Accuracy in Media

If you tracked the questions that Lester Holt, Obama’s interviewer at Dateline NBC, you’d be disappointed if you were expecting hard-hitting and good questions directed to the outgoing President Barack Obama. Here are three examples of the questions Holt asked Obama in Dateline NBC’s “Reality of Hope” interview:

• Holt on racism in America: “But was there a third group that just didn’t want a black president?”
• On the summer economic stimulus package: “You had a tough time. You had a tough time, you got a lot of it through. Was there a point, can you remember a moment where it struck you, this isn’t going to be easy, they’re going to be fight me at every turn.”
• On whether Donald Trump’s election was due to Obama’s economic policies: “Didn’t the recovery, uneven as it was, the people on the bottom were slower to recover than the people at the top, didn’t that in some way plant the seeds for the election of Donald Trump?”
• A ‘game face’ question: “You have a good game face, you play it cool. But you also learned politics in Illinois, Chicago. Do you have a vindictive streak?”

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