Media, Politics

ABC’s Martha Raddatz Under Fire Over Abbott Interview
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There is an interesting controversy this week after ABC’s Martha Raddatz took Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott to task for public comments about the open Southern border as fueling the crisis. Raddatz is being criticized for her claim that President Joe Biden has never encouraged migrants to come over the border — a statement that many objected to as demonstrably false. However, I am more interested in a different aspect of her remarks: the objection to Abbott’s language. It is the type of objection that one finds from a system of state media where the narrative is supposed to be replicated and uniform.

Abbott has criticized the Biden administration’s “open-border policies” and Raddatz immediately objected to that language in her interview:

You talk about the border wall, you talk about open borders, I don’t think I’ve ever heard President Biden say, ‘We have an open border, come on over.” But people I have heard say it are you, are former President Trump, Ron DeSantis. That message reverberates in Mexico and beyond. So, they do get the message that it is an open border.”

Critics immediately pointed out past Biden comments criticized as seemingly encouraging such border crossers: “They deserve to be heard. That’s who we are. We’re a nation that says, ‘If you want to flee, and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come.’”

They also point out that Raddatz herself was told by one border crosser that he “basically” made the trip because Biden was elected.

However, it was the objection to the use of divergent language that was equally striking. ABC and other mainstream media sites have been accused of echoing the narrative of the Biden Administration and largely ignoring (until recently) the crisis at the southern border. Those who raise the issue have been denounced as exaggerating or inventing a crisis.

Raddatz’s interview is reminiscent of the interview by Leslie Stahl on CBS with former President Donald Trump where she shutdown Trump referring to the spying on this campaign by declaring that there is no evidence of such spying. There was already ample evidence of such spying, but Stahl simply told viewers that it was untrue.

The Raddatz interview raises again the danger of a de facto state media where media echoes the position of the government by choice rather than coercion. Her objection was that Abbott and others keep referring to a crisis when the Administration and mainstream media do not use such terms. As a journalist, she is objecting to a public official in a border state calling out a crisis as thousands pour over his border on a daily basis.

Raddatz’s objection was notably virtually identical to the talking point put out by the White House. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has declared “It would be wrong to think the border is open. It is not open.” She added “anyone who suggests otherwise is simply doing the work of these smugglers who, again, are spreading misinformation which is very dangerous.”

It is unclear what Raddatz is suggesting. Was the governor of Texas supposed to stop responding to the outcry of border cities to the massive influx? Was he supposed to insist that the border is not open as videos show hundreds just walking over the border?

Raddatz is an accomplished journalist and I have great respect for her career. We can all craft questions or comments poorly. However, the concern is that this interview occurred in the context of ABC and other networks steadfastly ignoring the growing crisis at the border.

 

106 thoughts on “ABC’s Martha Raddatz Under Fire Over Abbott Interview”

  1. As a journalist, you lose your credibility when you’re trumpeting the administration line instead of reporting on what’s actually happening at the border. No network, except Fox, has adequately covered the disaster our Mexican border is.

    1. So if you look at 4 years of Fox reporting which continually repeated, amplified and justified everything the Trump administration said and did, you would have to conclude it had no credibility and was just state media that reverted to Republican party media.
      Turley also criticizes the real media about agreeing with the presidential spokesman at certain times. So when the media criticized Bin Ladin during the Bush/Obama administrations they were just state media – right?
      As a lawyer, Turley carefully crafts his words such as “Biden comments criticized as seemingly encouraging such border crossers”. Notice the word “seemingly”. This means that to some, perhaps including Turley, even though Biden didn’t actually say something it seems to Turley he might have meant that. To me, Turley says things that seemingly are direct contradictions to what he has said before, and is seemingly a total hypocrit.

      1. So, in looking at media credibility, do you believe people are crossing our Southern Border because Gov. Abbott and the GOP are saying the border is open, or that people who have already crossed are passing the word the Biden isn’t enforcing the law on the border so come and get it?

      2. If you were looking to evaluate the media – you would compare what they said to reality.

        Trump outperformed every president in the 21st century.
        But his performance was lower than all presidents in the last 1/4 of the 20th century.

        Which Media delivered that message ?

        The real income of the working class increased 4500 under Trump. It has decreased 3500 under Biden

        Which media is telling you that ?

      3. Bide became president, border crossings increased
        qed
        Biden encouraged border crossings.

        By his speech ?
        By his policies ?

        Does it matter ?

