I think special episodes are a mistake. A lot happened this week, including last-minute passage of a continuing resolution for federal funding, ABC News capitulating to Trump’s libel lawsuit, continuing war in the Middle East, and a school shooting here in Madison (off the top of my head). Meet the Press should consider its mission, first and foremost, to report the news and put it into context.
Today’s special episode focused on political and (not as clearly) cultural polarization in America.
It started with a rundown of recent polling that describes mistrust and cherry-picking politically-lopsided neighborhoods to display election divides. (Hi, Hyde Park!) I have a running theory that a focus on polling is really rotting media from the inside. Every minute spent on polls or focus groups is a minute not spent reporting actual news. So: if we are not spending your time informing the public, then we should not be surprised when the public is ill-informed.
A long sit-down with Raphael Warnock and James Langford followed. Then the insipid panel talked for a while. It was a well-meaning conversation, but it’s just a waste of time.
I have long gotten the impression from Meet the Press that political messaging is the only thing worthy of coverage. Then we get an episode like this that seems to be based on the thesis that political messaging alone will bring us “back” together. Dumb.