David Muir must think he’s auditioning for the role of “Most Biased Moderator of the Year.” During the last presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Muir didn’t even try to hide his favoritism. It
was like watching a tag team wrestling match where the referee kept slamming the gavel on one fighter – and surprise, surprise, it wasn’t Harris. Muir and his co-moderator Linsey Davis grilled Trump with fact-checks at every turn while Harris breezed through without so much as a raised eyebrow. You’d think Muir was Harris’ personal cheerleader, pompoms and all.
Trump didn’t hold back after the debate, and why should he? It was clearly two moderators versus one candidate. “It was one against three,” Trump said, and he’s got a point. Muir fact-checked Trump like it was going out of style, while Harris’ claims floated by like they were dipped in gold. Trump wasn’t alone in his outrage either; viewers noticed the blatant bias.
Turns out, the public doesn’t appreciate when moderators pick favorites. After the debate, Muir’s World News Tonight took a nosedive, shedding nearly a million viewers. Maybe it’s time for Muir to realize that people don’t tune in for a one-sided show.
Following the September 10 debate between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir, who served as one of the two moderators, has seen his viewership drop.
According to Fox News, the show averaged 6.7 million viewers on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which were the three episodes immediately following the debate. Before the debate, his show was averaging 7.6 million viewers. [Source: The Post Millennial]
Now, let’s talk numbers. ABC News might still boast the number one evening newscast, but that 12% drop in viewership is not something to shrug off. The numbers tell the real story: people are tired of the biased media circus. Muir and Davis’ performance wasn’t just a stumble, it was a full-on face plant.
It’s no wonder Fox News is having a field day reporting Muir’s plummeting ratings. Even CBS and NBC didn’t see such a steep decline after the debate, proving that viewers can only stomach so much one-sidedness.
Muir wasn’t just biased—he admitted it! His co-moderator, Linsey Davis, let the cat out of the bag when she confessed in an interview that they planned to fact-check Trump. Yes, you read that right. They went into the debate with a premeditated strategy to call out Trump, while Harris got a free pass.
Davis claimed they felt it was necessary after Biden’s embarrassing debate in June, where his statements were left unchecked. Apparently, they thought the answer to Biden’s slip-ups was to pile on Trump. If that’s their idea of fair journalism, maybe they should reconsider their career choices.
Unsurprisingly, a post-debate poll from YouGov revealed that a whopping 35% of Americans believed Trump was treated unfairly by the moderators. Even more telling, 41% of independents—those crucial voters everyone’s trying to win over—said the moderators were biased against Trump.
And what about Harris? Only 2% of independents thought she got an unfair deal. Clearly, the bias wasn’t just in Trump’s head; it was plain as day to a huge chunk of the viewing public.
At the end of the day, Muir’s plummeting ratings are just the tip of the iceberg. The debate moderators have lost the trust of a large portion of the electorate, and it’s going to be hard to win that back.
Trump may have walked onto that debate stage facing two moderators and a political opponent, but he’s walking away with even more momentum. His supporters aren’t going anywhere, and neither is he. Meanwhile, David Muir might want to brush up on fairness—or at least try to hide the pompoms next time.
Author: Bo Dogan
