In the US
and UK, many would argue that there is too much news right now – simply too
much happening daily for the average person to absorb and process even a
reasonable portion of it. But it seems to me there is room for a little more in
the US, in the form of a Daily Democrat Press Briefing. Because in a world
where Fake News is king, with a President who is the King of Fake News, a
window opens to present the facts as seen from the other end of the spectrum.
Berkley
professor Helen Halpin (Twitter: @Helenhs) and others have suggested a daily
event where the news of the day, and specifically Trump's latest falsehoods and
outrages, can be discussed in an open Press forum, with questions, from a
Democrat viewpoint. The question is - who would do it? Who represents the
Democrat party in this way? Who is their front man/woman?
The GOP
obviously don't have what anyone would call a "leader" right now, but
they do have a "boss" and a front man in Trump. And they have the
delightful Sarah Huckabee Sanders to lie about the President’s achievements and
insult reporters. Though to be fair, it’s the job the White House have given
her - Donald does the same thing for a hobby.
The
Democrat party has a Chairperson, and minority leaders in Congress. But my view
from here across the Atlantic is that there is no clear front person speaking
for all Democrats. Sure, there are plenty of vocal politicians in Congress,
e.g. Elizabeth Warren, Joe Kennedy, and many midterm candidates who speak out
about the damage Trump is doing to the country and its norms. But they don’t
speak explicitly for the whole party, and not in a forum where national press
& TV are always present, can ask pertinent questions and receive honest
answers on a regular basis.
The party
in government have the advantage of a central, non-Congressional figurehead and
communications team who represents no particular state - Trump can and does go
to any state he fancies making wildly inaccurate statements to the rapturous
applause of his fans, and can summon press to the White House, say what he
likes and refuse to take questions if he chooses - which of course he often
does.
What’s
definitely missing from the Democrats, particularly with the midterms barely a
month away, is a centralised communication point based around a small team with
a figurehead spokesperson. The problem, I think, is that the US political
system doesn’t make this very easy. Candidates for Congress are very
state-centric, as they should be, and members in Congress are busy fighting
battles that must be fought. So some kind of party Communications Secretary
would be ideal.
Democrats
should get their heads together, choose a Communications team and a
spokesperson, and announce a Daily Press conference. They would have mountains
of material to work with – in fact a major task of the team would be wading
through the mass of jaw-dropping news and commentary coming from Trump, and
selecting the parts to include (clearly Team Trump are still following the
Steve Bannon news management strategy of “flood the zone with sh*t”).
A
Democrat press conference could serve a dual purpose – focussing attention on
key matters of the day (and hopefully drawing attention & headlines away
from some of Trump’s meaningless nonsense), and pointing out clearly where
Trump is being misleading with the American people, using references to
published factual data.
The bonus
to having something like this would be that Donald would be absolutely furious,
and totally unable to ignore it because Fox would actively help. Every morning
Donald would sit on his throne watching Fox News cover the latest Dem Presser
in scathing terms, scream “FAKE NEWS!!!” at his twitter account, and repeat
every point the Dems make. This would give the Democrat take on the news an
audience it likely wouldn’t otherwise - Trump fans. Of course they’d be as
furious and dismissive as Trump himself, but recent events have shown that
showing two sides to a story helps people see there *are* two sides to it.
The thing
that the Democrat Press Team would need to be very careful of is their fact
checking, and to make sure they presented facts as facts, and opinions as
opinions. They would be perfectly entitled, as Trump does, to include both in
Press briefings. And they would have to be scrupulously fair – even praising good
news when such a thing occurs.
For
example, this week’s USMCA agreement is undeniably a good news story, and the
Democrat Press Team should say so. They could then point out the close
similarities between USMCA and NAFTA (fact) & hence that the whole thing is
something of a waste of time, effort and goodwill (opinion). They could also
show clips of the President telling a reporter she “never thinks”, and that the
official White House transcript of that event released today is
factually incorrect.
Of
course, such a press conference would be partisan, presenting the Democrat take
on the events of the day – but that would be obvious so would be factored in by
anyone seeing it. What it would need though is a respected, experienced and
preferably non-partisan Press secretary to deliver the daily message.
I wonder
what Sean Spicer is doing these days?
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