The Most Cringeworthy Media Visuals After Biden’s Nightmare Debate

By Michael Shaw

Without a doubt, the debate was a catastrophe for Biden. It would be one thing if the damage were contained to the 90-minute encounter with Trump. But it wasn’t. This photo of Jill Biden helping the President off the stage widens the concern over Biden’s frailty and capacity.

This photo, chosen to lead Politico Magazine‘s debate feature, oozes triumphalism. By erasing Biden, it reinforces the calls for his withdrawal (even imagining he already has). It portrays Trump as the victor, implying a knockout despite his lying, steamrolling, and incoherence. Furthermore, it enables Trump’s image as an escape artist. Looking away, he seems to evade his transgressions since his last debate: fostering an insurrection attempt; being convicted of sexual assault; facing massive business loan and insurance fraud charges that banned him from his own company; and receiving a criminal conviction for a payoff scheme to influence the presidential election.

This is an odd image for the New York Times to pair with Nick Kristof’s op-ed call for Biden to step down. I totally get the way it cuts off his lower face, which Biden failed to make much use of besides the mouth gaping stare.

But what is really curious, and something of a tell, is how pervasively Damon Winter’s photo juices the CNN brand. You can see this not only in the floating logos surrounding the fragment of a president but the sense of the guy with the CNN lanyard appearing to press into Biden. A head-butt is not beyond the realm of imagination.

CNN’s Dana Bash (left) and Jake Tapper listen as they moderate the debate between Joe Biden and Trump on Thursday. Photo: Gerald Herbert/AP

Suppose the media didn’t uniformly claim that Biden got the rules he wanted or insisted that fact-checking is the other candidate’s responsibility. In that case, there might have been more criticism of the network and how it absolved itself from any responsibility from the FUBAR.

But Gerald Herbert’s photo, with those uniform frozen expressions and stiff backs, really captures that, doesn’t it? The moment I saw it, I thought, “The bots!”

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I get that there may have been conditions on the debate that prevented Bash and Tapper from pushing back on the candidates’ answers. If so, the conditions were bad ones and should never have been agreed to. If the moderator is just a timekeeper, then the moderator doesn’t have to be a journalist. But if journalists are going to moderate the debates, then they need to act journalistically and ensure that facts take center stage—which is especially important when it comes to Donald Trump, who lies pretty much every time he opens his mouth, and almost never puts himself in position to be called out or held accountable for it.

–Justin Peters The Other Disaster at the Debate: CNN has escaped much notice for its performance on Thursday. It shouldn’t. (Slate)

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Some more ephemera:

By graphing the ratings of its 12 columnists and contributors, The New York Times shows its “horse race journalism” true colors.

This photo was one of the five images in a carousel on The Guardian’s home page. Because the awful encounter was no laughing matter, perhaps the theme here is schadenfreude, or one or both men as a laughingstock.

What a horrible night for democracy.

I’m sorry for Jill Biden for facing this strong armed barrage of marriage counseling.

But, who are the debate’s real losers?

Trump demonized migrants and legitimate asylum seekers all night, evading most questions and labeling these individuals as rapists, criminals, and destroyers of America’s economy. He victimized not only these refugees trapped in U.S. political limbo (further entangled by Trump’s sabotage of the Senate’s immigration compromise) but also every person or group mentioned in the questioning. This includes women, Blacks, Hispanics, Palestinians, Ukrainians, children, seniors, and all who depend on a coherent and truthful debate of real issues.

Special kudos to the A.P. for sending a photographer to cover the broadcast in that asylum shelter.