Social media has been abuzz the past few days in the midst of the latest round of salacious Trump gossip and intrigue. As this quickly seems to feel like the new normal, one familiar face has appeared on television screens around the world: Kellyanne Conway. While Trump may have an actual press secretary (tell me his name right now without Googling it), Conway is clearly the mouthpiece for the incoming administration. One particular appearance seemed to have piqued many liberals’ interest when she appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
The 13-minute clip appeared on countless social media feeds to wide praise for what many felt was Meyers’ effective takedown of Conway’s trademark ability to skirt interviwers’ questions. Vox even ran a piece praising Meyers and suggesting that this was the model all late night hosts should emulate when interviewing the soon-to-be White House counselor.
While this may be one of the better attempts at facing Conway on television, Meyers failed as badly as everyone else. In fact he failed the moment he booked her to be on the show and will fail every time he does it in the future.
By virtue of putting Conway in front of a camera you simply give her a platform to ramble on about whatever she feels like rambling about with absolutely no regard for what the person across from her is saying or asking. In this segment alone Meyers pressed her to go on record in response to the allegations of the Trump campaign being in touch with any Russian affiliates during the election. Even after calling her out on her predictable pivot, he let her ramble for a solid 45 seconds before landing on the VA at which point even Meyers seemed to forget that they were talking about Russia and simply tossed a softball about who Trump's VA secretary would be.
This is how every single interview goes with Conway. Even by cable news talking head standards she is shameless. There is not now nor will there ever be any true journalistic value in putting her on television. She exists as nothing but a megaphone for propaganda who will not respond to any journalistic norms or even direct questions. She seems to eschew the notion that she should answer ANY questions, even seemingly benign ones that pose no political threat to her boss. The message to television programmers could not be more simple: You are nothing but an outlet for the word salad I have prepared.
It is at this point that it really does feel that she needs to be put in context. Is it unusual for a talking head, even one inside the White House, to make the rounds on cable news and even late night television and evade answering tough questions? Of course not. It’s a tradition as old as cable news and the politicalization of late night television. But Conway truly does seem to break the mold. She meets every direct question with a glassy, half medicated smile and simply refuses to acknowledge that it was even asked. So much more brazen than the Karl Roves or Charles Krauthammers of the world, she appears to wait for the interviewer’s mouth to stop moving and take that as her cue to talk about whatever she planned to talk about. “Did the Trump campaign have any contact with Russia?” “You know we don’t do nearly enough for our veterans.” You could give her credit for her ability to pull off such audacious pivoting, as even Meyers does with an actual round of applause, but this is not political savvy. This is outright media manipulation. And the television media is falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
If you must use her as an access point to the Trump administration then do it in print where she can not be assured that every manipulative word that comes out of her mouth will reach impressionable ears without being fact checked and put in context. A casual Late Night viewer could easily have watched this segment and come out of it only hearing the words "Trump has already used Twitter to bring back factories from Mexico" - a statement so clearly loaded and in need of unpacking and context that Seth Meyers was in no position to handle it with only a few seconds left in the segment. And so he simply let it hang in the air for America to hear it and for some to believe.
Should we expect late night comedians to do the work of holding these people to accountability? Of course not. But if they're not up to it, and frankly I don't know if ANYBODY is up to it, then the least they can do is not give them their audience and valuable air time.