As readers of Daily Kos are certainly familiar with, Donald Trump and his administration are experts at dodging (or at least, trying to dodge) reasonable, important questions from journalists. Whether it’s about the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump’s tax records, denouncing white supremacy, or taking accountability for hateful rhetoric, we have countless examples of Trump and his lackeys sidestepping questions from media during interviews. If you’ve ever watched a video and thought, Why in the world can’t this be challenged, right now, on-air?, you’re probably going to enjoy this clip of New Zealand journalist Tova O’Brien, an anchor on Newshub New Zealand. One particular gem? “I don’t want to hear any of that rubbish.” Maybe O’Brien should moderate our presidential debates?
Here is the four-minute clip that is unsurprisingly going viral even among Americans on Twitter, as well as some context on New Zealand’s recent election.
“You want to have another crack at answering that?” O’Brien, political news editor at Newshub, says when Jami-Lee Ross, Advance NZ co-leader, sidesteps her opening question. She then describes him as being part of a political movement involved in “peddling misinformation during the election campaign.”
Some quick background on politics in New Zealand: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern just had a major victory in the country’s election, earning her a second term. Advance NZ, which, according to Ross, got less than 1% of the vote, has reportedly made incorrect claims about a vaccine, including suggesting that the government pushed a law to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory in the country. Just before the election, Facebook removed two posts from the party’s Facebook page, as reported by Indy 100.
When they get to COVID-19 and related misinformation in the interview, O’Brien says, “You knew exactly what you were doing. You were whipping up fear and hysteria among vulnerable communities.”
“Not at all,” he replied. He acknowledged COVID-19 as a real virus and appeared to begin to talk about fatality rates of COVID-19 compared to that of other viruses, like the seasonal flu, and O’Brien said she was going to stop him right there.
“I don’t want to hear any of that rubbish,” she said. “If you’re going to come on the show and say things which are factually incorrect, I can’t do that.”
It’s also worth noting that while some Twitter users and commenters characterized this interview as hostile, rude, and aggressive, if a man was doing the interview, it may very well be described as firm, prepared, and no-nonsense. Some comments also describe the dialogue as involving yelling and fighting, but both parties appear calm and professional, even while disagreeing.
This is far from the first time we’ve talked about the importance of media members speaking plainly and calling out injustices. A new working paper found a significant relationship between Trump’s claims about mail-in voting and fraud, for example, and the concerning number of people worked up about the subject (which, in reality, is a hysterical obsession of Trump’s) because of its major media coverage. We’ve heard anchors call out the Trump administration for reportedly muzzling members of the coronavirus task force, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, when it comes to media interviews. On that day, instead of Fauci, we got to hear from Eric Trump, who took the time to rant about antifa instead of the literal global pandemic still raging in our nation.
Of course, people being interviewed also have an opportunity to flip the script. You might remember tennis superstar Naomi Osaka using her international platform to raise awareness for Black Lives Matter and racial injustice by wearing face masks with the names of Black Americans killed by police, including Breonna Taylor and Elijah McCain. When a journalist asked her what message she hoped to send with her masks, she spun the question on him, saying “Well, ‘What was the message you got?’... is more the question. I feel like the point is to make people start talking.”
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