More Technical Issues? Video Seems To Indicate Minor Candidate's Mic Was Muted
I understand that four hours of debates spread over two nights is a pretty big task. That being said, NBC clearly wasn’t up to it, judging by the number of glitches that befell this week’s Democrat-o-rama.
For instance, there was this: “Just as NBC moderator Chuck Todd was taking over the second half of Wednesday’s Democratic Presidential debate, an audio issue forced NBC to cut short a sensitive question about the federal government’s role in getting guns off the street and go to what appeared to be an unplanned commercial break,” The Hollywood Reporter staff reported.
“Todd was asking the 10 Democratic candidates about gun control and the aftermath of the Parkland High School shooting, which occurred in Parkland, Fla., close to the site of the debate in Miami.
“As Todd attempted to ask his question, an alternate audio feed, which appeared to be from the open microphones of the previous set of NBC moderators, began to bleed into his question forcing him to stop once and ask it to be resolved.”
This technological issue even drew the attention of the president, who tweeted about it:
.@NBCNews and @MSNBC should be ashamed of themselves for having such a horrible technical breakdown in the middle of the debate. Truly unprofessional and only worthy of a FAKE NEWS Organization, which they are!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2019
This was the very obvious glitch. Now, there’s perhaps a less obvious one that’s making its way around the internet. Or, perhaps, it was very intentional.
This one involves Andrew Yang, billionaire, minor candidate and someone who inexplicably has very definite views regarding circumcision. While his universal basic income proposal got a bit of play a while back, Yang is pretty much unknown outside of online circles, particularly on Reddit and 4chan. That last part, at the very least, should tell you exactly who we’re dealing with here.
But I digress. In an event where even Marianne Williamson, whose primary qualification seems to be having written a bunch of books filled with new age prattle, could take the stage, Yang was in good company.
However, either because of glitches or because of a deliberate decision, it seems like his mic was cut off during certain parts of the debate.
Take a look at this clip; Yang is third from the left:
As you can see, even though there are plenty of other candidates cross-talking after Bernie Sanders finishes his point, Yang isn’t being heard even though he’s talking.
Yang seemed to confirm that he was muted — although he insinuated it was deliberate — in a tweet after the Thursday event.
Second, I feel bad for those who tuned in to see and support me that I didn’t get more airtime. Will do better (my mic being off unless called on didn’t help) and glad to have another opportunity in July (and afterwards)!
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) June 28, 2019
Look, I don’t want to listen to Andrew Yang any more than I have to for professional purposes, but I want to listen to none of these people more than I have to in order to do my job. Fair is fair, and if you’re going to let Kamala Harris cross-talk like this, you should probably extend the same courtesy to Andrew Yang.
At least one Twitterer user who spoke with Yang thought that there might even be a bit of racism involved:
I talked with Yang a bit… MSNBC cut off his microphone whenever he tried to interject, and they let other candidates like Biden & Bernie run as long as they wanted to. Considering they also called on Yang for the “China” question – I think MSNBC is just racist
— William LeGate (@williamlegate) June 28, 2019
Of course, given everything that happened Wednesday and Thursday, it’s just as likely that we were dealing with another glitch. Either way, this is yet another example of why the debates weren’t a particularly good look for anyone.
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