Trump 2.0 is pretty good for media types… so long as they don’t do any journalism
Donald Trump’s administration is appointing media figures like Kari Lake, Pete Hegseth, and Mehmet Oz to key roles, emphasising communication skills over journalistic integrity, raising concerns about credibility and impartiality.
T rump 2.0 is actually turning out to be pretty good for journalists and media types... so long as they don’t do anything that might be understood as journalism.
Consider Kari Lake, the former news anchor who unsuccessfully ran for Arizona governor and senator on the strength of shrill election denialism and Trumpian hyperbole and rhetoric.
The US president-elect has nominated Ms Lake to lead Voice of America, the international broadcaster that operates in more than 40 languages online and on radio and television. Ms Lake’s unapologetic, undiscriminating support for the Trump worldview, not least unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, could undermine VOA’s credibility.
Ms Lake is one of several media figures recruited by Donald Trump to fill key roles in his second administration.
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth is Secretary of Defense nominee. Sean Duffy, formerly of the longest-running programme in MTV history, The Real World, is Transportation Secretary nominee. TV (and actual) doctor Mehmet Oz will oversee Medicare and Medicaid.
None of the above could really be called journalists before their announced elevation to governance roles, though some did start out in the actual news business.
Ms Lake, for instance, did a graduate degree in communications and journalism, interned at a TV station, worked as a production assistant, a daily reporter and weekend weathercaster before becoming a news anchor. She even interviewed Presidents Barack Obama and Trump back when she still considered herself a journalist. In the past few years, she went overboard on conspiracy theories – rather trashing the chance of being taken seriously in the news business.
Mr Hegseth’s career trajectory is less journalistic. He wrote a thesis for his undergraduate degree on ‘Modern Presidential Rhetoric and the Cold War Context’, was publisher of The Princeton Tory magazine and became a political commentator for Fox News a decade ago, as well as weekend co-host of the Fox & Friends news and current affairs programme from 2017.
But both Mr Hegseth and Ms Lake (in the latter part of her career) would rightly be deemed too partisan to be reliable bearers of all manner of truths.
As for Mr Duffy and Dr Oz, they were part of one aspect of the media business — that which intersected with entertainment.
Journalist or not, their success did depend upon communication and presentation skills and finding a way to tell a story.
That Mr Trump has tapped them for frontline roles in his administration shows the extent to which he prizes media skills… so long as these are not used for anything like real journalism!
GOING FURTHER:
Defeated Republican candidate Kari Lake refuses to concede in Arizona governor’s race | PBS
Kari Lake’s election loss lawsuit lacks merit, according to Arizona state lawyers | PBS
Trump ally and election denier Kari Lake to launch campaign for contested U.S. seat in Arizona | PBS
Trump ally Kari Lake tapped to lead Voice of America | BBC NEWS
Trump’s Kari Lake ‘pick’ sparks fears at Voice of America | CNN
‘Now she’s the world’s problem’: Some Arizona Republicans relieved Lake is heading to Washington | POLITICO
Sources:
▪ This piece was first published in Medium and re-published in PUBLIC SQUARE UK on 13 December 2024 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.
▪ Cover: Flickr/Gage Skidmore. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)
[Read our Comments Guidelines]