Another inflection point for the mainstream media

By not doing a conventional interview with legacy media, Kamala Harris is forcing us to think about what role that sort of journalism now plays in our democracies

There is currently a debate in the US media about whether Kamala Harris should make herself available for a sit-down interview with a mainstream journalist, or journalists, so that she may be “held to account” in the traditional way. The argument turns on the assumption that the media is the ultimate watchdog on political power without which democracy cannot function.

Fox and friend

To be clear, what is really at stake is not whether Harris should do an interview, but what the mainstream media even is anymore. In the past, any candidate who avoided such an interview would unequivocally have been considered to be dodging accountability. Instead, so damaged is the media’s reputation, so easy is it to point to examples of their appalling reporting, particularly on Donald Trump, that many people, including journalists, are willing to argue that Harris’s decision not to participate is not only fine but the right thing to do.¹

What is happening speaks to a collapse in the integrity of mainstrea…