There are just six weeks to go until the U.S. presidential election. One candidate — former President Donald Trump — has vexed reporters since he became a major political figure almost a decade ago. Another — Vice President Kamala Harris — has only been in the running for two months.
How is the news media doing with its coverage of these two?
“I think the mainstream media is still struggling in a lot of ways — with two historic candidates,” says Eric Deggans, NPR’s TV critic.
In the premier episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast,” Deggans and Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones, the host of the podcast, break down the media’s speedbumps in covering Trump and Harris. Not only are journalists still struggling to cover Trump’s lies, Deggans argues, they can’t figure out how to contextualize Harris’ identity as both a Black woman and Indian American woman.
The back half of the episode features observations about CNN’s decline, a dissection of the consumer confusion around the many streaming services, and canny predictions about the future of “Saturday Night Live,” including Deggans’ thoughts about a potential successor to executive producer Lorne Michaels.
Background reading:
- “5 takeaways by a longtime NABJ member from Trump’s appearance before Black journalists” (Eric Deggans, NPR)
- “If Harris wins, she would make history. But she isn’t talking about that” (Tamara Keith, NPR)
- “Kamala Harris is again facing attacks on her racial identity. Here’s more about her background.” (Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact)
- “What’s next for Kamala Harris and meeting the press?” (Tom Jones, Poynter)
- “Donald Trump takes his stump speeches to social media” (Tom Jones, Poynter)
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Credits:
The Poynter Report Podcast is produced by the Department of Journalism and Digital Communication at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg
- Host: Tom Jones
- Executive Producers: Elliott Wiser and Ren LaForme
- Producers: Madilyn Siner, Noah Chase and Tom Jones
- Director: Christopher Campbell
- Special thank you: Neil Brown and Dr. Mark Walters
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