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

On 10/23/2024 8:30 PM, Rhino wrote:
> On 2024-10-23 6:40 PM, moviePig wrote:
>> On 10/23/2024 3:05 PM, BTR1701 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.
>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>
>>> 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.
>>
>> 'Ruse'?  You think the audience showed up to ask questions?
> 
> Read the original post: clearly, at least one person thought they'd be 
> able to ask their own questions - as is traditional at town halls.

You mean the only person who demonstrably *didn't* think that?


>> Seems it was a live interview conducted before an audience (...without 
>> whom we'd be again hearing the Right's claims of "malicious editing"). 
>> If that's not a 'town hall' in your lexicon, then what is it?
>>
>>
> An interview with an audience is exactly that: an interview with an 
> audience, just as if she was on Colbert or Kimmel or whoever. A town 
> hall is a place where (some of) the audience is able to ask questions of 
> their own, like when Joe Biden accused that woman of being a "lying dog- 
> faced pony soldier" in 2020.

You think that any "town hall" today doesn't somehow pre=screen?