  2. Jonathan: Except for you and Fox News (your employer) no one seems to be interested in the confrontation between Martha Raddatz and Gov. Abbott? Out of character for Raddatz , she asked Abbott some pointed Qs. Abbott obviously didn’t like the Qs and fell back on his old argument that the increased influx of migrants should be handled by “repelling” them by building Trump’s “big beautiful wall”. Abbott’s other approach is to bus migrants to norther states where they will be welcomed with food and shelter. No humanitarian is Gregg Abbott. He just wants to score political points. So the whole Raddatz/ Abbott interview is a distraction because the real important news is elsewhere. For example:

    1. The J.6 House Committee just made criminal referrals to the DOJ charging Donald violated 3 different federal statutes. Now that is a big deal because when was the last time a former president was charged like this? Never! And…

    2. The House Ways and Means Committee just voted to make Trump’s tax records for the last 6 years public. When was the last time that happened? The returns show Trump paid little or no federal taxes. In 2019, his second year in office. Trump paid no taxes. In 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020 he reported negative income. This was at a time when the IRS mandatory audit program was almost non-existent when it came to Trump. This of course was all legal under the law signed by Trump. Then why did Trump fight like hell to prevent disclosure of his tax returns? Because while you and I were dutifully paying our fair share Trump was giving the middle finger to the rest of us! Not good for the MAGA crowd who can’t avoid their taxes. And…

    3. The blockbuster is that Elon Musk has been booted out as CEO of Twitter. And not a moment too soon. Since Musk took over there has been total chaos inside the company. Besides the massive layoffs, drastic cost cutting, refusal to pay his bills, and the loss of advertising dollars, Musk’s tenure has been marked by Musk’s capricious and impulsive behavior–like the banning of journalists that has gotten the attention of Congress and the EU. This must be a terrible embarrassment for you. You bet the farm on Musk and you lost. But, then again, there will be the next distraction…..I can hardly wait.

    2. Yay! A TDS-infected, censoring troll regurgitates the Dimunist narrative. Good job, Chen! Now get back under your slimy Blue rock.

    3. Maybe some Narcan would help with the toxic kool-aid you’ve been drinki9ng or is it just stupidity?

      1. I’m amazed at how many people feel free to call me uninformed when I, at least, know how many people are coming across the border, who’s causing it to happen, and who’s doing nothing about it. But, hey, feel free to believe Martha, she’ll always keep it real.

  3. Raddatz has proven herself to be nothing more than an Administration propagandist with her question to Gov. Abbott. Joe Biden never said that the Sky is Blue either, but that doesn’t change the fact that the sky is Blue. Just because Joe Biden didn’t say the border is open doesn’t change the fact that the border is open. If Raddatz doesn’t know the definition of the word open, then ABC News needs to find a real journalist that does!

  5. Liberal Turley coddles and protects his liberal readers why don’t you tell them about the time Joe Biden said in his debate on national TV if he’s elected everybody should surge the Border he invited everyone he said if I’m elected you have a right you should surge the Border… but we can’t tell the liberal cult members the truth that’s hurtful

  8. We have an opportunity again indeed to see outright political wokism and left wing bias when we listen to this Pravda Press mouthpiece. She is a disgrace to what used to be called journalism now appropriately labeled democrat party line propaganda.

    1. “Gosteleradio”

      Exactly. With the only difference being this: There’s no need for state censorship of the MSM. They willingly kowtow.

  12. “Was [Abbott] supposed to insist that the border is not open as videos show hundreds just walking over the border?” (JT)

    Thus the Left’s basic premise: We fake reality. And if you don’t let us get away with it, you’re an enemy the state. Our feelings and words are reality, and so:

    If we claim that Afghanistan was a “success,” then it was.

    If we assert that there is no inflation or recession, then there isn’t.

    If we allege that Covid was not a lab leak, then it wasn’t. You shouldn’t even be looking for evidence. Our declaration is sufficient. If we assert that the vaccine protects you from contracting Covid, then it does. If tommorrow we assert that the vaccine does not protect you from contracting the virus, then it doesn’t. (Contradictions be damned.)

    If we assert that Smollett (or whoever) is a victim of a hate crime, then he is. There’s no need for an investigation. Our words are the evidence.

    If we claim that there’s nothing to see in the Twitter files, then just bow and obey.

    if we use really scary words like “armageddon,” “extinction,” “existential threat,” then, dammit, there is “climate change” (whatever the hell that means). And if you don’t accept our words as reality, then you’re a “denier.”

    A culture cannot survive when its leaders feel that their words can create or vanquish reality.

  14. We have a rare opportunity on our televisions and screens to clearly, unambiguously, witness complicity, collusion with a single political party and government in power, collusion among an industry, aiding criminal activity, misinformation by omission, EVERY DAY, hourly, in REAL TIME.

    We all can watch as it happens, tell our grandchildren, remember – with every “news” show that does not mention anything about the #TwitterFiles, with every interview like this one.

    Support these courageous journalists:
    Bari Weiss @bariweiss, Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi,
    Michael Shellenberger @shellenbergMD

    And Jonathan Turley too…

  15. Most of our border guards are Hispanic Americans. Hispanics are trending republican.

    1. My grandparents emigrated from Mexico. Mexicans are strongly conservative, Christian. But the American Spanish-language tv media tends to teach the Leftist, Democratic value system.
      .

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