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Things We Saw Today: NBC Stars (and Everyone Else) Call Out Their Network for Promoting Trump

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NBC is in extremely hot water today for making the bizarre choice to air a COVID superspreader town hall event with a talking evil pumpkin that calls journalists the enemy of the people. Their excuse is something about fairness since Joe Biden has an event over on ABC. Never mind that neither of these events would be happening if Trump wasn’t a big giant baby who wouldn’t play fair, so he took his corona ball and went home instead of participating in the actual presidential debate that was scheduled for tonight.

In light of their network’s terrible decision, over 100 NBC employees and actors, from Alec Baldwin and Aaron Sorkin to Sterling K. Brown and Richard Shiff, along with other high-profile names like Ava DuVernay, JJ Abrams, Joss Whedon, and Greg Berlanti, have sent an open letter to their network, decrying the choice to give this fascist free advertising. The letter reads in part:

By agreeing to air his town hall as counterprogramming opposite Vice President Biden’s town hall on ABC, you are enabling the President’s bad behavior while undercutting the Presidential Debate Commission and doing a disservice to the American public.

We believe this kind of indifference to the norms and rules of our democracy are what have brought our country to this perilous state,” the letter read. Rather than push to completely cancel the Trump town hall, the signees requested it shift time slots. “We are simply asking that NBC air the President’s town hall either before or after Vice President Biden’s so that American voters can have the opportunity to watch both

We understand the necessities of business, especially in this difficult time. But we believe there are larger issues of civic responsibility at stake here.

This letter isn’t the only thing that’s made #NBCBlackout a top trending topic on Twitter all day.

NBC for their part have brushed off the critiques, claiming it’s about fairness. No one’s buying it.

But what’s the worst part? (And yes this can get worse!) Trump spent the afternoon mocking NBC.

Congrats, NBC, you played yourselves. As for tonight … I’ll be watching Supernatural.

(image: NBC, via: Vanity Fair)

Here are a few other things we saw today …

What did you see today?

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Jessica Mason
Jessica Mason (she/her) is a writer based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on fandom, queer representation, and amazing women in film and television. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author.
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