Peter is absolutely right about what’s motivating the pile-on against Matt Lauer. Let me also hazard to say Lauer didn’t do such a bad job. He wouldn’t be my first or second pick for such a forum and a half-an-hour per candidate was too short, but it’s being treated as a national scandal that he wasn’t tougher on Trump. I think this 1) ignores the problems Lauer created for Trump on sexual assault in the military, on his plan or non-plan to fight ISIS, and on his criticisms of the generals; 2) reflects how a lot of journalists believe it is their role to try to drum Trump from the public stage; 3) speaks to a frustration with how Trump can get away with knowing so little–but he’s been getting away with that for a long time, in all sorts of forums, with all sorts of different interviewers.