The President and his White House have abandoned the Daily Press Briefing. While some have pointed to this as a doom and gloom moment for democracy and another indicator on the march towards dictatorship, there is another, more simple viewpoint: for a president that prefers to communicate via Tweet with the world, the Daily Press Briefing (aka DPB) was a sideshow that stole attention from his message and offered too many opportunities for problems. And while we can debate the merits of the Daily Press Briefing in terms of transparency and information (ie it can be argued that in the post-9/11 era, too often the DPB was treated as a stenography session by the Washington Press Corps), the cost of not hosting the briefing is arguably higher on Trump than on the public.
Why would one argue that?
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the Daily Press Briefing is the immense video and sound-byte-based media industry. The DPB was a regular and important source of content for radio, television, cable, Social Media, and more. It is a cornerstone staple of filling otherwise useless airtime in the middle of the business day. It is a rich opportunity to put out one’s message in the best format available in the modern age: audio and visual.
Certainly Team Trump can point to Fox News (and his entire administration’s regular appearances there) as the perfect opportunity to supplant the DPB, where the decorum of the latter requires inviting ALL of the press to ask questions. For Trump, a Fox and Twitter-only approach is probably a far better plan … define a core message on Twitter and fill the airwaves with soundbytes from Trump-friendly forums (The Sunday Shows and Fox News) who will spin and shift and contort to the GOP’s delight. Why go to a DPB where the message can be challenged and clips of poorly-handled interactions can cut against the message of the day?
Yet, the ruin of the DPB didn’t destroy the appetite of the media industry for content that is ready-made for the airwaves and internet.
The void left over by the absence of the DPB leaves an incredible opportunity for Speaker Pelosi if she wishes to fill it, especially now in the heat of an impeachment inquiry. While the Conservative Echo Chamber might be fulfilled by the aforementioned sources, the rest of media is hungry for content: soundbytes and video that they can use to underpin their shows.
Speaker Pelosi already hosts a Weekly Press Briefing from her standing as Speaker of the House. The chance to leverage this podium to provide a Daily Press Briefing that fills the void left by the disappearance of THE Daily Press Briefing would likely be a successful approach to filling the airwaves with the Democrats’ messaging into a media apparatus hungry for content.
And if she did take that opportunity, it might just force the Trump admin to return to hosting the White House’s own DPB, which — if you’re a believer in the democratic value of the event — would be a sly win in forcing this event back onto the media’s daily dance card.