Harris bypasses the national press with her risk-averse media strategy

Her campaign released a memo Thursday promising “more media engagement” – but only with local press in swing states. She will also host a panel discussion with the National Association of Black Journalists, an organization that turned her down when she was invited to speak at its annual convention in July.

Harris has maintained a relatively distant relationship with the press since her nomination as the Democratic nominee on July 21. She has given only one interview with a major television network, alongside her running mate, Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.), while Trump speaks regularly with reporters and gives in-depth interviews in unconventional contexts such as podcasts.

Harris has not held any press conferences and has only occasionally answered questions from reporters, although her campaign team has called for an additional debate after her solid performance against Trump, which Trump declined on Thursday. Trump had previously called for debates on September 4 and 25, which Harris declined.

Tensions between Harris and the national media came to light this week after the White House News Photographers Association wrote a letter to her campaign team.

“Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,
“The travel pool was reduced from thirteen to nine, an unprecedented restriction on access to a major party presidential candidate,” it said. “Every other representative of the press pool was allowed to continue traveling without interruption, while the four seats for independent news photographers were downgraded to one.”

The letter was supported by news agencies, including New York Times, Washington Post, And Related press. The statement argues that presidential campaigns typically take a much larger number of journalists and photographers with them on their trips and calls for a “tracking plane” to give more media access to Harris.

WHNPA President Jessica Koscielniak expressed concern that the restricted access could set a new precedent.

“Photographers and video journalists must be seen as equal members of the press corps,” she told “The Washington Examiner.Without them, the press corps is not complete.”

The group has also asked the White House Correspondents’ Association to reallocate the nine seats currently available to accommodate more photographers.

Harris’ press secretary Ernie Apreza responded with a letter of his own, saying Harris has always been accompanied by nine media members, a number that has not changed even with her presidential bid. The president normally has 13. Apreza wrote that an escort plane or extra seats on Air Force 2 were “not feasible” and suggested that photographers travel to Harris’ events on their own.

While Harris now promises to give more interviews with news agencies in the contested states, there are also disputes at this level in her election campaign. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the Harris campaign has banned the paper from all future events because a quarter of the station’s unionized workforce is involved in a labor dispute. The paper is the second-largest news organization in battleground Pennsylvania and the largest in Pittsburgh.

David Greenberg, professor of history, media studies and journalism at Rutgers University, says the anti-media strategy could backfire.

“Harris or the people running her campaign seem to believe that a tightly controlled campaign can work,” he said. “This technique was developed by Richard Nixon in 1968 and it worked for him.”

Biden’s campaign also used this strategy extensively during the pandemic-plagued 2020 election campaign. However, it is unclear whether it will work for Harris’ campaign.

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“I think that’s a mistake,” Greenberg said. “She should be engaging more spontaneously with reporters, holding town hall meetings with voters and having informal conversations. People want to hear more than the rehearsed remarks. Even in the debate, where she was poised and impressive, she mostly repeated things from her campaign speech and her talking points.”

The Washington Examiner has asked the Harris team for comment.