The GOP often describes itself as being at war with the “mainstream media.” Now, it looks like some Republicans are going even further and completely excluding all media from GOP events. This is yet another blow to the increasingly embattled notion that citizens of all political backgrounds can occupy a shared reality.
For the first time in the seven-year history of the annual Sunshine Summit in Florida, the conference restricted media access to the event last weekend, according to Politico. He specifically blocked the mainstream media on the grounds that they are inherently anti-conservative.
“We in the state of Florida will not allow mainstream media to participate in our primaries,” DeSantis said in his opening remarks. “I’m not going to have a bunch of leftist media people asking our candidates questions.”
It is much more difficult for politicians to be held accountable by the media if they choose to associate only with sympathetic media.
The conference, previously taped by C-SPAN, was of natural interest to national media – it included debates and speeches from state Republican leaders, primary candidates and conservative pundits in a battleground state. extremely influential. But according to the Washington Post, for at least parts of the summit, only right-wing outlets, such as The Floridian, were allowed to attend, and mainstream media reporters were forced to try to obtain recordings of those allowed inside. .
The Post described it as part of a broader right-wing pattern, emulated by Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, to exclude the media from rallies and respond to demands from Republican political candidates in Pennsylvania and Missouri. to include only conservative media or moderators in the primary debates. .
This all comes after the Republican National Committee voted to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, the bipartisan platform that has hosted debates for decades, based on the flimsy claim that it presents a anti-Republican bias.
What’s going on? There are several explanations for this trend. Trump taught the Republican Party that rhetorical attacks on the mainstream media tend to do well with the base — and DeSantis knew it when he made his announcement. Political polarization has reached such extremes that politicians view media of opposing ideological persuasions as purely propagandistic. And the hyper-partisan right-wing media is finally robust enough, after decades of development, to be able to independently cover and deliver information to a mass audience of conservative citizens without any mainstream media involvement.
This is an unhealthy trend because it is much harder for politicians to be held accountable by the media if they choose to only patronize sympathetic or downright propagandistic media on their behalf.
For example, if only the conservative media can closely observe and interview Republican politicians during primary debates, a reporter is less likely to identify an example of a politician flip-flopping on an issue later in the debate. general election season. There is also less chance of an extremist statement being documented and shared with the public, as ideologically sympathetic journalists want to protect the Republican Party. And uniformly right-leaning media in a debate will have some candidates jockeying more aggressively for the more conservative positions, because they know it could lead to headlines and more favorable coverage in the hyper-ideological media. Allowing a wider range of media across the ideological spectrum can act as a bulwark against these dynamics.
Our media landscape is becoming increasingly polarized in a way that mirrors the general political polarization across the country. But when politicians refuse to engage with the media on the other side, it will only make the problem worse.