Journalists, media leaders and press freedom organizations have spent the weeks since the presidential election warning about the potential for President-elect Donald Trump to launch an organized attack on the press during his second term.
But, as veteran Associated Press media writer David Bauder noted in the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast,” Trump actually seems to enjoy his adversarial relationship with the press.
Bauder said that while Trump’s allies have made noise about going after outlets like NPR, the president-elect himself “had a pretty open administration in terms of his availability to the press” and has often openly relished his combative dynamic with the media.
“He likes it when people like him and doesn’t like it when they go against him,” Bauder said, suggesting Trump’s line of attack may be more impulsive than part of a coordinated strategy.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Poynter senior media writer and podcast host Tom Jones, Bauder shared his perspective on the state of the media landscape, Trump’s impact on the press — including the potential for a “Trump bump” or “Trump slump” — and the challenges facing news organizations writ large.
Bauder and Jones also delved into the controversy surrounding MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and its hosts’ post-election meeting with Trump, which angered the show’s viewers, Bauder said, because it felt like a “capitulation” after negatively opining about Trump for years.
Bauder, who has covered the intersection of news, politics and entertainment for the AP for more than two decades, also once worked on the music beat. Jones and Bauder spoke about interviewing Prince, who, unlike many famous artists, used to give interviews to local newspapers. Bauder noted that, while he appreciated it, Prince presented a challenge.
“He had this weird habit of not wanting you to bring in a tape recorder, or even a pencil or paper, and so it was hard to do interviews with him.”
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Previous episodes
- Episode 5: Poynter ethics chair Kelly McBride and managing editor Ren LaForme grade the press’s election coverage and forecast a bumpy road ahead
- Episode 4: PolitiFact editor-in-chief Katie Sanders predicts a long road ahead for election fact-checking
- Episode 3: NBC News and MSNBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki on the state of polling and America’s election systems
- Episode 2: Poynter president Neil Brown on a new report that highlights some bright spots in the business of media
- Episode 1: NPR TV critic Eric Deggans on what the media gets right and wrong about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump
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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