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I think this is the result of different strategies that Morgan and Fuentes had with this interview. Fuentes came there with his bloodsport debate style, which is about listening to your opponent and constructing arguments. Morgan came there with tabloid style gotcha questions, moralizing and shaming/guilting - complete with random segues and topic switching whenever he thinks that he got what he wanted.
It was also seen specifically with the part you mentioned, when Fuentes obviously sarcastically admitted that he is "Holocaust maximalist". Morgan did not listen to Fuentes in order to form his own counterargument, he jumped into a gotcha of we know how many Jews were slaughtered. It's at least 6 million. Uh, what's interesting to me is that you appear to now concede that. Which may be news to your regular viewers. So again, even if Morgan thought that Fuentes offered a concession, he immediately went on attack satisfied that he proved Fuentes as a liar for his viewers. It is a different style of discussion, not a debate.
In a sense it was a battle of styles with each side utilizing different tactics, it was almost like a parallel streams with little to no substantive engagement from any side.
Yeah, but the problem is that Fuentes' style does require listening, so he was responding to what Morgan actually said. The audience is also listening to both. Morgan is the only one that wasn't.
That's why the little jabs that Fuentes did proved to the audience that Morgan wasn't listening, because he didn't respond or engage, he just continued with his script.
There's a reason why in 2025 people prefer the long-form podcast style: because it's harder to fake.
At the end of the day Fuentes' style feels much more authentic. Nobody likes Morgan's style anymore.
I wholeheartedly agree, although even this may be a different game. There is a strategy of clip farming, where you may look like a moron in a debate, but as long as you can produce couple of viral 20 second clips, you may have been successful in your mission when it comes to certain audience. Here it would be something like Fuentes admitting that he is a racist or whatever.
Like Fuentes said, Morgan is tabloid journalist. All he needs is to create controversy and produce some smears and he may be "successful" in this specific subgame despite losing the overall 2 hour debate. If it is a viable long-term strategy is questionable, but at least it worked for years when it comes to Fuentes alone.
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