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US US Politics General - Discussion of President Biden and other politicians
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She talks to reporters all the time!
Meet the press? Hold that thought. The candidate sit-down interview ain’t what it used to be
Associated Press (archive.ph)
By David Bauder
2024-08-09 18:48:53GMT
Meet the press? Hold that thought. The candidate sit-down interview ain’t what it used to be
Associated Press (archive.ph)
By David Bauder
2024-08-09 18:48:53GMT
During Kamala Harris’ thrill ride that has upended the 2024 presidential campaign, journalists for the most part have been on the outside looking in. The vice president hasn’t given an interview and has barely engaged with reporters since becoming the Democratic choice to replace Joe Biden.
That’s about to change, now that it has become a campaign issue. But for journalists, the larger lesson is that their role as presidential gatekeepers is probably diminishing forever.
Harris travels with reporters on Air Force Two and frequently talks to them, but her campaign staff insists the conversations are off the record. Outside of the plane on Thursday, she approached cameras and notebooks to publicly answer some questions, and one of them was about when she would sit down for an in-depth interview.
“I’ve talked to my team,” she said. “I want us to get an interview together by the end of the month.”
She spoke on the same afternoon that her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, gave a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in part to draw a contrast with Harris. “She’s not smart enough to do a news conference,” Trump said. His vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, posted a comment on social media to point out that Trump was doing something that Harris hadn’t.
The landscape for candidate interviews has changed
Given that modern presidential campaigns are essentially marketing operations, Harris’ stance is not surprising. For the teams behind candidates, “the goal is to control the message as much as possible,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican communications strategist who was senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
Interviews and news conferences take that control away. Candidates are at the mercy of questions that journalists raise — even if they try to change the subject. News outlets decide which answers are newsworthy and will be sliced and diced into soundbites that rocket around social networks, frequently devoid of the context in which they were uttered.
In such an environment, the value and perception of the sit-down interview has changed — for journalists and candidates alike.
When Trump appeared last month in an interview format before the National Association of Black Journalists, his aides almost certainly didn’t want the main headline to be about their candidate suggesting Harris had misled voters about her race.
Between Instagram, Tik-Tok, televised rallies, emails or texts, campaigns have so many other ways of getting their message across to potential voters today. This lessens the need to directly engage with journalists, Madden said.
“Presidential campaigns increasingly are conducted as performances before a sympathetic audience, one that is invited to watch and listen but not to question or respond,” The New York Times wrote in a recent editorial.
Harris’ unusual late entry into the race means she bypassed vetting by voters, with journalists often as their surrogates, that takes on a more important role in the early stages of a nomination fight where a more intimate form of retail politics varies from state to state. That makes it all the more important that she be available to speak about her record and plans, the newspaper argued.
“Americans deserve the opportunity to ask questions of those who are seeking to lead their government,” the editorial said.
The Times’ editorial board has requested an interview with Harris and hasn’t received an answer, a spokesman said. The same was true of Biden before he dropped out.
A sympathetic interview — or none at all
Harris and her team may be taking lessons from her boss; Biden has lagged behind previous presidents in the number of interviews granted and press conferences held. That changed after the June debate with Trump that sent his re-election effort into a death spiral; televised interviews with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Lester Holt did little to change that trajectory.
Trump has been more available, but often he talks with people unlikely to challenge him. Since July 5, he’s given interviews to Fox News personalities Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Harris Faulkner, Brian Kilmeade and Sean Hannity. He’s also appeared twice on the “Fox & Friends” morning show.
Between those interviews — frequently clipped and run on other networks — and an endless stream of posts on his Truth Social site, Trump is “a content machine,” Madden said.
Trump’s news conference was telecast live on CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, although CNN and MSNBC both cut out before it was finished to fact check some of the claims.
Fox has also frequently pointed out the issue of Harris’ lack of access. “Trump Takes Questions as Harris Dodges Media,” said one of the network’s onscreen messages as Trump talked.
