Journalists Kara Swisher, Rebecca Traister and other media figures and politicians called out NBC News reporter Dasha Burns’ “nonsense”John Fetterman, Pennsylvania senatorial hopeful, after a Tuesday interview.
Fetterman will be running against Dr. Mehmet O as the Democratic nominee for the Pennsylvania Senate race. He sat for his first interview since suffering a stroke in May. “NBC Nightly News.” In the Tuesday evening segment, it was revealed that Fetterman required a closed captioning device for Burns’ questions due to ongoing auditory processing issues from the stroke.
Burns opened her interview. This included questions regarding whether Fetterman was physically able to accept office due to his recent medical scare. Burns first spoke with Lester Holt. “in small talk — before the interview, without captioning — it wasn’t clear [Fetterman] was understanding our conversation.”She also called the interview “unconventional” and reported that Fetterman’s team denied NBC News access to the candidate’s medical records.
Burns was enraged by Fetterman’s perceived insults and her interview with Fetterman.
“Sorry to say but I talked to @JohnFetterman for over an hour without stop or any aides and this is just nonsense,” veteran journalist Swisher TweetTuesday was added after she had survived a stroke in 2011. “it is a slow recovery, but many younger people do just fine,”And that “the question is: When he was asked questions on policy or his campaign, could he answer cogently.”
“Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk,”Swisher sniped.
New York Magazine’s Rebecca Traister, who interviewed Fetterman recently, also VoucherFor the candidate, say “As someone who has recently interviewed him: Fetterman’s comprehension is not at all impaired. He understands everything, it’s just that he reads it (which requires extra acuity, I’d argue) and responds in real time. It’s a hearing/auditory processing challenge.”
“Fast Politics”Podcast host Molly JongFast Reported backThe critique is as follows: “bs,”It is worth noting that Fetterman interviewed her two weeks prior.
Fetterman stated that his stroke had changed during the interview with Burns. “everything”He explained that he “sometimes will hear things in a way that’s not perfectly clear,”He uses captioning to fix these discrepancies.
Burns, after the backlash, defended her comments. noting Wednesday, “It’s possible for two different reporters to have two different experiences w a candidate.”A reporter clarified that the network was “happy to accommodate closed captioning”And that her team reported on what had happened in the room “before & after closed captioning was on.”
“Our reporting did not and should not comment on fitness for office,”Burns added. “This is for voters to decide. What we do push for as reporters is transparency. It’s our job. Fetterman sat down and answered our questions. That’s his job.”
Below, you can see the complete interview.
