Media Readies Softballs for Wannabe Presidents
by Spocko
A reader recently wrote me about dreading the upcoming election season. As they used to say on The Wire, “I feel ya.”
Today I heard Shields and Yarnell Brooks on the News Hour talking about about Ted Cruz’s announcement he’s running for President.
I understand the readers’ desires and dreads. Already friends have been bemoaning the same games and frames, people and parties.
Could we do anything different this time, the reader wondered. Could we make it more engaging for regular people? We know the media suck, never any follow-ups, ending with “We’ll have to leave it there” and of course the horrid “Both sides do it.” frame.
Maybe a reality show? “Real House Members of the GOP.” It’s already a bit like Survivor since losers get voted off the ticket.
But as people in the industry will tell you, reality shows are anything but.
Casting and editing play a huge role in the shows.
But what do we really want the journalists to do when interviewing the people we dislike running for office? To get actual information from them about their plans, policies, and views? Nah. We want to watch a lying, slippery, greedy jerk squirm. We hope some journalist will embarrass them in front of the world and they will be forced out of the race.
The problem is that when someone tries to do that, the politician can see it coming and they are prepared. Then, instead of getting your chance to embarrass them, the journalist’s question gets dismissed with a prepared answer.
Politicians are so prepared that even a truly legitimate question can be turned to a partisan attack and deemed unworthy of answering. I was always astonished how calling something a “gotcha question” became a cover for not answering the question!
David Yarnell Brooks made a comment about how slick Cruz will be answering questions, but he’s not “likable” so he won’t win. Coming from Mr. Likability himself, that’s pretty damning.
I could just hear the exhaustion in Yarnell’s voice as he anticipated 20 months of discussing the spiritual love child of Joe McCarthy and Steve Urkel.
The MSM know their roles. They report on: Money raised. Horses raced. Elect-ability figured. Likability ranked. Beer drinkability calculated. Throw in sound bytes on a few issues and then they will have to “leave it there.”
The RW media know their roles too. Is the Candidate worthy of St. Ronald the Reagan? How many people is he willing to kill to show how tough he is? How many hippies will he punch and racists will he embrace?
Were the billionaires pleased with the strength of the butt kissing? [shutter] (Image redacted from brain.)
If people REALLY wanted to get in on the questioning, I could explain how to do it. I’ve been on both sides of this world, I know the tricks and traps. I’ve trained people and groups how to do this.
But I don’t know if it is worth it, especially at the presidential level.
However, it might be worthwhile at other political levels. Let’s expand our target range with other types of people. Now that is something I’m really interested in helping people do. But serious inquiries only, most groups don’t have the stomach for confrontation. Especially when you are effective. I’ve found out bullies hire other bullies to hit back.
But let’s go back to the goal, why might someone want to get in there and ask the tough questions? What do you ultimately want to happen? Show the world what a jerk the candidates are? For some candidates that’s a PLUS! (If I wanted to hurt Ted Cruz in front of his base, I would show a super liberal action he did or thing he said.)
Do you want them laughed out of the race? Start writing comedy bits! I’ve got two words for ya . Tina “I can see Russian from my house!” Fey.
Do you want to get them to resign in shame? Start looking for the kinds of things that actually get Republican candidates to resign vs. Democratic ones. Then anticipate how they will try to squirm out of it and block that mode too.
Plan ahead people!
This last week I realized that I have two modes when it comes to engaging with issues and people.
1) I want the truly horrible people who push bigotry, racism, division, war and hate to be thwarted, and I’ve developed methods to do that.
2) I want to help good people and ideas succeed and grow, and I’ve developed methods to do that too.
This year I want to spend energy on areas that do both effectively.
When 200 cameras are on someone, anyone can catch a game-changing event.
The real excitement is to either make the event happen or be the one ready to get the story out when it does.
Plus, you’ll never have to compete with David Brooks for tired and cynical metaphors!
Reporting from DC, I’m Karen Ryan. (Just kidding, reporting from San Francisco. I’m Mr. Spocko.)