“We can’t be the only media company that talks about it,” Fox’s Bill Hemmer said on Tuesday, making reference to the upcoming Democratic national convention. “Sixteen days she has gone without a significant interview. Is it possible that she could run out the clock until Chicago? That would be extraordinary. then you’d have to ask yourself. What are you hiding? What is your team hiding from?”
Madden said that while interviews carry less importance than they used to, there are still some undecided voters who want to see them to help make their choices. That’s why he expects they will happen.
“You want to control it as long as possible as much as possible,” he said. “They have had so much momentum over the last couple of weeks, they haven’t had to really sit down and make their case directly to reporters yet. The day is surely coming.”
That’s about to change, now that it has become a campaign issue. But for journalists, the larger lesson is that their role as presidential gatekeepers is probably diminishing forever.
Harris travels with reporters on Air Force Two and frequently talks to them, but her campaign staff insists the conversations are off the record. Outside of the plane on Thursday, she approached cameras and notebooks to publicly answer some questions, and one of them was about when she would sit down for an in-depth interview.
“I’ve talked to my team,” she said. “I want us to get an interview together by the end of the month.”
She spoke on the same afternoon that her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, gave a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in part to draw a contrast with Harris. “She’s not smart enough to do a news conference,” Trump said. His vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, posted a comment on social media to point out that Trump was doing something that Harris hadn’t.
The landscape for candidate interviews has changed
Given that modern presidential campaigns are essentially marketing operations, Harris’ stance is not surprising. For the teams behind candidates, “the goal is to control the message as much as possible,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican communications strategist who was senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
Interviews and news conferences take that control away. Candidates are at the mercy of questions that journalists raise — even if they try to change the subject. News outlets decide which answers are newsworthy and will be sliced and diced into soundbites that rocket around social networks, frequently devoid of the context in which they were uttered.
In such an environment, the value and perception of the sit-down interview has changed — for journalists and candidates alike.
When Trump appeared last month in an interview format before the National Association of Black Journalists, his aides almost certainly didn’t want the main headline to be about their candidate suggesting Harris had misled voters about her race.
Between Instagram, Tik-Tok, televised rallies, emails or texts, campaigns have so many other ways of getting their message across to potential voters today. This lessens the need to directly engage with journalists, Madden said.
“Presidential campaigns increasingly are conducted as performances before a sympathetic audience, one that is invited to watch and listen but not to question or respond,” The New York Times wrote in a recent editorial.
Harris’ unusual late entry into the race means she bypassed vetting by voters, with journalists often as their surrogates, that takes on a more important role in the early stages of a nomination fight where a more intimate form of retail politics varies from state to state. That makes it all the more important that she be available to speak about her record and plans, the newspaper argued.
“Americans deserve the opportunity to ask questions of those who are seeking to lead their government,” the editorial said.
The Times’ editorial board has requested an interview with Harris and hasn’t received an answer, a spokesman said. The same was true of Biden before he dropped out.
A sympathetic interview — or none at all
Harris and her team may be taking lessons from her boss; Biden has lagged behind previous presidents in the number of interviews granted and press conferences held. That changed after the June debate with Trump that sent his re-election effort into a death spiral; televised interviews with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Lester Holt did little to change that trajectory.
Trump has been more available, but often he talks with people unlikely to challenge him. Since July 5, he’s given interviews to Fox News personalities Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Harris Faulkner, Brian Kilmeade and Sean Hannity. He’s also appeared twice on the “Fox & Friends” morning show.
Between those interviews — frequently clipped and run on other networks — and an endless stream of posts on his Truth Social site, Trump is “a content machine,” Madden said.
Trump’s news conference was telecast live on CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, although CNN and MSNBC both cut out before it was finished to fact check some of the claims.
Fox has also frequently pointed out the issue of Harris’ lack of access. “Trump Takes Questions as Harris Dodges Media,” said one of the network’s onscreen messages as Trump talked.
