The big networks and news outlets have lost the plot and don’t know how to get it back
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
By the end of next week, America will either have a new President or be near the end of a week-long effort to count votes in whatever swing state matters the most. But we’re not here to talk about that right now. What I would like to talk about is the mainstream media, and how they have utterly failed to cover this election in a way that’s beyond the surface level. Meanwhile, in the absence of responsible coverage, the candidates have found new outlets to talk to outside of traditional media that have arguably helped both of their campaigns.
Take, for instance, Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast, which had Kamala Harris on in early October. I do not say this mildly or with any sort of irony attached: “Call Her Daddy” did a better job than CNN did in actually giving Kamala Harris genuine questions of substance to discuss. The same goes for Howard Stern, who spoke with Harris in the days after and went even deeper on some issues that Alex did not, as well as Charlgemene tha God’s hosting of an audio town hall in mid-October.
To Trump’s credit, he also realized the power of non-traditional outlets like podcasting, and he realized it first. Trump, ironically enough, can come across much more likable in a format that he’s comfortable in, and podcasting seems to be that environment for him, albeit ones with less confrontational hosts. His choices, in my humble opinion, were definitely questionable, but he realized like Harris has that traditional media is just not how people consume information anymore. There’s definitely something funny, if a little alarming, about watching the man genuinely inquire about Theo Von’s cocaine use, or watching Trump inquire about if professional wrestling is real sometimes on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast (despite having actively participated in professional wrestling stories and matches himself). He gets to spout his rhetoric, but he’s much more relaxed in doing so, and he’s directly engaging with voters in a way that they consume media.
Almost everyone involved in those non-traditional formats got more out of the candidates than any mainstream outlet has done. The next question to ask is why that is the case.
I think that it’s partly because the mainstream media is always trying to retain its viewers, and that now often comes at the cost of its own integrity. Much can be said about Joe Biden and his age, but the way he was treated in the media and by members of the White House press pool in the weeks leading up to his withdrawal from the Presidential race was despicable. There was a way to cover the issue without sensationalizing it, and that kind of coverage did no one any favors. Biden’s age and poor debate performance was news, but it should not have bulldozed over almost every news story that came after it for the next month. It basically helped bully him out of the Presidency, which is not the media’s job to do.
The mainstream media, more often than not, also asks the wrong questions way more than they should. Policy is boring, but it matters. Mainstream media outlets also went hard at Kamala Harris for not sharing details about her policy quickly (which she has shared on her campaign website), while ignoring that Trump doesn’t really have any that are clear and/or viable. Instead, for both candidates, they largely have focused on the semantics and the reactionary responses, which do not help anybody.
They also focus on those kinds of “gotcha” questions which at this point serve no purpose. FOX News’ recent interview with Vice President Harris highlighted this very well. Host Bret Baier repeatedly talked over the Vice President, repeatedly spouted incorrect information and even played misleading clips, which the Vice President immediately confronted him about. It was an embarrassing outing even for FOX, and I don’t think it swung voters in Trump’s direction, which was probably what FOX wanted.
The mainstream media also doesn’t report on the candidates fairly. Take for example, Trump’s absolutely bizarre town hall on Oct. 14 where he took a limited number of questions but instead chose to dance and listen to music for at least 40 minutes. Many headline’s sanitized that kind of crazy behavior, which is irresponsible. It’s not biased to have your headline state clearly what happened, and for long after two different people in the crowd were taken away by medics, that IS exactly what happened. If the President or Vice President did that, it would be news for weeks on end. People would be calling for their ouster immediately. Why does Trump seemingly get different treatment? Is it because he’s been in the political sphere for so long that people just expect him to act insane and thus it’s not news?
We should expect better from our candidates and especially from our mainstream media. Too many of them have an agenda and are so dug in that it’s become entangled in the roots of who they are as an organization. This year, they have actively failed the people who consume information and I don’t see a way to rebuild that trust any time soon. In the meantime, these non-traditional outlets will become even more important to how their own viewers see the world, and while that happens, I hope those content creators handle it responsibly.
