Because of her refusal to sit for an interview with any print or broadcast media, Harris has been the target of a lot of indignant insistence that she change her mind — that she’s not giving the American public answers they deserve. Critics say she’s subverting an expected system that all other elected officials have gone through. They say she’s hiding behind a wall of hype and “irrational exuberance” that is proof she lacks the toughness to hold the office she seeks.
Get real. You know that quote, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”? It would be insane to subject yourself to unfettered questions by an industry that doesn’t seem to know how to handle interviews with true journalistic integrity and practices. Why beat your head against a wall you know is made of brick and disinformation?
Harris has seen a media landscape that arguably legitimized soon-to-be-President Donald Trump as a normal candidate when he was sowing seeds of unrest, writing about him agreeing to accept the 2016 election results, “if I win,” and then denying those results in 2020 with not an nth of the absolute pushback and condemnation it deserved. She saw, as we all did, major outlets referring to obvious racist attacks by the current Republican nominee and others as “racially tinged” and to blatant bloody lies as “falsehoods” and “misstatements.”
The vice president recently approached the press gaggle with a deliberately direct “Whatcha got?” That is the same thing my late daddy used to ask me point-blank when I’d been calling and calling and he knew I wanted something. The reporters had been clamoring for this. And what did they have? A bunch of requests for a response to crazy stuff Trump said about her . . .
Back in the day there were limited sources of national news and candidates were required by circumstances to sit down for interviews with:
- Radio (AM radio) and then TV — both controlled by the big networks — ABC, CBS, NBC
- National newspapers — NY Times, Washington Post, Kansas City Star, Dallas Morning News, LA Times
Those interviews were in the main real journalism — a chance for the candidate to introduce themselves and answer serious questions about their positions, plans, policies and the like. No more. Still, the press thinks they deserve the same time and attention they got in the 1950’s. Today’s interviews are mainly gotcha questions and — in Harris’ case — questions about her responses to Trump’s latest bullshit. Today’s interviews are a waste of the candidates’ time when there are many other media outlets — cable TV, TikTok, Facebook, and many, many others all of which reach today’s voters.