CHICAGO – A Venn diagram of people deeply involved in politics and heavily involved in the news media usually creates a fairly large center circle.
The Democratic National Convention, taking place in Chicago this week, has made headlines this time with its warm embrace of social media creators and influencers. But a lightning-quick sampling of randomly selected delegates from five states — Arizona, California, Louisiana, New York and Ohio — found that The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and other mainstream news outlets are still more than holding their own with voracious consumers of political news and analysis.
“I’m a CNN junkie. No matter what I do, I can always reach CNN,” said Dee Bailey, a representative from New York Variety from the convention floor on Wednesday evening.
Dee Bailey and Carmen Martinez from the New York delegation
Carmen Martinez, another delegate from New York, said her favorite destination is New York 1, Charter Communications’ news channel. “We are community activists. We stay informed of everything that happens,” she says.
Even more surprising were the delegates who spoke Variety During our 30-minute walking tour, the floor of the United Center said they had no major problems with the quality of media coverage they consume. That goes against the research that shows this Public trust in mainstream news media sources has reached record lows amid partisanship, fragmentation and segmentation of views encouraged by social media and online media.
Raven Lyons, a young woman from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana who is pursuing a career in politics, says she still gets most of her news from mainstream media and TV. But she makes it a point to do her own research.
“Many people criticize the media and say it is wrong. I think they are doing a good job,” she says. “Their job is to find information and disseminate information; our job is to check the facts. It is our job to ensure that the sources we use are actually credible sources.”
Bailey is concerned about the quality of local news she has access to. “We don’t get that kind of coverage in our areas,” she said. “We’re definitely not getting everything we need to enable us to do the work we need to do.”
Mark Robert Gordon, an actor and writer and member of the Arizona delegation, was featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Arizona Republic, Playbill, ESPN and of course Variety, as one of his daily must-reads for news. His biggest concern is not the veracity of the reporting, but the deeper divisions across the country that are growing at a time when red and blue states are struggling to agree on basic truths about the impact of legislation and other issues.
“We need to have the same facts again,” said Gordon, who works largely in theater and had a recurring role on “Guiding Light” in the 1990s. “We can give our opinion about those facts, but people go to their own chosen sources for news. So it is better to have different sources to achieve a balance.”
Jevon Price, a California representative from Tulare County in the central part of the Golden State, said he gets a lot of instant news from social media. He balances that information flow with traditional standard bearers such as the Washington Post, New York Times and BBC.
“I watch a lot of TikTok and Instagram,” Price admitted. “I try to stay off Facebook.”
Many state delegates are also local politicians. Ohio State Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio came to Chicago with fellow Salon Meredith Turner, a councilwoman for Cuyahoga County, Buckeye State.
Antonio echoed the sentiments of Price and others in claiming that she ignores the validity of most things she reads on social media until she confirms it with a more trusted source.
“I read excerpts from The New York Times, The Washington Post and some specific Ohio media: The Columbus Dispatch, Cleveland.com,” she said. ‘If I want to know where the gossip is or what’s happening [as news]then I look at Twitter, or X, but I, but I don’t trust anything I read there.”
Antonio added that the specificity of the reporting and point of view is important to her.
“I read specific types of books about progressive issues and LGBTQ-specific issues because I’m part of that community,” she said. “More and more often, little fragments of things come to my attention, and then I have the advantage of reading about them in more depth.”
Turner joked that when she wants to understand something happening in the news, her first step is to “call Nikki.” She cited Cleveland.com and the digital sites of the Plain Dealer and Crain’s Cleveland Business. “I definitely get my news from the Internet,” Turner said. “I can’t remember the last time I had a physical piece of paper.”
Variety‘s dazzling interviews on the conference floor were not entirely focused on hard questions about trust in the media and changes in news consumption. We asked important questions like: Who should play Kamala Harris in the inevitable biopic? Which artists should be invited to perform at the inauguration if the Harris goes all the way in November? And of course, what are their favorite TV shows these days – especially guilty pleasures and recent binges.
The answers were largely predictable. Kerry Washington is the consensus choice to play Harris. “She has the strength and the passion,” Gordon noted. Lyons admitted that she can never remember actors’ names, but is confident that “there are some great actresses who can convey her story.”
As far as performers at the inauguration go, Beyonce and Taylor Swift were definitely consensus choices.
Bailey suggested the Isley Brothers and John Legend. Antonio, who remembered Bruce Springsteen’s electrifying performance at Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, supports Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
And finally the performances.
Bailey is a big fan of Netflix and streamer BET+. Price said he and his wife just rewatched the original “Frasier” series and are considering a reboot. Antonio acknowledged that she was late to the party, but recently went deep on the Shondaland ABC dramas “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder.”
Bailey is a big fan of Netflix and streamer BET+. Gordon is big on FX’s “The Bear,” in part because he has collaborated on theater projects with co-star Liza Colón-Zayas, who is up for an Emmy for her work on the show.
Lyons defied conventional wisdom that younger viewers don’t watch linear TV with her pick: CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
“It’s the combination of satire and his humor that drives me to his show,” she said. “And his band is great.”
