town hall"-- but when attendees asked if their questions were 
>> going to be answered, host Maria Shriver admitted that all of the questions 
>> had already been pre-determined.
>> 
>> The video showed Shriver, who is the niece of former President John F. 
>> Kennedy, responding to an audience member who asked whether anyone present 
>> would be allowed to ask a question of the Democratic presidential nominee-- 
>> which traditionally is the point of the town hall format in the first place--
>> 
>> and she told them that they would just have to rely on her to ask the 
>> questions that they would most want to have answered.
>> 
>> "You're not, unfortunately, we have some pre-determined questions and I 
>> hopefully will be able to ask some of the questions that might be in your 
>> head, I hope so," Shriver said.
>> 
>> "And this woman-- Maria Shriver, no less-- cosplays as a journalist at NBC 
>> News!" Curtis Houck, managing editor of NewsBusters, responded.
>> 
>> "Nothing says 'town hall' like predetermined questions," another social media
>> 
>> user said.
>
>Wasn't it Shawn that was castigating Trump for his performative politics just
>a few says ago? Well, here you go. Kammie's no better.

It's not Trump doing such an event. It's so many reporters not
reporting it as what it was, a staged event. All politicians engage in
such events and reporters should report it as such an event.

>> A number also argued that if the questions were pre-determined, it was likely
>> 
>> that Harris and her campaign team had access to them and had prepared their 
>> responses prior to the event. Still more noted that, after nearly 48 hours of
>> 
>> Democrats and media complaining about how "scripted" former President Donald 
>> Trump’s visit to McDonald's had been, it seemed a little on the nose for 
>> Harris to do a "town hall" without a single surprise question.
>
>Yep. All those bitching about Trump's staged appearance-- even those on this
>newsgroup-- are strangely silent when Kammie pulls the same sort of stunt.

It's not the same sort of stunt from what you've posted. Shriver may
have picked the questions but there's nothing in what you posted that
suggested that Harris knew the questions ahead of time. So Shriver was
still going to be asking the questions to Harris in the town hall
format much like if Shriver were doing a standard sit down interview.
I guess the town hall format is to make it feel a bit more relaxed.

>What was the audience even there for? If it's not really a town hall format
>and no one gets to ask questions, Shriver could have just done an in-studio
>interview with Kammie and left it at that. But no, instead Kammie's people go
>to all the trouble to bring in an audience under the ruse of it being a town
>hall when all they really wanted was a room full of people to act as
>background props for her campaign.
>

Is it Harris doing the setup or Shriver and her people. Seems more
likely it was Shriver's people doing that setup for their own reasons.