Less is More for CNN, Harris and Walz

Several things stood out about the CNN Harris-Walz interview besides the candidates’ performances. The evening demonstrated something PR pros know well: sometimes less is more. In addition, the interview explained why some of the best Americans hesitate when considering political office.

Less is More and Authenticity

First, the network took a 30-minute, live interview, taped it and then milked it into a two-hour ‘special,’ hoping it could grab ratings points/viewers’ eyeballs

Instead of presenting voters with valuable content in a straight-forward, concise manner, CNN force-fed viewers, taking its originally live Q&A, taping it and interspersing it with live comments from interviewer Dana Bash.

True, news, like everything else, is a business. Other than on C-SPAN and public television, ratings points dominate because they translate into advertising sales. Hats off, though, CNN’s ratings were excellent. 

Still, it’s a shame when news networks take a public service and make it reek of capitalism.

As anyone who programmed their set to tape what they thought was a live interview, CNN allotted two hours to the special. In fact, the taped-interview-and-live-interstitial-comments portion of the program ‘ended’ with roughly 20 minutes left in the timeslot. 

At that point the show (yes, it was certainly a show) moved from the interview site in Savannah, GA, to a Washington, DC, studio where another anchor and CNN’s talking heads told viewers what they just watched. 

As if voters couldn’t understand and judge for themselves the importance (or not) of what they had seen. Apparently, CNN thought they could not, so, enter the talking heads 

In case viewers hadn’t decided about the value of the preceding content, the studio anchor prefaced the roundtable with praise for Bash. First, she complimented Bash for her interview of Harris and Walz. A few seconds after that, she noted how great the whole evening was.

Was Abby Phillip, the anchor, told to do that? Did Phillip honestly think Bash had conducted a superior piece of work as an interviewer? PR pros preach authenticity. Were Phillip’s comments an example of that? 

It was even more confounding considering, as comedian Bill Maher observed, Bash asked nothing “about abortion, Ukraine, the homeless, the Opioid crisis, the national debt. And then they wonder why the kids get their news from TikTok.” And the media wonders why Harris and Walz have, thus far, avoided interviews. 

After that, Phillip and CNN’s panel reheated the main course, overcooking the 30-minute interview before the 11pm anchor appeared, also with a roundtable of experts and insiders, who re-digested the already chewed-over carcass. 

Will The Best People Run for Office?

The next morning, several news networks and news bloggers, searching for scraps hit on VP Harris’ different takes on the border and fracking, an issue that Americans likely haven’t a clue about, or so it seemed the last time someone checked … in 2013.

A national news anchor, desperately seeking something to fill time Friday morning (Aug. 30), asked “what version” of Kamala Harris did viewers see last night? 

Apparently, this morning anchor discounts that the march of time brings new technologies as well as different ways of thinking about issues. 

In 5 years – which was the time between when the VP, as a presidential candidate the first time, made initial statements about fracking – isn’t it possible that Ms. Harris changed her thinking? (Certainly, impulsive candidates change their positions, sometimes in real-time.) 

Thoughtful, mature leaders evolve in their approach on some issues. It’s the job of campaign PR pros to help voters understand this idea, of course.

And with Governor Walz facing questions about a DUI arrest that occurred some 30 years ago and what seemed a slip of the tongue about carrying a gun into war, again years ago, is it a surprise that some of America’s best aren’t interested in running for office?

It’s a fact that candidates will face a fine-tooth comb about everything they’ve said, not said, did, didn’t, wore, didn’t wear. Same for their families and friends, too. Even a law school graduate, a former CA. attorney general and sitting VP will face comment about ‘needing’ a white male alongside her during a CNN interview.

Thank goodness, Michelle Obama, who enters the political landscape reluctantly, told voters in her DNC speech that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz aren’t perfect. They’ll make mistakes, she said. In addition, Obama warned the vitriol is coming. When a candidate’s children are targeted, it’s a good reminder.