During his acceptance speech on 6 November 2024, President-Elect Donald Trump said this about his VP, JD Vance:
‘And he’s a feisty guy, isn’t he? You know I’ve said, “Go into the enemy camp…” And you know, the enemy camp is certain networks, er, a lot of people don’t like to… “Sir, do I have to do that?” He just goes, “Okay, which ones?” “CNN, MSNBC.” He’ll say, “Okay, thank you very much…” He’s like the only guy I’ve ever seen who looks forward to it and then goes in and absolutely obliterates them.’
In Australia, left-wing politicians stay away from the conservative media and conservative politicians shun left-wing media. This is short-changing the taxpayer because they are unable to hear what politicians of either persuasion – funded by their taxpayer dollars – have to say about the issues of the day.
Vance’s left-wing media interviews are a master class in being on top of your game. He is across the issues and controls the interview, as one should. A canny politician knows that some interviewers are looking for a ‘gotcha’ moment; and a politician who loses control is a sorry sight.
The standard excuse of conservative politicians shunning left-wing media like the ABC, is that the questions are loaded against them and the studio audience heckles them. That is arrant nonsense. A question, loaded or not, is a question that requires an answer, unless it is sub-judice; not within the politician’s portfolio; genuinely subject to Cabinet confidentiality; or borders on stupidity. And when the audience heckles the politician responding to a question, the drill is simple: the politician stops responding, and resumes only after the heckling has stopped. If heckled a second time, the politician must have the intestinal fortitude to inform the interviewer that they have lost control of the interview and their audience.
The above will apply equally to left-wing politicians.
In the writer’s opinion, there is only one reason a politician refuses to front the media from the opposite side: the politician is not on top of their game – their portfolio. The majority of politicians are not across their portfolios and therefore, while prepared for soft interviews with media from their side of politics, they are loath to subject themselves to interviews from the other side of politics.
Aside from Vance, the ‘must watch’ for our politicians are the faultless performances by Trump’s nominees Pamela J Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel during Senate confirmation questioning by Democrats. None of the nominees faltered; and Bondi was a class act, asking Adam Schiff (D-California) – who sought gotcha moments – the reason that robberies in California were 87 per cent higher than the national average. She also reminded him of his previous censure by Congress, for behaviour similar to his present behaviour (towards her). The fact that she had to speak over him on occasion, did not faze her; she landed her punches. Having a hide is essential in politics; but being schooled by the whip-smart Bondi on national TV, has to be painful in the extreme.
Our politicians should see Vance’s interviews as a wake-up call: to get on top of their game and to front both sides of the media. The public, left-wing and conservative, deserve to hear from politicians regardless of their political stripe.
