First it was Matt Lauer. Now it's Jimmy Fallon.
Their crime, in the eyes of some factions within the media, is that they weren't "hard enough" on Trump. This is a new development in media bias gatekeeping.
We've already seen targeted lynchings of media outlets by bias gatekeepers for running pieces critical of Hillary. The next phase is attacking any interviewers who aren't hostile enough toward Trump. It's somewhat surreal, but we are in a media environment in which mainstream media outlets openly call for the end of even the pretense of objectivity.
Matt Lauer is more on the entertainment side of the media, but Jimmy Fallon is just straight entertainment, so it's bizarre to see him attacked for not attacking Trump.
People Are Justifiably Infuriated With How Jimmy Fallon Handled Trump - The Huffington Post
David Sims / The Atlantic: - The Embarrassment of Jimmy Fallon
The Sims piece in particularly ridiculous.
Trump has appeared on The Tonight Show before and gotten similarly soft treatment, grinning and nodding through Fallon’s cheeseball questions and gleeful impressions of the candidate. But in such a charged moment for the presidential campaign, Fallon had the opportunity to do something—anything—that could challenge the candidate. He had hundreds of different issues he could have called Trump on. He decided to mess up his hair.
And the problem is?
I realize that the media's lefties insist that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are what talk shows should be. But they're not. Late night shows are supposed to be light, easy entertainment. Jimmy Fallon is not supposed to browbeat politicians. That's not his job. It's not what his audience wants.
But the left cannot accept the notion of apolitical spaces. And the Sims article makes that really very clear.
"Fallon has never been one to ask a celebrity a remotely challenging question, let alone a political candidate. But his platform as a beloved entertainer is a powerful one. It makes it even easier for him to ask about some of Trump’s more shocking statements without coming off as a “gotcha” interrogator. Fallon’s whole persona is rooted in empathy for his wide audience, which is especially large among younger viewers; he could have reflected that on Thursday by illuminating issues they care about...
Immediately following The Tonight Show on NBC is Late Night With Seth Meyers, a show that’s focused heavily on Trump and political humor in this election year.Talking to The Atlantic earlier this year, Meyers noted that comedians aren’t journalists—part of the fun of his show is that he can pick and choose his targets based on whatever interests, or incenses, him and his writers room. “There’s that great freedom of talking about the news without being the news,” he said. “We can just have our point of view and get it out there.”
Nothing can just be entertaining. It must be a vehicle for conveying a point of view. A left-wing one. Obviously.