Three quick takes on media and politics

Harris ducks the media, the debate debate, and Mayor Pete is a smart guy

Harris ducks the media

For nearly four weeks now, Vice-president Kamala Harris has enjoyed a mostly smooth ride in the nation’s news media.

Screen grab courtesy C_SPAN

Reporters have accurately reflected the sense of relief and joy among many Americans that they have a better choice than they did prior to President Biden’s withdrawal from the race. Democrats have enthusiastically embraced her. Money has rolled in. Crowds are turning out to see her. Volunteers are signing up. Attacks by Trump and Vance seem stale and have bounced off of her.

A legitimate criticism is that she hasn’t given an in-depth interview to any journalist and she hasn’t held a news conference. Other than taking a few impromptu questions on an airport tarmac, she’s been largely unchallenged by the press corps.

To some extent, I understand why. Unlike Donald Trump, who’s been in campaign mode since 2015, Harris has only had a few weeks to gear up a national campaign, pick a running mate, and prepare for next week’s Democratic National Convention. There hasn’t been much time to develop policies and be able to skillfully defend them.

Harris will get plenty of media exposure next week during the convention, so there’s really no need to do a high-profile interview now.

But shortly after that, she must start making herself available to the news media. Reporters represent the American people. It’s their job to ask substantive questions and get answers that Americans need. For now, the complaints about her staying away from reporters are fairly minor. She would be wise to not let it grow into a storm of protest. The longer it goes on, the more pressure she’ll be under and the more of a spotlight will shine on that first big interview or press conference. She should act before it becomes “a thing.”

Donald Trump talks to reporters all the time. He loves holding news conferences because he loves being the center of attention. Talking is one of his skills. Telling the truth is not. NPR fact-checked last week’s news conference and found he told 162 lies or exaggerations – an average of two per minute! This NPR report took a team of reporters a long time to track down all the falsehoods. I recommend you read through it. We should not become desensitized to Trump’s lies just because he’s done it for so long.

The debate debate

I wrote a few weeks ago that I don’t think it’s wise for Harris to debate Trump. I still feel that way. It’s a moot point because it’s happening September 10^th on ABC. In a poll here on Substack taken by my friend and colleague Bob Leonard, nearly everyone disagrees with me. How does anyone, no matter their intelligence or debating ability, look good standing next to a guy who tells two lies per minute? How will Harris get her own points across when she must spend most of her time trying to untangle Trump’s lies? I’ll say it again, and I hope I’m wrong, but I think debating Trump can only hurt Harris.

Mayor Pete’s perspective on Fox News

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said a really smart thing the other day. An interviewer asked him why he goes on Fox News, where the questions are usually hostile. His response: “Most of the viewers of Fox News don’t agree with me politically, and definitely the people controlling the content on that network, in my view, aren’t always being fair. But I also know this. I can’t blame somebody for not supporting my perspective if they’ve literally never heard it. (Italics are mine.) So it’s my job to get that view in front of viewers who are tuning in in good faith.”

Buttigieg is a superbly calm, clear communicator. My guess is we’ve not seen the last of him on the national political stage. As a journalist, I wish more public officials had his perspective. I’m no fan of Fox News. But I know Iowans who have a warped sense of reality because Fox News is all they rely on. As rotten as Fox News is, it’s still the number one cable news network. If more progressive political leaders went on Fox, maybe they could change a few viewers’ minds.

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This week, I recommend a column by former Register columnist Rekha Basu, who follows up on her earlier column about whether Iowans should vote against retention of Iowa Supreme Court justice David May, the only Supreme up for retention this year. He was in the majority to uphold the ban on abortion after detection of a fetal heartbeat.

I thought the campaign to oust three Supreme Court justices in 2010 after the ruling legalizing same-sex marriage was as wrong as wrong can be. No judge should be ousted for one ruling that a particular interest group doesn’t like.

This week, Basu writes about a second case Justice May authored that will only add fuel to the fire building against his retention. The case appears to force child abuse victims to face their alleged perpetrators in court, rather than testifying over closed-circuit TV.

Here’s a link to the other writers in the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.