The national media is a mess

Back in the mid-1990s, I sent out a newsletter with the headline “Rep. John Weatherly votes against Smart Start.” The late Representative Weatherly of Cleveland County got so mad he filed a complaint against me with the board of elections. He claimed that he had not voted against Smart Start but against a Democratic budget that included funding for Smart Start. Of course, the complaint was dismissed, but I got what I wanted. I got news stories about Weatherly’s opposition to the popular child care program.

This week, the online news site Axios.com did to Kamala Harris what I did to Weatherly. They ran the headline, “Harris flip-flops on building border wall.” In fact, Harris never explicitly said she would fund the wall. She said in her acceptance speech that she would sign the border bill that Donald Trump told Republicans to kill. The bill included funds for building the wall.

Republicans like Tom Cotten are using the Axios headline as ammo. He tweeted, “Let's be clear: when Kamala Harris claims she now supports Trump's border wall, it's not a flip flop. It's a lie.”

Axios took Republican spin and printed it as news. The article turned the headline into a the GOP talking about Harris changing positions, moderating her views. The article just as easily could have been “Trump flip-flops and opposes funding for border wall” or “Harris and Trump trade positions on border wall.” The Axios reporters wrote like shills when they could have written a real article looking at why Harris supports the border bill and why Trump and the GOP opposed it. But they chose the click-bait lead probably pushed by Republican operatives. They lack the basic curiosity necessary to be credible reporters.

This episode is just one example of the media trying to create news instead of cover it. The press is failing in its responsibility to keep the public informed without bias. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch wrote a great article about the failure. Former reporter and editor Mark Jacobs wrote a piece called “Mainstream media on a path to irrelevance.” Both articles are worth reading to better understand how the media is struggling and how the media environment is changing and what news organizations need to do to remain relevant.

In some cases, the media is chasing eyeballs through click-bait headlines. In others, they are struggling to look balanced at a time when they are accused of being biased, mainly by right-wing outlets or Republican operatives and politicians. Other times, they are trying to make news instead of covering it. In all of these cases, they are failing in their basic duty, which should be to seek truth and inform the public.

In this media environment, it’s no wonder that Harris is avoiding media interviews. She’s found effective ways to get her message out without doing a 60 Minutes-style interview on national television. She’s using TikTok and social media to engage younger voters who are increasingly excited about her campaign. She’s raising record low-dollar contributions. She’s filling stadiums with supporters at rallies.

Why would she interrupt this type of momentum with an interview where she’s liable to be ambushed in an attempted “Gotcha!” moment? She’s not paying a price for ignoring the press because too many people are getting their information from venues other than the legacy media. A fight with them might end up helping her more than hurting her. Fights with the mainstream media never hurt Trump.

I think Harris should prioritize local reporters in the swing states. The reporters are likely to be less confrontational and more informational. They would also likely ask questions that matter more to the people whose votes she’s courting. In North Carolina, I could see questions that have to do with off-shore wind turbines or water quality at Camp Lejeune. Or questions that really matter like, Duke or Carolina? Lexington or Eastern? Mountains or beach?

That said, she’s about to do an interview with Dana Bash on CNN. I hope it goes well. I believe she will be a stronger candidate for doing the interview, but I can’t blame her or her team for avoiding reporters. The media is a mess.