DeSantis wisely shuns the mainstream media

In November 2007, I accepted an invitation to travel with John McCain in New Hampshire on his campaign bus “The Straight Talk Express.” I didn’t support McCain for the Republican nomination, but couldn’t pass up an opportunity for the kind of access being offered.

The access turned out to be amazing. As soon as the half dozen or so mainstream media members and I got on the bus, McCain called us to a private section in the back and invited (almost demanded) questions.

After about 45 minutes, a New York Times reporter told me that McCain had just answered more questions than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Mitt Romney combined had answered during the campaign, to date, in New Hampshire.

Did McCain grant all of this access to cement his status as “media darling”? I think so.

But he probably could have cemented that status by giving us 45 minutes rather than the better part of a day. I believe he liked talking with well-informed people about politics (and sports and life, to which the conversation turned after a few hours when we ran out of political questions). Maybe this was a product of his years of isolation in North Vietnam.

To the extent McCain expected to gain media favor by giving access, he miscalculated. A few months after our bus ride, when McCain emerged as the 2008 GOP frontrunner, the New York Times, which had two representatives on his bus that day in New Hampshire, attacked McCain with this hit piece about his relations with a female lobbyist. (I believe the primary Times reporter on the bus with us protested the story and had himself removed from the McCain beat.)

This brings me to Ron DeSasntis, another GOP presidential hopeful, and the New York Times. DeSantis has come under fire from the Times for mistreating (as the Times sees it) a young reporter.

According to the Times:

Assigned to cover the re-election campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Miles Cohen, a young ABC News reporter, found himself stymied. The governor would not grant him an interview. Aides barred him from some campaign events and interrupted his conversations with supporters.

When Mr. Cohen was finally able to ask a question about the governor’s handling of Hurricane Ian, Mr. DeSantis shouted him down — “Stop, stop, stop” — and scolded the media for “trying to cast aspersions.” The DeSantis campaign then taunted Mr. Cohen on Twitter, prompting a torrent of online vitriol.

So on election night, Mr. Cohen decamped to a friendlier environment for the news media: Mar-a-Lago, where former President Donald J. Trump greeted reporters by name. “He came up to us, asked how the sandwiches were and took 20 questions,” Mr. Cohen recalled.

What a sweetheart, that Trump.

If the Times’ story is true, how what should we make of DeSantis’ conduct? The key, I think, is to recognize that all serious politicians regard the media as a means to an end.

What end? Their political advancement, of course, though personal ends can also be served, as in the case of McCain.

What I’ve just written hardly qualifies as an insight. But I suspect mainstream media figures sometimes lose sight of it. I remember reading about how some in the media became disillusioned with the Clintons in 1993. They expected the good times they enjoyed with “Bill and Hill” on the campaign trail to continue after the couple gained power.

It didn’t happen. Media members made the mistake of believing that the Clintons — who, unlike nearly all players on the national stage at the time, were of their generation — actually liked them.

Insight or not, once we remind ourselves of how serious politicians view the media, things fall nicely into place. Not just with DeSantis, but also with Trump and Joe Biden.

Biden largely ignored the media throughout his contest with Donald Trump in 2020. Why? Because doing so served his goal of winning that race. Biden had nothing to gain (the media was already on his side) and much to lose (for obvious reasons) from fielding media questions. So he didn’t field them.

In earlier incarnations, Biden was gregarious with the media. Why? Because it served his political interests to be that way.

What about Trump? The media has served his political interests in at least two ways. First, it put him in the spotlight and kept him there. In 2015-16, for example, he didn’t need to advertise. The media gave him all the exposure he needed, and more.

Second, the media serves as a foil. Most Republicans can’t stand reporters and the outlets they serve. Bashing the media fires up the base.

There is also a personal component. As a narcissist, Trump wants as much media attention as possible.

Taking all of this into account, we shouldn’t be surprised that Trump was somewhat friendly to reporters on election night 2022, taking questions and asking about the sandwiches. He was happy the 20 reporters were at Mar-a-Lago and this low-visibility event was not the occasion for burnishing his anti-media credentials — as if they needed burnishing.

DeSantis’ position is very different. He wants to get to where Trump has been. To do so, he needs to establish a hardline antimedia persona. At this point, moreover, he has nothing to gain from answering questions posed by hostile outlets like the Times.

Thus, his actions towards Cohen and others on election serve a dual purpose. They show the hostility towards the media that the Republican base expects and they ensure he will give no substantive response a hostile media can use against him.

My experience on the Straight Talk Express is instructive in this regard. The first of the hundreds of questions McCain fielded on the bus that day came from a reporter for the Boston Globe. It was about what McCain was looking for in a running mate.

McCain responded that, first and foremost, he wanted someone who could handle presidential responsibilities on day one, if this became necessary. Second, he said that, because economics is not his strong-suit, he would be looking for someone with expertise in this area.

When McCain picked Sarah Palin and, soon thereafter, the nation experienced an economic crisis, the Boston Globe guy reported what McCain had said about a running mate. This was fair. McCain had stipulated that everything he said was on the record.

But McCain’s admission that he wasn’t knowledgeable about the economy, coupled with the perception that Palin might not be ready for the Oval Office, harmed the candidate. It was a self-inflicted wound.

So that day on the bus turned into a lose-lose for McCain. He made a statement that ended up harming him and he gained no real favor with the New York Times, which ended up slandering him.

DeSantis is less likely than McCain to give answers that will hurt his campaign. But why take a chance? Better to avoid mainstream media inquiries unless/until he needs to be responsive.

Alex Conant, a media specialist who served as Sen. Marco Rubio’s communications director, says DeSantis will need change his approach and become responsive:

You can’t just talk to the friendly press and run TV ads and expect to win a nomination. If you’re going to get elected president, you have to talk to people who have never watched Fox News.

I suspect that, if things break well for him, DeSantis can win the Republican nomination without having to deal much with the mainstream media. The general election is another matter. If nominated, I believe DeSantis will have to engage with the mainstream media to some extent. Joe Biden’s 2020 approach isn’t likely to cut it — in part because there’s no pandemic but mostly because DeSantis is a Republican.

But this doesn’t mean DeSantis needs to engage now. He can do so when he concludes this has become necessary — be it during the primary season or, more likely, the general election campaign.

For now, he’s doing the smart thing by taking the win-win — appealing to the Republican base and avoiding unforced errors.