Harris campaign isn't playing the Coastal media's game, and takes it to the voters

Great article from writer Drew Magary in SF Gate that gives a rightful kiss-off to the insular fools at the New York Times.

It finally happened. The Times had managed to write itself completely out of relevance. I wrote about it. www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...

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— Drew Magary (@drewmagary.bsky.social) September 24, 2024 at 8:06 AM

...The Times cares more about its place in the power structure than in actually affecting that power structure. It gladly cedes prominent column space to bad faith politicians who would like to eradicate whole demographics of the American population. It dabbles in trans panic as a sort of weird hobby. And it scoffs at criticism from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party while going out of its way to heed criticism from a Republican Party that would drop a load of napalm on Times headquarters if ever given the authority.

That is an excellent paragraph. In 2024, the Times are about their own elite Coastal circles, and their own self-interests. They are NOT about telling the public the truth about what is going on.

And the Harris campaign has picked up on this, as they are refusing to play the 20th Century-era game of "bow to the demands of the Acela Corridor media", which Magary approves of. Especially given how the Times could play a major role in exposing fascism and evil in our politicis, given the large number of downsized newsrooms across the country. But it chooses not to.

...I work in an industry that’s been gutted from the inside out this century — you’ve heard about that part, too — leaving the Times as the dominant primordial beast in the serious newsgathering business. It has the biggest readership of any paper by far and, as such, critics like me have treated hate-reading the Times as an act of public service. My opinion was that the Times’ influence was so vast, especially among higher-ups in both the federal government and the private sector, that it had to be called out anytime it failed to call things as they clearly were (daily). To dump on the Times was to speak truth to power.

I no longer hold that opinion. Harris is winning this election right now in large part because she has avoided legacy outlets, the Times foremost among them, altogether. Her team understands that it behooves these outlets to have a close race, which means that they’ll seize on any gaffe Harris makes if it gives them a chance to falsely equivocate her remarks to those of Trump screaming, “THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!” to kick up a racial holy war. Team Harris has no interest in helping the Times sanewash Trump more than it already has, so they’ve decided that the only way to win the game is not to play.

It was the right move, and it’s proven that the Times’ influence is exactly as large as you and I pretend it to be. It has a big-ass readership, but that readership is mostly there to play Wordle and, as ESPN’s Mina Kimes noted, the vast majority of them are already in the bag for Democrats anyway. Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump debates Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for the first time during the presidential election campaign, at the National Constitution Center on Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia.

Instead, the Harris campaign is speaking directly to the voters and reporters in the places where this election will be decided.

Including here.

Vice President Harris joined Wisconsin Public Radio and talked about what she’d do as president:

* affordable housing
* water quality
* reproductive rights

… and more. Everyone should know what she said: 🧵

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) September 24, 2024

And made some news along the way.

"We should eliminate the filibuster for Roe & get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom."

—Kamala Harris tells Wisconsin Public Radio about measures she backs to reinstate federal abortion rights pic.twitter.com/hlJHDZwRyV

— The Recount (@therecount) September 24, 2024

That's what you need to do, Kamala. Not only in speaking to outlets that reach the voters you need to reach (instead of the comfortable Coastal Wordle-doodlers that read the New York Times), but also in recognizing that Federal politics is also not working under our antiquated systems, and that they're in need of real change as well.