“We can’t be the only media company that talks about it,” Fox’s Bill Hemmer said on Tuesday, making reference to the upcoming Democratic national convention. “Sixteen days she has gone without a significant interview. Is it possible that she could run out the clock until Chicago? That would be extraordinary. then you’d have to ask yourself. What are you hiding? What is your team hiding from?”
Madden said that while interviews carry less importance than they used to, there are still some undecided voters who want to see them to help make their choices. That’s why he expects they will happen.
“You want to control it as long as possible as much as possible,” he said. “They have had so much momentum over the last couple of weeks, they haven’t had to really sit down and make their case directly to reporters yet. The day is surely coming.”
Quiet Guy
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 6, 2020
This is dumb...
We've already established that Trump is Luffy. The clear choice would be the Drums of Liberation. How could you miss such an obvious choice?
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2024
Oh. Oh this is him. Oh wow. He has a very hateable demeanor and talent for spewing lies as if they're true. I suspect he definitely wants to run for president for 2028 with natural talent like that. I'm either face blind or the makeup and lighting threw me off. He doesn't look as wrinkly as the picture that was posted in here. I remembered him looking... fatter and greasier.
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- Aug 22, 2020
Presidential candidates refusing to noblesse oblige the sweaty masses by answering questions in public is just the way things are now, chuds
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- Feb 18, 2024
Ahh, so she's not hiding from reporters. She's hiding from voters.
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- Jul 8, 2024
Is The Heritage Foundation a political party? Is the SPLC a political party? In a democracy there are no political parties to elect. There would be a bare minimum of "politicians" to elect and they would truly be working for the people. The people themselves would be voting on policies, not an oligarchy.
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2020
Fuck that noise about her doing press conferences and interviews, they'll do the same as ol Joe and have KJP or someone even dumber come out and do all the talking. AP's full of it acting like she's gonna sit down and 'talk issues'.
Sekirodiealot
kiwifarms.net
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- Dec 18, 2019
Every time i see niggas call Trump a traitor, I'm wondering what is he betraying.
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2024
This is just objectively false. He went to that black journalist rally or whatever the fuck it was while Harris chickened the fuck out. They used his exchange with blue suit bitch as a talking point for like five days.
STARS158
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- Jun 28, 2024
Honka Honka Burning Love
In Clown World, the only god is the one who Honks.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
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- Aug 29, 2019
And nobody relevant is going to call them on it.
John Badman
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- Aug 7, 2024
It makes you wonder if Kamala is asking for the same drugs they put Joe on. What’s with this delay?
Honka Honka Burning Love
In Clown World, the only god is the one who Honks.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
She wants to finish her box of wine.
Dr J
kiwifarms.net
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- Nov 13, 2020
Basically they seriously believe J6 was an insurrection
Honka Honka Burning Love
In Clown World, the only god is the one who Honks.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
Because to them being told "No" by the dirty masses is an insurrection.
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2020
And Biden's last major speech was at the NAACP!!! Shameless lies. It drives me so MATI when the left talks about how the 'corporate media' are kind to Replublicans when half of Trump's pressers were basically him yelling back and forth with those CNN and ABC people. The only one giving KJP even half the trouble has been Doucy. Gross!!
This fat bitch now is going on about how she couldn't pay $40k of student loans over 30years lol. Yeah right! And had $87k, she never paid a dime into it.
'MORE GIBS FOR ME!'
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Sekirodiealot
kiwifarms.net
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- Dec 18, 2019
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2024
Yeah, no thanks. Admitting the quiet part out loud, regarding using schools for propaganda. Stupid and delusional people. Also she's bringing up Project 2025 for them. Again.
They probably should destroy the Department of Education, honestly. If it upsets people like this.
Dr J
kiwifarms.net
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- Nov 13, 2020
Well then, take your pick. He pulled out of Syria, and they were whining about the Kurds incessantly. He generally wasn't interested in their plans for global dominance via unsustainable forever wars. He didn't trust the CIA or the FBI. So many reasons why these traitors would project onto him
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- Apr 21, 2013
The teacher's union is probably the group that needs to be destroyed.
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