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I was editor of my junior high school paper and many of my heroes were journalists. I read All the President's Men and watched the movie in the theater and thought W & B were the best. I also tried to never miss "60 Minutes." Because those guys were real journalists. I bought Dan Rather's The Camera Never Blinks when it came out (in paperback) and devoured it. Over the years, the Sunday night news staple and I parted ways.
When the workplace sitcom, Newsradio, came out a couple of decades later, I also watched it faithfully. It made gentle fun of the news media, suggesting reporters were more concerned with their egos than the truth. A minor player on the show was played by Joe Rogan. He played a character named, well, Joe, the station's tech guy who thrived on conspiracy theories. Rogan went on to do a reality TV show, Fear Factor, challenging contestants to face dangerous and gross challenges. (Fear Factor ran concurrently for a time with another reality show, The Apprentice.)
Then in 2009, Rogan launched a podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. He interviewed a wide range of guests, letting them tell their stories, as diverse a group as Bernie Sanders and Edward Snowden to Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson. The three-hour-long format allows for long stories and full explanations.
Donald Trump had a choice to make this election season. He could appear in a media institution with a 57-season legacy. The show that I thought, as a teenager, was a paragon of journalistic integrity, which now has a record of deceptive editing to make its partisan points.
Or, he could appear with a former sitcom and reality show player who started his show this century. Instead of editing, this host just lets people talk. Much to the concern of many on the modern left who are afraid of the wrong thoughts getting out in the world.
Trump chose to go with the new media. I think it will prove to be a wise decision.
Discussion (23)
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Agree.
Furthermore, ...
I think that this interview will serve as a demarcation point. Meaning, for instance, ...
By the time the next Presidential election season comes around, I would not be at all surprised if NONE of the primary (let alone general) debates took place on the broadcast/cable channels.
IOW, a "paradigm shift" of "tectonic" significance similar to the one that occurred in 1960 (JFK vs Nixon debate, the first broadcast TV debate).
A new era.
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Except technology had nothing to do with that. For the longest time Section 315 of the FCC regulations, aka the “Equal Time Rule,” required that all qualified candidates for a federal office were to be given equal time, even for minor parties. In 1960 Congress passed a waiver for Kennedy-Nixon.
But it went right back into effect until it was finally repealed in 1975, which ushered in the modern era of debates.
And I’ll wager you’re wrong about 2028. Don’t get hung up on the method of transmission. Primary debates are party functions. If Trump wins you’re looking at two fields of 12+. Production costs are still considerable and both will want to team with organizations with deep enough pockets to pull that off.
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Of course it did.
People who listened to that debate on radio thought that Nixon won it. People who watched that debate on TV thought that Kennedy did.
To wit (from "How the Kennedy-Nixon debate changed the world of politics"):
"...
When Nixon arrived for the debate, he looked ill, having been recently hospitalized because of a knee injury. The vice president then re-injured his knee as he entered the TV station, and refused to call off the debate.
Nixon also refused to wear stage makeup, when Hewitt offered it. Kennedy had turned down the makeup offer first: He had spent weeks tanning on the campaign trail, but he had his own team do his makeup just before the cameras went live. The result was that Kennedy looked and sounded good on television, while Nixon looked pale and tired, with a five o’clock shadow beard.
The next day, polls showed Kennedy had become the slight favorite in the general election, and he defeated Nixon by one of the narrowest margins in history that November. Before the debate, Nixon led by six percentage points in the national polls.
There were three other debates between Nixon and Kennedy that fall, and a healthier Nixon was judged to have won two of them, with the final debate a draw. However, the last three debates were watched by 20 million fewer people than the September 26th event.
In the aftermath of the first debate, Nixon’s running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge, had a few choice words for the GOP presidential candidate. “That son-of-a-bitch just lost us the election,” Lodge reportedly said. Johnson, who was Kennedy’s running mate, thought his running mate had lost the debate. Lodge saw the debate on TV, while Johnson listened to the debate on the radio. ..."
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Precisely. But that still has nothing to with the technology of transmission, that’s pure consumption. Many podcasts have a visual component but how they’re consumed - either visually or aurally - is still up the consumer. When you made your argument about 2o28 you specifically said “broadcast/cable channels.” Broadcast v cable v IP streaming is just a method of transmission that has nothing to do with the actual content or how it’s consumed.
The early 2020 Democratic debates featured 20 candidates and had to be held over 2 nights in Detroit. Could Joe Rogan afford to rent the Fox Theatre for two nights, light the joint for television, bring in a production truck and crew? Maybe. Does it make sense for him to do it? Probably not.
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What does trust have to do with it? I don't trust any of them unless they make themselves trustworthy.
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