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Podcast: Musk vs Trump and the impact of media distortion on news
Veteran political journalists and media analysts Thom Serafin and Ray Hanania discuss a wide range of issues on The Crisis Cast podcast including the rift between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, the transformation of newsmedia news reporting from objectivity to “perspective news,” and how to understand and address Trump’s dramatic policies and decisions in the context of his “reality TV” persona. The Crisis Cast is hosted by Lissa Druss and Thom Serafin at TheCrsisCast.com.
Former Chicago City Hall reporter and now political columnist Ray Hanania joins veteran Illinois journalist and media public affairs political consultant Thom Serafin on his podcast, The Cris Cast, to discuss current politics and news including the feud between Elon Musk and President Trump and the role of the news media whoch has transformed from news reporting to what Hanania calls “perspective news.”
Is the news media missing the story?
During the podcast interview, Hanania said that many people react to President Trump’s drama rather than see the bigger picture and approach it with less emotion.
“Well, you gotta understand Trump, and I try to explain this to everybody. You can’t take Trump on his word if he says he hates you. He is the shock genius of reality TV. And remember, that’s how he came to everybody’s real attention. You know, the average person when he did The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, the shocking things he’d say just to get impact,” Hanania said.
“He enjoys it because that fuels his ego. He’s doing it to make himself feel good or look good, so don’t react to him. This thing with Elon Musk, uh, I at when, uh, you know, I read a couple biographies on Elon, and I really liked him originally till he really went off the deep end, I thought. But he’s back in the center, I think, and, uh, he raised a really good issue about the, quote, the big beautiful bill. You know? Who names a bill big beautiful bill? Do you ever hear of that in politics?”
Serafin noted Trump’s erractic approach to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, noting he fired him from his reality TV show, “The Apprentice” but then was later pardoned by Trump as President for his corruption conviction, noting Trump’s celebrity persona leans towards creating headlines for himself.
Hanania added, “Trump will create whatever headline brings him attention. He dumps at the moment, it was, uh, firing Rod Belgojevich. That was a big headline. And then he pardoned him. That’s a big headline. It has nothing to do with substance when it comes to Trump. It has all to do with, you know, image, perception, his view of image.”
Hanania and Serafina also discuss how journalism has changed, from focusing on news reporting to instead providing “perspective news” which is a mix of opinion and some facts, augmenting Trump’s style.
Serafin and Hanania agreed that the media has focused on the Musk-Trump feud, but not on the journalism aspect to determine “what was the real cause of the feud.”
“They only focused on the feud itself, reporting it like a reality TV episode, not a news story,” Hanania said.
Hanania explained “perspective news” as a new trend in today’s journalism, which could be contributing to the political polarization of the country into two very separate public opinionated groups.
“Journalism has been pushed away from its heyday when we had 200 reporters in a newsroom, and we could afford to have one guy work on a story for eight months. I don’t know if you remember those days at, you know, in the news business. I’d work on a story for, like, two months, and you get every fact and you get detail. Now you’re in competition with social media, which is dominated by a lot of everyday people who think they’re journalists. And they’re saying stuff and you have to get their attention,” Hanania saiid
“So a lot of the new and we have less people, you know, reporting. So there’s a lot of pressure to appeal to the audience, and they do that by inserting perspective, opinion, um, things that normally wouldn’t be in a news story or would be balanced off with facts. Now we just say, oh, this guy’s a jerk. We don’t like Trump or we don’t like Elon Musk or we don’t like Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris in the context of a news story. And, uh, and I think that’s, you know, that kind of perspective is spinning the news.”
Hanania added, “And so we really don’t get the facts the way we used to get it. So it’s hard to figure out exactly what is going on, what prompted Elon Musk to go off the pad. No. Some good journalist listen, twenty years ago, a journalist would have hit that nail on the head right away, dug into it. Why did he do that?”
Hanania said that often the media spins what Trump says to reflect their own political orientation rather than digging deeper into his actions and policies..
You can listen to the podcast by clicking this link.
ABOUT THE CRISIS CAST PODCAST
Serafin is one of the premier crisis consultants in the country and is known as “Communicator in Chief.” He is widely respected for his own journalism background and many years as a political consultant. Thom’s expertise comes from years of hands-on experience, first as a network radio correspondent covering the Illinois capital, and later in the role of press secretary for several U.S. Senate campaigns and a presidential campaign. Thom is the Founder and CEO of Serafin & Assoc. For more information on Thom, click here.
Druss doesn’t sleep. She works with clients in crisis communications, government affairs and internal/external communications strategy. Lissa is known to react quickly and work tirelessly at any time, day or night, to protect and enhance her clients’ reputation. She spent 21 years as a television journalist and is a nine-time Emmy award winner. Lissa is the Founder & CEO of Strategia Consulting. For more information on Lissa, click here.
EarSight Studios produces unique audio experiences and advises content teams on strategies for navigating change. This includes podcast development, branded audio, and organizational consulting. Founded by media innovator, Todd Manley, EarSight Studios believes in connecting brands and stories across diverse platforms. In 2004, Todd spearheaded the launch of Chicago radio’s first podcast channel: 720-To-Go… and now The Crisis Cast.
Manley is a tireless story entrepreneur. His strategies have advanced multiple heritage media brands into broad digital distribution. In 2019, Todd founded EarSight Studios following leadership roles with Chicago’s WGN Radio and WXRT. He specializes in change management and leading inventive journalists across broadcast, streaming, and on-demand platforms. Todd is Chief Content Officer for EarSight Studios For more information on Todd, click here.
ABOUT SUBURBAN CHICAGOLAND AND RAY HANANIA
Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall reporter who has lived in Orland Park since 1986. He writes for many suburban Chicagoland newspapers including The Regional News, and is the Senior US Correspondent for Arab News Newspaper, the leading English Language newspaper in the Middle East. For more information on this and other topics, or to get information on subscribing to his columns and video podcasts below,
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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