Main Edition
US
FR
August 12, 2024 - 1:00pm
The central theme of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is “joy”, according to recent headlines from the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times and others.
It’s the latest instance of the liberal media widely covering soft-hitting human interest stories about the Vice President — including an Atlantic essay on her fondness for food — in sharp contrast to the critical coverage of Joe Biden during the final weeks of his campaign. Other recent Harris news cycles have focused on the online pro-Harris meme culture and running-mate Tim Walz’s “dad vibes”. A Monday Time article opened with a description of a Harris rally, reading, “The soundtrack suggested a Beyoncé concert. The light-up bracelets evoked the Eras Tour. And the exuberant crowd… resembled the early days of Barack Obama.”
The 27 June debate, in which Biden’s poor performance ultimately ended his candidacy, opened the floodgates to more hostile reporting from the mainstream press than he’d seen at any point in his presidency. The coverage was so uniformly negative that Biden began publicly picking fights with friendly journalists, asking “what have these people been right about lately? Seriously.”
The lack of critical reporting on Harris likely owes in part to the candidate’s distance from the media. In the three weeks since Biden exited the race, the 59-year-old has not taken an interview or held a press conference, and has answered only two media questions in an impromptu interaction lasting about one minute. It may also be related to Harris’ friendly relationship with certain journalists, who have reportedly been getting off-the-record face time with her despite the lack of interviews.
In the past three weeks, the NYT has published no fewer than five articles on Kamala Harris memes, along with countless other positive articles, and only one story on her media blackout. The same outlet published numerous op-eds calling for Biden to exit the race last month and directed nonstop negative news coverage toward the president, including a report on the White House feeding the media “softball” questions for Biden.
The press has also been slow to zero in on the substance of Harris’ nascent campaign, whose website still doesn’t have a policy section. The New Yorker stands out among the mainstream press for pointing out Harris’ lack of policy plans. “She has not explained what, exactly, happened in Washington after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate”, the article read, ”or why she has changed her mind on fracking, which she once said should be banned, and has wobbled on Medicare for All, which she once supported.”
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeNo surprise. They soft balled a walking corpse for four years,
The author mistakenly refers to journalists, which we don’t have anymore. We only have influencers, narrative perpetuators and opinion writers, who masquerade as reporters or journalists.
I prefer to call them stenographers.
As a UK resident I don’t have any clear idea what her policies are or what strengths she brings to being POTUS. Perhaps as a result of algorithms I get endless feeds of her serving up meaningless word-salads and chortling inanely at what she says.
She might pass muster as a competent pre-school childminder with her cheerful if simplistic and empty explanations of the world but it seems hard to understand why any US citizen would prefer her for the top job to a former US President that actually completed his term without setting off any wars and generally doing a competent job, despite his bombastic rhetoric.
It’s not hard to understand at all. The irrational hatred for Trump among some runs that deep, as does the blind loyalty to party.
I could not agree more. 1000x this.
Even if she is in effect Chauncey Gardiner, the fact is that she definitely isn’t Trump.
Soft is perhaps the kindest word for it. Whatever it is, it’s not reporting or journalism or whatever the fawning pack of stenographers calls itself. This woman was picked as VP for two reasons: her identity and assassination insurance. Now, she’s being reinvented as a female Cicero.
Huh? Where has the author been for the last decade? This is what the regime media does. It’s the reason Unherd exists, along with many other alternative news sites.And it’s not just the media. It’s the Hollywood hit machine and academia and all the activist NGOs.
The regime media are foot soldiers for the Dems. They are Pravda. This is why the press secretary for the president can slide over to NBC, while said president is still in office, and it doesn’t raise eyebrows.
JD Vance did a sit-down interview with Dana Bash of CNN recently. The traditional standard for these types of interviews is 2 for you and 1 for me – meaning to 2 softball questions to show respect for the guest and 1 hostile question to do actual journalism.
But CNN is Pravda now. Bash was a Dem attack dog from start to finish. She spends the entire interview defending the Dems. At one point she even pushes back when Vance says Harris has no policy – seemingly oblivious to the fact that Harris’ website does not contain one single policy position.
Vance has been outstanding in all these hostile interviews – and there have been lots of them. He’s calm, he’s measured and takes down his interrogator one brick at a time. The link is just part one. Watching part two is just as insightful
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/11/politics/video/watch-part-one-of-dana-bashs-interview-with-gop-vice-presidential-nominee-jd-vance
The far right meltdown continues! So fun to watch!
No mystery. The imperative of beating Trump dictates the tone of mainstream coverage of the Democrat candidate. Up until the infamous debate, Biden was the man to fight Trump insisted leading media commentators, despite him being obviously doolally. Then, virtually mid-sentence, he was suddenly pronounced a liability to be ditched. He was.
The change was abrupt, so much so that the Democrats had barely thought about the succession. That was resolved for them – by those bankrolling the party installing Harris.
Then the press got to work looking for positive things to say about Harris. It’s clearly been a daunting task, which explains why there’s so much talk about ‘the vibe’. The Democrat-campaigning media seem to be attempting to sell a novel idea to the electorate – the post-policy politician.
It seems to be working.
I’m reminded of Auron Macintyre’s famous tweet: ‘You don’t hate journalists enough. You think you do but you don’t.’
i’m saving that one, Great.
I’m surprised by the ‘Joy’ campaign, but then perhaps I’ve read too much history: “Kraft durch Freude”
‘Arbeit macht frei’ is just around the corner.
Possibly the Joy thing just comes of lazy reporters scrolling through one too many laughing-Kamala photos? They had to come up with something and they have so little to work with. And it is at least better than, “The theme of Kamala’s campaign is Forrest Gump.”
Surely the theme of Kamala’s campaign is “I’m not Trump”?
Didn’t Obama have a “Hope” campaign?
Hint: Look up the German translation. However, thank you for proving my point that no-one but history buffs remember this stuff…
This is ridiculous. The conservative media treats Trump like the Second Coming, especially since he dodged a bullet. Liberal media favors Harris, and conservatives favor Trump. No surprise.
I was going to say exactly the same. Why would the USA press be any different from ours. Talk about a non-story. What’s next? Catholic popes or bears defecating in woods?
The difference is that almost all of the msm are Democrat organs and so control the news environment.
Why would leftist media give Harris a hard time? To be surprised, it means people have a very quaint and outdated mental image of what the ‘media’ actually is.
Leftist media is leftist.
….in the same way that the Rightist (is that a word?) media is Rightist.
I am not sure where the liberal media, such as the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post end, and the Harris campaign begins.
How do you feel about Fox News, old boy?
I definitely don’t think they are part of the Harris campaign!