A MEDIA STRATEGY LIKE NO OTHER…. If there have been modern, competitive U.S. Senate candidates who’s adopted a media strategy similar to Sharron Angle, I can’t think of them. In the latest development, the extremist Nevadan said she’ll begin speaking to journalists at major media outlets — Angle calls them the “lamestream media” — but only after she’s elected.
Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a conservative radio host on Wednesday that when she is elected to office, she will reverse her now-longstanding policy of avoiding the political press.
During an appearance on the Heidi Harris Show (one of the few forums that Angle visits), the Tea Party backed candidate explained that the reason she has dodged reporters during the campaign is because they don’t “promote” her.
Consider how this ties into the larger context, and how the borderline-deranged Senate candidate has crafted a fairly specific media strategy.
Shortly after winning her primary campaign, Angle drew increased scrutiny from the Nevada and D.C. media, but she literally refused to speak to reporters. When pressed to defend her own remarks and positions, Angle had a habit of literally running away.
When the national party moved in to help make Angle less of a laughingstock, the media strategy took shape. In July, the radical Republican conceded, for example, that she only wants to talk to media outlets that will let her beg for cash on the air.
In August, Angle went on to say that she’s trying to manipulate the media into being “our friend.” Asked to explain what that means, she said, “[W]e wanted [journalists] to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported.”
I’ve just never heard a candidate seeking a powerful public office boasting, on the record and on camera, that her campaign’s media strategy is built around the notion of manipulating news organizations, getting the questions Angle wants, so she can give the answers she wants, so the public will hear the news the way Angle wants it to be heard.
More recently, Angle has taken to using decoys to fool reporters covering her campaign.
And now Angle is assuring reporters at “lamestream” outlets (what is this, junior high?) that she’ll talk to journalists, but only if voters elect her first.
I feel like there’s a doctoral thesis for some journalism student in here somewhere.
