Over the past two weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris has redefined presidential campaign media strategy. She has forced large media organizations to pay attention to under-covered topics, broadened the range of outlets for discussion of substantive policy ideas, and helped crystallize Fox News’ status as a purely partisan platform, not a news organization.
You may have noticed that mainstream cable TV news, print and online outlets have dramatically increased the number and depth of stories focused on Donald Trump’s mental deterioration and authoritarian politics. So what triggered the intensifying coverage? Harris.
Harris now routinely talks about her opponent as “unsteady” and “unstable.” She cites Trump’s ugly utterances (“enemy within”), and her rapid-response team regularly puts out clips of his most outrageous, alarming episodes.
Harris has also afforded access to outlets beyond the mainstream media, venturing onto the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Howard Stern’s and Charlamagne Tha God’s radio shows and daytime TV’s “The View,” among others. Some might have scoffed at her choices, only to discover that substantive discussions took place. Audiences could very well learn more from these outings about Harris’ policies on child care, housing and taxes, and her industrial policies (and policies on abortion, tariffs and democracy) than they might have from traditional sources.
Moreover, in town hall formats (with Oprah Winfrey and Univision), Harris elevated issues of particular importance to ordinary voters, who often ask more direct and compelling questions than do political insiders. (To Trump’s chagrin, it turns out that the most incisive queries he faces come during public appearances when voters quiz him about his racist slurs, the border bill he derailed, guns and Jan. 6).
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
If elected, Harris may well carry this approach into the White House.
Harris need not ignore mainstream outlets entirely (she did do CBS’ “60 Minutes,” after all), but she can certainly choose to do such appearances in a town hall format, giving ordinary voters a chance to ask direct, revealing questions. Harris has shown how to circumvent insider-ish, horse-race coverage that appeals mostly to political junkies. Who knows, faced with such healthy competition, mainstream interviewers might follow the example, emphasizing substance over pundit-driven topics.
Democrats and media critics have long bemoaned Fox News’ operation as more akin to a propaganda outlet than a news organization. The evidence has been plentiful, including Fox News’ huge settlement over its election-denial claims in 2020 and the revelation last week that it had stacked a Trump town hall audience with his supporters. Yet Harris did one better in sitting for an interview with Bret Baier and calling him out in real time for deceptively editing a clip of Trump. In embarrassing her host, rebutting his chronic interruptions and packing her answers with information that might be unfamiliar to Fox News fans, she knocked the network down to size.
Harris’ innovative media strategy during the campaign is a great start; if she wins, she has every reason to stick with it.