Journalists should stop interviewing Kellyanne Conway
Donald Trump’s TV-friendly spokesperson just makes everything more confusing, journalism professor Jay Rosen says.
After the November election, Donald Trump’s campaign strategist Kellyanne Conway has stayed in the picture — the spin-master of Trump’s muddy words, Conway is a frequent and often provocative visitor to TV news.
That should probably stop, journalism professor Jay Rosen says.
“I don’t think the people interviewing Kellyanne Conway know why they are doing that,” Rosen said on the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka. “The journalistic logic of it is growing dimmer with every interview.”
That’s because Conway goes beyond spin. Frequently, Trump’s and Conway’s statements to the press will directly contradict one another.
“The logic is, this is a representative of the president,” Rosen said. “This is somebody who can speak for the Trump administration. But if we find that what Kellyanne Conway says is routinely or easily contradicted by Donald Trump, then that rationale disappears.”
“Another reason to interview Kellyanne Conway is, our viewers want to understand how the Trump world thinks,” he added. “But if the end result of an interview is more confusion about what the Trump world thinks, then that rationale evaporates.”
TV stations that do still want to talk to spokespersons like Conway or incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer should transparently explain why those people are on the air, Rosen said: To avoid criticism, or for entertainment value.
“Just be real about it and say, ‘This isn’t actually of journalistic value,’” he said. “‘It has a different value and that’s why we’re putting it on the air.’ Just don’t pretend that this is a normal interview, with the normal rationale.”
You can listen to Recode Media in the audio player above, or subscribe on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
If you like this show, you should also sample our other podcasts:
- Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with the movers and shakers in tech and media every Monday. You can subscribe on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
- Too Embarrassed to Ask, hosted by Kara Swisher and The Verge’s Lauren Goode, answers all of the tech questions sent in by our readers and listeners. You can hear new episodes every Friday on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
- And finally, Recode Replay has all the audio from our live events, such as the Code Conference, Code Media and the Code Commerce Series. Subscribe today on iTunes, Google Play Music, TuneIn and Stitcher.
If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on iTunes — and if you don’t, just tweet-strafe Peter. Tune in next Thursday for another episode of Recode Media!
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
