Hey, did you hear there’s a REALLY BIG presidential debate going down in less than an hour? It’s all over the news! We’re running what folks in the industry call a “live blog,” mixing in our real-time reactions with those from internet users famous and some not so famous. Strap in for a wild ride!
Ahem… You don’t need us to tell you this is a big deal. In fact we already told you we don’t need to tell you this is a big deal. But if you want it quantified here goes: This morning’s Marist College/NPR/PBS News national survey found 70 percent of respondents saying they “will watch all or most of the presidential debate between Harris and Trump and an additional 23 percent say they won’t watch but will closely follow the news coverage of the debate,” which means that, if this is representative of the actual electorate, there could be something like 110 million Americans watching this, easily eclipsing the 50 million who tuned in for Biden vs Trump in June.
Or to put it in the words of the fictionalized Ben Bradlee: “Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.”
Live updates follow:
We’ll keep it going with some post-debate analysis and coverage and hopefully this time we’ll actually want to do it instead of just entering into a state of deep denial. Stay tuned!