The “PBS News Hour” team had just arrived in Milwaukee on Saturday when the shooting at a Donald Trump rally took place, forcing the broadcast’s team to immediately switch gears. Speaking on Monday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour — from their hotel rooms at the Republican National Convention, via Zoom — “PBS News Hour” co-anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett said they “jumped in and covered it like any other breaking news story.”
“This, of course, being one of the most consequential breaking news stories,” Nawaz said. “Not exactly the way we thought we’d be kicking off coverage here at the RNC. But news happens and that’s what we do.”
Nawaz said packages and other things were completely readjusted after the news. “We’re not afraid to change plans,” she said. “We have a plan going into everything. There were plans for taped pieces, for example, coming in to the RNC about the kinds of narratives and stories we could be telling on the sidelines. Those plans were all in place. Those plans went out the window when the assassination attempt on former President Trump happened.”
Bennett added that he doesn’t think the news of the weekend changes the news organization’s overall approach. “Of course, the questions and the way that we frame the interviews are influenced by the news,” he said. “So, one of the questions is, how does this assassination attempt change the approach of this convention? The former president has said that he wants to focus on unity. Well, what does that look like this week and beyond? That, of course, will be the real test. But the fundamentals of how we cover the news, that hasn’t changed at all.”
Asked about what mistakes the media will likely make this week as the RNC gets underway, Nawaz warned against getting too far ahead of still-unfolding stories.
“A few days ago, I think the big story was clearly the future of the Democratic ticket. And as you’ve seen, in the last 48 hours alone, that story has really faded into the background — largely because Democrats themselves have stopped coming forward in the ways that they were to call for their own presumptive nominee to step down,” she said. “This is where the news is right now. I think it would be a mistake for any of us to get ahead of it, trying to predict what happens next, or how [the assassination attempt] influences the race. We have no idea yet. So we’re just trying to keep up with things as they come out.
“Every other hour, there’s a piece of news,” she added. “We now have the first indication of how long former President Trump will be able to stick to the message of unity and tamping down the political rhetoric. He is already on Truth Social calling January 6 a hoax and decrying all the investigations against him as political. And so I think there’s a sense that things are shifting in real time.”
Asked whether PBS NewsHour has covered the potential impact of the “Project 2025” plan to reshape the country, Bennett said the news org has looked at the 900-page governance plan, “what it would actually mean if Donald Trump were elected, and decided to implement some of what is in it. In recent days, he’s tried to distance himself from it, even though people who have been linked to his campaign, people who’ve worked in his administration, helped coordinate and craft it.”
As for concerns that the media has covered the issue of President Biden’s age, but not Trump’s, Nawaz said, “I think right now, the question and the conversation is as much about perception of age as it is actually about age. And what we’ve seen show up again and again in terms of different voting blocks’ concerns is that there is generally more concern about President Biden’s age than there is for President Trump’s age. And so we cover it through that lens, which is to say, ‘this is the kind of concern people have, what should we know about it?’”
Bennett said there’s a thick layer of metal fencing within a mile of the RNC venue. “Security is tight,” he said. “But the delegates, the Republican officials, the few of them who are here so far, they are excited to be here. They feel good about their their prospects come November. They are, I think it’s fair to say, relieved that President Trump was not more severely injured. And I guess we’ll see what happens between this afternoon and this evening, when [Trump] is expected to announce his his VP pick.”
As for an ongoing animosity toward the free press — particularly among Trump supporters — “we are living in trying times, and people often make assumptions of bias where there are none,” Bennett said. “And so that’s why we as journalists have a job to do too. We have to be more transparent as ever, about how we do the work that we do. In some cases, how we source our stories. And sort of disabusing people of this notion that we have a dog in the race — especially when it comes to covering politics.”
PBS News Hour rebranded as PBS News last month across its digital and social platforms, leaving the title “PBS News Hour” as the focus for its weekday news broadcast. The org also unveiled new studios out of its Arlington, Va., headquarters. Besides “PBS News Hour,” PBS News programming includes “PBS News Weekend” and “Washington Week with The Atlantic.”
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