Just reading between the lines here
Democratic vice-presidential nominee and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared on the popular social media account “SubwayTakes” Monday, marking the latest moment in the social media battle defining the 2024 presidential race.
In the video Walz discusses the value of well-kept gutters, regional hardware stores and the Minnesota delicacy that is the Juicy Lucy style hamburger.
The account features host Kareem Rahma interviewing people and asking for “hot takes” on subways, primarily in New York City. The account has over 484,000 followers on Tik Tok.
The Harris-Walz campaign embracing social media that “the kids” like is somehow triggering enough for other media that Slate’s Nitish Pahwa felt the need to punch out a sour grapes warning on Tuesday that it’s a strategy that risks pissing off “anybody who’s open to the idea of voting for her” (read: pundits and mainstream press):
This year, for the DNC’s first in-person gathering since Hillary Clinton’s nomination, the Democratic Party offered credentials to more than 200 influencers and “content creators” operating across the most dominant digital platforms of our day: YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok…. Reporters there from traditional media sources—including this one—complained about the less-than-ideal working conditions offered to them, while digital natives dressed up for yacht parties hosted on Lake Michigan.
“Democrats, the party that prided itself on supporting institutions and norms of accountability during the Trump years, are embracing this video-centric moment and the journalistic haziness that comes with it,” Pahwa complains. (See the New York Times and CNN for some high-profile, journalistic haziness.)
I get it. Sort of. On Thursday, I attended a digital creators brunch (missed the yacht parties) featuring the messaging team behind the freedoms, families, futures theme of the DNC convention. I was the oldest person there, an old-school blogger, like Billy Pilgrim, out of time and place.
But that discomfort is an easy tradeoff for seeing “dirty hippies” I’ve been in this movement with for a couple of decades finally winning credibility with the Beltway set.
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