Ratings for ABC’s “World News Tonight” fell by over 10% since the Sept. 10 debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hosted by ABC News hosts David Muir and Linsey Davis.
The Disney-owned network’s broadcast news program hosted by Muir that airs at 6:30 p.m. EDT drew an average of 7.6 million viewers before the September 10 debate, but only drew an average of 6.7 million viewers in the three days after the debate, according to Fox News. Muir and Davis, who hosts the program on weekends, were criticized for making so-called “fact checks” on Trump more often than Harris during the event, even though Harris made false statements about Trump’s position on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other issues.
ABC's David Muir says that the controversy surrounding his historically awful moderation of the presidential debate is "just noise."
Well his ratings are DOWN 12% following the debate. Less people are listening to his nightly noise now. Good! pic.twitter.com/XBH6KPLxni
Many of their fact-checks were incorrect or incomplete. A list of the seven most obvious examples follows (quotes taken from the ABC News transcript):
LINSEY DAVIS: There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born. Madam vice president, I want to get your response to President Trump.
DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community
DAVID MUIR: President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country…
DAVID MUIR: The question was about you as president, not about Former Speaker Pelosi. But I do want Vice President Harris to respond here.
DAVID MUIR: I did watch all of these pieces of video. I didn’t detect the sarcasm, lost by a whisker, we didn’t quite make it, and we should just point out as clarification, and you know this, you and your allies, 60 cases in front of many judges…
DAVID MUIR: Mr. President, thank you. Vice President Harris, you heard the president there tonight. He said he didn’t say that he lost by a whisker. So he still believes he did not lose the election. That was won by President Biden and yourself.
DAVID MUIR: President Trump, thank you. You did bring up something, you said she went to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. Vice President Harris, have you ever met Vladimir Putin, can you clarify tonight?
Trump to Implement his Project 2025.
False. Trump had nothing to do with 2025. A Heritage Foundation wish list.
Harris claim of never favoring a Fracking ban.
False. During a CNN town hall on climate change in 2019 when she was still a Senator, Harris said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
Harris claimed that Trump would sign a National Abortion Ban.
False. Trump has said he has “no regrets” in selecting the Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. But he also repeatedly has promised that if elected, he will not sign a federal abortion ban into law and will leave the issue up to the states.
Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.
False. Unemployment rapidly declined to 6.4% in January 2021 by the time Trump left office, as the economy started to rebalance. And that 6.4% unemployment rate is still better than the 10% peak during the Great Recession in October 2009.
If you eliminate pandemic statistics, the lowest unemployment rate under Trump was just slightly higher than the lowest point under Biden. Both were good: 3.5% under Trump and 3.4% under Biden at their lowest respectively, according to data provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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