Peter: it’s really not, because 50 million people watched the debate and a tiny fraction of that read New York Times op-eds.

sorry but this is just wrong. yes, there’s a bad faith media feeding frenzy. but *fifty million* people watched Biden sputter his way through that debate. it is not a creation of the media, it is a real problem.

I don’t like to embrace doomerism but I’m pretty sure the moment we took on this narrative as a true “concern” Biden needed to disprove, especially party leadership, we were fucked.

the implied premise here is that the decline in Biden’s polling numbers is being driven by the media coverage rather than the debate itself. but several awful polls came in the days immediately following the debate. the debate itself was the problem

But that's really hard to disentangle from the center left elite media collectively freaking out and calling for Biden's withdrawal immediately after the debate.

it’s really not, because 50 million people watched the debate and a tiny fraction of that read New York Times op-eds.

That's why I didn't say NYT oped page but rather a big chunk of center left media, including people immediately after the debate on CNN, MSNBC, etc. Biden was bad, but the TV coverage was immediately asking if he should withdraw, and it's been relentless since.

Watch the best analysis moments of CNN's Presidential Debateyoutu.be Catch up on CNN’s reporters’ and experts’ analysis after the CNN Presidential Debate. Watch the full debate: https://www.youtube.com/live/-v-8wJkmwBY?si=RoFY...

Hell, far more people probably saw the "Biden should resign" sentiment than actually watched the debate!

This seems quite likely, let alone the repetition.

I mean more than the 10 million who subscribe see the headlines, and other media picks their shit up

I believe someone responded to me and then blocked me by sarcastically saying that the average person has their opinion zig zag around based on headlines. I don't think that, and I don't know why they think I think that. It only takes a 1 or 2 point change in the election to make a difference

More people will see a stream of out-of-context op ed headlines that they don't realize aren't actually news headlines (and also will not read) than watch the debate.

The net effect of how the Internet works now is that people will see 100 snippets of text or video saying people think Biden should drop out and just assume that's the conventional wisdom without really looking into it.

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