The Feckless Media’s ‘Debate About Debates’ Is Failing Its ‘Watchdog Of Democracy’ Role (Updated)

The “debate about debates” that only the self-important media villagers give a damn about flared anew last night.

The media is supposed to be the “watchdog of democracy,” but the GQP-friendly media in Arizona is doing its damnedest to normalize Republican anti-democracy extremism, insurrection, and election denialism (Just read The Arizona Republic fka The Arizona Republican – you’re not fooling anyone.). The Republican Party has lost its fucking mind, and as conservative Judge Michael Luttig warned, “Almost two years after that fateful day … Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy.” This is the only message that a media which is supposed to be the “watchdog of democracy” should be shouting from the rooftops 24/7.

Let’s be clear: “Krazy Kari” Lake is dangerously unfit to hold public office. She is an experienced actress/propagandist for the FOX News affiiate in Phoenix and engages in performance politics, that white grievance shit which is the mainstay of FOX News. She is a White Christian Nationalist, an anti-democracy authoritarian who is one of Donald Trump’s most skilled “Big Lie” sycophant election deniers.  She lies with ease that the 2020 election was stolen, that Joe Biden is not the legitimate president, and that she would jail Secretary of State Katie Hobbs for certifying the 2020 election results (somehow she would not jail Republicans Gov. Doug Ducey and AG Mark Brnovich who also certified the 2020 election results). She is promising that she will only certify an election if a Republican wins. She alleged fraud in her primary election without any proof (even though she won), and she will allege fraud without any proof in the general election if she loses, and she will refuse to concede. Her performance politics will be a spectacle to behold.

The media cannot give legitimacy to such an anti-democracy dangerous demagogue. The objective of a media which is supposed to be the “watchdog of democracy” is to destroy the candidacy of such an anti-democracy dangerous demagogue, not normalize it by treating it as normal. Instead we are getting this bullshit “debate about debates” from the self-important media villagers.

The Arizona Mirror reports, More debate drama: Lake Q&A postponed, Hobbs to get her own interview:

A televised question and answer session with Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was postponed Wednesday, the same day it was set to air, after news broke that Arizona PBS had agreed to separately interview Lake’s Democratic opponent Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. 

The Arizona Clean Elections Commission, which has worked for years with its partner PBS to put together and televise debates between candidates for public office, had previously refused the Hobbs campaign’s request for separate interviews of the two candidates, to replace a traditional debate. The commission announced that it was postponing the Lake interview after learning of PBS’s plans to interview Hobbs.

“We just learned hours before airtime of tonight’s Clean Elections Commission debate that PBS has unilaterally caved to Katie Hobbs’ demands and bailed her out from the consequences of her cowardly decision to avoid debating me on stage,” Lake said in a statement. [Performance politics.]

The commission had planned for the one-on-one interview with Lake after Hobbs ducked out of the debate. Putting together a televised question and answer session is the commission’s normal practice when only one candidate agrees to participate in a debate.

“This decision is disappointing, especially following the multiple attempts on behalf of all the partners involved in producing this year’s General Election debates, to organize a traditional Gubernatorial debate between the two candidates,” the commission said in a statement on Wednesday.

Note to the Commission: As I’ve said before, your debates suck and are not informative. Your choice of debate moderator is the problem. Ted Simons is terrible. As others have said, we can do better than this (what the Commission has to offer).

The commission also announced that it planned to reschedule the Lake interview at a different venue and with a different televising partner, adding that PBS’s decision to interview Hobbs separately broke from their history of shared practices.

“PBS’ actions are a slap in the face to the commissioners of the CEC and a betrayal of their efforts to put on an actual debate,” Lake said in the statement.

Hobbs’ campaign previously said she was not willing to share a debate stage with Lake because “you can’t debate a conspiracy theorist,” adding that Lake “only wants a spectacle.”

This has the advantage of being the truth. One does not lend legitimacy to a dangerous anti-democracy demagogue by treating her as a normal candidate. There is nothing “normal” about “Krazy Kari’ Lake. The point is to delegitimize her and to treat this demagogue as the dangerous threat to democracy that she is.

Lake is a Trump-endorsed 2020 Election denier who has hounded the Hobbs campaign, continually calling her a chicken, since Hobbs announced she wasn’t willing to debate. [Performance poitics.]

The Associated Press adds:

“What I’m focused on is talking to the voters of Arizona,” Hobbs told reporters during a campaign event Wednesday. “I’m not interested in being a part of Kari Lake’s spectacle or shouting match, and I’m going to talk directly to the voters.”

As she spoke, Lake supporters dressed as chickens danced outside the window.

[Lake] said she would show up during Hobbs’ scheduled interview in an attempt to debate.

“I promise you I won’t yell, Katie,” Lake said. “I promise you I won’t interrupt you. And if you want to have an emotional support animal there as well, I will agree to that. But show up like a grownup and debate.”

Lake tried a similar move at a candidate forum last week organized by the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, placing herself in Hobbs’ line of sight during what were supposed to be separate interviews with the candidates.

Thus proving Hobbs’ point that “Krazy Kari” is only interested in spectacle – it is all performance politics. Who needs this?

And there you have it. If Kari Lake can’t create a spectacle and has to take tough questions about her dangerous record, she won’t participate. https://t.co/A6EasmsZCF

— Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) October 14, 2022

Lake is again treating the media as “the enemies of democracy” and the media is letting her get away with her demagoguery, just as they do for Donald Trump. The Arizona Mirror continues:

Lake said that PBS’s decision to go behind the commission’s back to schedule an interview with Hobbs showed obvious bias.

“PBS, a supposedly-objective taxpayer-funded entity, is working overtime to help elect Katie Hobbs, who needs all the help she can get,” Lake said.

Debates are good, but this is just plain dumb. Political candidates do not dictate who gets interviewed on news programs. If Katie Hobbs refuses to debate, so be it. But that doesn’t mean AZPBS can’t interview Hobbs. And Kari Lake should not be threatening AZPBS. https://t.co/Vi5cEZgwaH

— Morgan Loew (@morganloewcbs5) October 14, 2022

“Krazy Kari” Lake did not get her half hour on PBS to abuse the moderator and the viewing audience with her white grievance performance politics.

But Secretary of State Katie Hobbs did get a brief interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.

UPDATE:

Arizona's version of "But her emails!!" brought to you by @LaurieRoberts pic.twitter.com/DRCkyEu79n

— Tom Ryan (@tomryanlaw) October 13, 2022

Imagine spending all day covering the 1/6 hearing and the threat to democracy and then getting to the end of the day and discovering Kari Lake is leading in the Arizona’s governor’s race. 😳

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 14, 2022

A @katiehobbs staffer tells me Hobbs security met w/ ASU re: security for the town hall next week. A rash of death threats have come in since @KariLake’s presser last night and the ASU operator picking up those threatening calls has been called racist slurs (she is Black) 1/2

— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) October 13, 2022