I thought Trump was winning the debate. But then I turned off the sound.

If you want to understand who won this week’s presidential debate, keep in mind a moment from our political past that I call “Stahl’s Epiphany.” During the 1984 presidential campaign, CBS reporter Lesley Stahl put together a tough, unsparing critique of Ronald Reagan, focusing on the disjuncture between Reagan’s image and his policies. There were clips of Reagan celebrating Paralympic athletes and inaugurating a new retirement home, while Stahl revealed that his administration had actually tried to cut funding for disabled people and subsidized housing.

It aired as an almost six-minute segment on the evening news, and Stahl was sure that her White House contacts would be livid. Instead, she got a call from one of Reagan’s aides, Richard Darman, saying, “What a great story! We loved it.” When Stahl expressed puzzlement, Darman explained, “Nobody heard what you said. … You guys in Televisionland haven’t figured it out, have you? When the pictures are powerful and emotional, they override if not completely drown out the sound. Lesley, I mean it, nobody heard you.”

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