Ivanka Trump appeared at the Doha Forum, and instead of being interviewed by a journalist, she faked an interview with a State Department PR person.
Ben Smith tweeted:
Ivanka being interviewed by *State Dept PR person*, a former Fox News contributor, at the #DohaForum. Never quite seen anything like it. pic.twitter.com/OVfBHBi5ml
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) December 14, 2019
Other, higher ranking figures, including the Malaysian PM and Turkish foreign minister, did tough interviews with journalists.
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) December 14, 2019
Smith also tweeted some of the softballs tossed at Ivanka:
Question: "You did something so important with the president," putting women's issues in national security strategy. "Tell me more about that."
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) December 14, 2019
Question: "Can you tell us some of your impressions" (of a recent trip through Latin America).
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) December 14, 2019
Analysis: The Trumps are cutting out journalists and public accountability at an alarming rate. They have learned from Fox News how to use the appearance of journalism to create propaganda. The president’s daughter was engaged in the creation of propaganda.
Other attendees were interviewed by journalists, but Ivanka Trump chose to sit down with a PR person in the administration who used to work at Fox News.
The Trump administration has destroyed transparency and public accountability from the Executive Branch. Notice how quickly people got used to the disappearance of the White House press briefing. Donald Trump doesn’t hold real one on one press conferences with the media. He does monologues outside the White House where he takes a few questions shouted at him from a distance.
Less overt than the president’s efforts to rig an election is an effort by the Trumps to erode democracy with the destruction of press freedom.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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