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Among the legacy news outlets that have come up empty in their efforts to interview Kamala Harris and Donald Trump during the general election campaign: NPR, The New York Times, PBS and The .
Yet Harris chose to meet with Alex Cooper for her “Call Her Daddy” podcast and talk a little Bay Area basketball with the fellows on “All the Smoke.” Trump rejected “60 Minutes,” but has hung out with the bros on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” and “Flagrant.” Harris sat Thursday for an interview in Georgia with former NFL player Shannon Sharpe for his podcast “Club Shay Shay.”
During this truncated campaign, some of the traditional giants of journalism are being pushed aside. The growing popularity of podcasts and their ability to help candidates in a tight race target a specific sliver of the electorate is a big reason why.
There are certainly exceptions. Harris spoke to NBC News’ Hallie Jackson on Tuesday and held a CNN town hall on Wednesday. But political columnist John Heilemann of Puck noticed what he called “an ancient, dying beast railing against the diminishment of its status and stature in the new world.”
“The campaigns have their structures and their media plans are very carefully thought through, even if we don’t agree with them,” said Sara Just, senior executive producer of the PBS “NewsHour.” “Obviously, we hope they will do long, probing interviews with PBS.”
Journalists consider that an important service. Said Eric Marrapodi, vice president for news programming at NPR: “I think Americans deserve to hear the candidates have their ideas challenged.”
That sounds like a campaign staff’s worst nightmare, infinite opportunities for their candidates to trip up and have an unplanned story dominate the news cycle. And to what end? Most legacy news organizations don’t have the reach they used to, and their audience skews old.
For half a century, a “60 Minutes” interview near the election was considered a key stop for presidential candidates. But Trump shunned broadcast television’s most influential news show this year, and has criticized the way its interview with Harris was edited.
The former president has stuck largely to what he perceives as friendly venues with direct access to his base audience, and continually feeds interviews to Fox News Channel despite grumbling he doesn’t find the network loyal enough. Indeed, Fox has also proven important to the Democratic ticket, which believes that appearing on its shows demonstrates willingness to deal with a hostile environment.
