Are the mainstream media “out of touch with Americans?”
The opening question at a White House briefing on Friday went to a political podcaster, the first outlet to occupy the coveted “new media” seat — and he took a potshot at the established press institutions long reviled by US President Donald Trump.
The White House has been flooded with more than 10,000 applications for the seat, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, after unveiling a new policy that allows podcasters, TikTokers and other content creators to apply for press credentials on a rotation basis.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We might have to make this room a little bit bigger,” Leavitt said at the briefing, granting the first question to Ruthless Podcast, which she described as one of the most influential podcasts in the US.
Ruthless Podcast host John Ashbrook — who occupied a seat at the front of the cramped briefing room — wasted no time, accusing traditional media of going after the Trump administration for deporting illegal immigrants.
“Do you think they are out of touch with Americans demanding action on our border crisis?” Ashbrook asked in a deadpan tone.
Leavitt was quick to reply: “The media certainly is out of touch.”
This marks a new normal for press briefings at the White House, long the preserve of mainstream outlets that have grappled over the past few years with declining public trust while podcasters gain a huge following.
Trump has repeatedly criticized traditional media as the “enemy of the people.”
During the election campaign last year, Trump sidestepped some major television networks, opting instead to speak to right-wing podcasters and Internet personalities who appeared to promote his “make America great again” (MAGA) political slogan.
Leavitt, who at 27 is the youngest White House press secretary, has vowed to hold reporters accountable for what she said were “lies” about Trump.
She said applications for the seat poured in from across the country, without saying how they would be selected or who its next occupant would be.
Over the past few days, prominent MAGA supporters, including many accused of peddling conspiracy theories, have expressed interest online in applying for White House press credentials.
In a rapidly evolving information ecosystem, Americans continue to register “record-low trust” in the mass media, a Gallup poll said in October last year.
Media pundits say Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional newspapers and television networks to consume their news from social media, podcasts and blogs.
About one in five Americans — many of them under 30 — say they regularly get news from influencers on social media, according to a study in November last year by the Pew Research Center.
In the face of this changing dynamic, no one should object to opening up the White House briefing room to nontraditional outlets, media writer Tom Jones wrote for the nonprofit media institute Poynter.
“The caveat, however, is if the White House new spots are given to those who are merely Trump and MAGA sycophants who call themselves media just because they carry a microphone or a laptop,” Jones wrote. “If that’s the case, the idea of a new media seat is counterproductive. In the end, these are press conferences, not pep rallies.”
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the