The actual Axios headline deserves some credit, along with the article itself. “How Harris Dodges Scrutiny” certainly avoids the usual media trope of rinsing its sins through Republican reactions to them. We might have expected Republicans Pounce on Media Over Harris Coverage, or Trump Blames Media for Joy.
Instead, Axios’ Mike Allen and Alex Thompson fix blame on Harris, and on the media (not) covering her campaign:
With 60 days left in the race, and at the very moment she’s presenting a different ideology than four years ago, Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t getting subjected to the media scrutiny typical for a presidential nominee.
Why it matters: Harris is copying President Biden’s self-protection media strategy — duck tough interviews and limit improvisational moments.
That’s accurate as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough, not on Kamala or on the media. She’s not just “limit[ing] improvisational moments” — she’s not even going on the record with the press pool that accompanies her on the campaign trail. Politico reported a month ago that Harris only speaks to them off the record, and those reporters have so far cooperated in that strategy rather than demand real interaction and answers.
I called it The Silence of the Kams four weeks ago, and it continues to this day. Axios doesn’t have much to say about the how in their headline “How Harris Dodges Scrutiny,” but it’s clearly because the media is complicit in the strategy. If the press pool refused to do any more off-the-record interactions and demanded on-the-record responses, that strategy would either collapse or Harris would shortly lose the press pool she requires for messaging. And yet the mainstream media keeps playing along.
The Protection Racket Media has been in the bag all along, just as they were with the cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline over the last three years. Co-author Alex Thompson hints at that cooperation in his tweet promoting the report, noting that “Harris is copying Biden’s self-protection media strategy — duck tough interviews and limit improvisational moments.” But that only worked because the media let him get away with it, and by doing so perpetuated a cover-up that they also won’t report to this day.
The mainstream media no longer report as much as they exist to just amplify the regime’s messaging, except when they’re burying regime scandals and failures. (Or only covering them through the hoary ‘Republicans Pounce™!’ filter.) That’s why we need independent media and platforms to challenge the media and the progressive ruling clique it serves. Become a HotAir VIP member today and use promo code FAKENEWS to receive a 50% discount on your membership.
However, we have begun to see cracks in the edifice of late. This article certainly qualifies on that score; even if Axios fails to mention the how, they certainly cover the what. Chris Cillizza also noticed it this morning after launching a similar criticism of Harris yesterday, using a screenshot of the list Axios published of flip-flops:
Kamala Harris has changed positions on a WHOLE lot of things pic.twitter.com/m4MfzWkI0T
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) September 6, 2024
It gets worse than that, actually. As several people noted in replies to Cillizza, it’s not even Harris who has changed those positions but the anonymous staffers on her campaign, which media dutifully regurgitate. CNN’s Dana Bash actually did try to get Harris to explain these changes, but Harris would only repeat the non-sequitur response, “My values have not changed.” Harris has said next to nothing at all for more than 40 days on these issues for the record and still hasn’t posted a single issue position on her campaign website with sixty days before the election.
The only conclusion one can reach is that Harris will say and do anything to get elected. And in the meantime, her true positions are so anathema to the mainstream of the electorate that Harris can’t acknowledge them.
In my editorial for Salem News today, I ask why the media allows a major-party candidate to ignore them, and us. Perhaps CNN and Axios are signaling that this complicity in the Silence of the Kams has come to an end, but … I’ll believe it when I see it.
Hiding from the press thwarts self-governance. Media complicity in that strategy erodes confidence in democracy even further—and in their industry as well.
It’s long past time for reporters to demand answers on the record from both tickets.
Read the full article here