It's October, which means for the media it's 2016 again.

It's also only Wednesday.

I logged onto Twitter this morning (I know, always my first mistake of the day) and saw two media stories trending: NBC News hosting a town hall with President Trump and the New York Post running a story about a presidential candidate’s emails. Welcome to October 2016. Again.

In 2016, I was on the business side of NBC News in the content studio when it was announced that Matt Lauer would be holding a town hall forum with both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on the U.S.S Intrepid, a hulking aircraft carrier-slash-museum that is docked on the west side of Manhattan. 

It was an event dubbed “the Commander-in-Chief forum” and designed to take  “questions on national security, military affairs and veterans issues from NBC News and an audience comprised mainly of military veterans and active service members.”

I remember sitting in my Brooklyn apartment watching when the camera pans behind Lauer and Clinton and I see, in the front row, right over Clinton’s right shoulder, several NBC News ad sales execs. Including my boss’s boss. 

It’s not uncommon, or particularly inappropriate for employees of a news network to attend an event like this. But I did wonder why those execs were there (and in the front row!) and if they had clients with them. It was a good reminder of how much power the ad sales side has at media companies.

Anyhow. I was thinking about that event because today, NBC News announced that it would be holding a town hall with President Trump on Thursday, which also happens to be the same day that ABC News is hosting a town hall with Joe Biden. 

The reason why the town halls and not a debate? Because the president didn’t want to hold a virtual debate. The New York Times reports:

Mr. Biden’s town hall has been on the books since last week, after Mr. Trump, who had recently contracted the coronavirus, rejected plans to convert the second formal presidential debate into a virtual matchup; the debate was eventually canceled. 

In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump said "I'm not going to waste my time doing a virtual debate.” 

Neither of these town halls are affiliated with the Commission on Presidential Debates, which means, from a business perspective, each network will pocket all of the ads and sponsorships associated with the town hall.

NBC News is receiving lots of blowback, as people are not pleased with the network a) cowing to Trump; b) airing a Trump town hall in direct opposition to Biden’s, meaning that the whole point of having a news network help society be informed so they can make better decisions gets thrown out the window. Internally, it seems folks are upset, too. 

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yashar

I've heard from over a dozen NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC sources (talent and staff) and the frustration with and anger toward their employer for scheduling a town hall against Biden is palpable.

And I keep thinking about that 2016 event and wonder with this town hall, how much of it is predicated on informing the electorate (which, again, seems to not be the case since they’re doing it at the exact same time as ABC’s) versus squeezing a few more bucks out of clients. Or, even more cynically, perhaps there are some big make-goods that need to be done. 

This isn’t the only stupid media story of the day. Because then there’s the New York Post. 

The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid ran a fantastical cover today about supposed Biden emails and basically a giant conspiracy theory about Biden’s son, Hunter, and a Ukranian company called Burisma. 

southpaw @nycsouthpaw

It cannot be overstated how clearly bullshit the Post “secret emails” story is. It comes from a known conduit of Russian disinformation, who says the information has been in his possession for nearly a year while he rabble-roused about this very subject and never disclosed it.

southpaw @nycsouthpaw

Giuliani held this through impeachment, through a senate investigation, etc., then feeds it to a friendly paper 20 days out from an election. Responsible reporters should make Giuliani’s conduct the center of attention and skepticism here, not his payload of sketchy info.

southpaw @nycsouthpaw

If Giuliani’s conduct doesn’t convince you to be wary, consider the anonymized DE shop owner who says he doesn’t know who his customer is but for a beau biden fdn sticker on the device, yet purportedly created an invoice addressed to “Hunter Biden” including phone and email

An interesting aside from Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall:

Josh Marshall @joshtpm

As noted, the purported Biden hard drive story in the @nypost is one that wld require significant forensic analysis/confirmation. Lead reporter (Emma-Jo Morris) is former Hannity segment producer/booker. Here's Linkedin CV. Total of three stories for the Post. All dated today.

The incendiary story got more oxygen when Bloomberg, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Politico’s Jake Sherman uncritically shared the story to their followers. Bill Weir from CNN puts it best:

Bill Weir @BillWeirCNN

Another way to cover this: For months, Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani have pushed a story that a Delaware computer repairman found damning Biden info on a waterlogged laptop inexplicably left in his shop. Without any FBI attribution & echos of 2016, Murdoch's Post runs it now

Bloomberg Politics @bpolitics

Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, introduced him to a senior official from a Ukrainian energy firm that became the focus of controversy over the dismissal of a prosecutor who was investigating the company, the New York Post reports https://t.co/rjVeJu3Qb2

But I think the exemplar of Washington political journalism today is this Axios piece today about how “Joe Biden is the luckiest, least scrutinized front-runner.” 

For starters, it’s a piece handed to Axios by the Trump campaign. It would be like running a story from your dog about why your cat gets treated so well. (Emphasis mine.)

Why it matters: The media's obsession with Trump — and Trump's compulsion to dominate the news — allowed Biden to purposely and persistently minimize public appearances and tough questions.

Since Aug. 31, Biden has answered less than half as many questions from the press as Trump — 365 compared with 753 — according to a tally by the Trump campaign, which the Biden campaign didn't dispute.

Second, when you’ve been a Senator for 37 years, Vice President for eight, and running for president on and off during four decades, how can someone with a straight face say you haven’t been scrutinized?

As we are only 20 days out from the election, it will be up to readers to be more discerning in what they digest and share (of course, it would help for editors to also be more discerning in what they publish). It’s one of the reasons the head of security at Facebook posted this this morning:

Nathaniel Gleicher @ngleicher

Given this morning's news cycle, feels like a good time to reboost this:

Nathaniel Gleicher @ngleicher

3/ This is a good reminder that threat actors — including from Russia — will continue to try to manipulate public debate globally and in the US, including by trying to trick journalists into doing their amplification for them.

Thank you for allowing me in your inbox, today and every day. If you have tips, thoughts on the newsletter, or want me to moderate a presidential debate, drop me a line. Or you can follow me on Twitter. If you appreciated this edition, please consider sharing across your social networks and get your colleagues to sign up. Thanks for reading!

Huey Lewis & The News, “Back in Time”

Some interesting links:
For newsletterers:

• Business Insider parent nears deal to buy controlling stake in Morning Brew (WSJ)

• You can read my interview with MB CEO from July (Media Nut)

• Discourse Blog leaves Substack for its own site (Discourse Blog)

For the good old days:

• Nostalgia marketing has reached a fever pitch in the pandemic. Here's how brands like Chips Ahoy, Kraft, and AT&T are reviving old mascots and campaigns to appeal to consumers in jittery times. (Business Insider)

For palate-cleanser:

• Pizza by Paul, flowers by Prue: how Great British Bake Off built its Covid bubble (The Guardian)

For media criticism:

• How the 1619 Project took over 2020 (Washington Post)

For agencies:

• Havas Launches Industry's First Dedicated 'Customer Experience' Network, Leverages 'Meaningful Brands' Insights (MediaPost)

For lawsuits:

• Vizio sues MediaMath over an alleged $900,000 in unpaid bills (Digiday)