CHICAGO – A Venn diagram of people who are deeply involved in politics and deeply engaged with news media usually creates a pretty big middle circle.
The Democratic National Convention, unfolding this week in Chicago, has made news this time around with its warm embrace of social media creators and influencers. But a lightning-round sample 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’m doing, I can always get CNN,” Dee Bailey, a delegate from New York, told Variety from the convention floor on Wednesday evening.
Dee Bailey and Carmen Martinez of the New York delegation
Carmen Martinez, another New York delegate, said her go-to is New York 1, the all-news cable outlet owned by Charter Communications. “We’re community activists. We stay on top of everything that’s happening,” she said.
More surprising, delegates who spoke to Variety during our 30-minute window to roam the floor of the United Center said they had no major beefs with the quality of the media coverage they consume. That flies in the face of surveys indicating that public trust in mainstream news media sources has reached record lows amid partisanship, fragmentation and segmentation of viewpoints that is encouraged by social media and online media.
Raven Lyons, a young woman from Jefferson Parish in Louisiana who is pursuing a career in politics, says she still gets most of her news from mainstream outlets via digital and TV. But she makes a point of doing her own research.
“A lot of people criticize the media and say it’s not accurate. I think they do a good job,” she said. “It’s their job to find information and spread information; it’s our job to fact-check. It’s our job to make sure that the sources that we utilize are in fact credible sources.”
Bailey does have concerns about the quality of local news that she can access. “In terms of our areas, we don’t get that kind of coverage,” she said. “We definitely do not get all of what we need in order to empower us to do that work that we need to do.”
Mark Robert Gordon, an actor and writer and member of the Arizona delegation, reeled off The Washington Post, The New York Times, Arizona Republic, Playbill, ESPN, and, of course, Variety, as among his daily must-reads for news. His biggest concern is not the veracity of reporting but the deeper divisions nationwide that are growing at a time when red and blue states struggle to agree on basic truths about the impact of legislation and other issues.
“We need to have the same set of facts again,” said Gordon, who works largely in theater and had a recurring role on “Guiding Light” in the 1990s. “We can have our opinions to express about those facts, but people are going to their own chosen sources for news. So you’d better have a variety of sources in order to get a balance.”
Jevon Price, a California delegate from Tulare County in the central part of the Golden State, said he get a lot of immediate news from social media. He balances that info stream with traditional standard-bearers such as Washington Post, New York Times and BBC.
“I do watch a lot of TikTok and Instagram,” Price admitted. “I try to stay off Facebook.”
Many state delegates are local politicians as well. Nikki Antonio, minority leader in the Ohio state senate, came to Chicago with her fellow salon Meredith Turner, a council member for Cuyahoga County in the Buckeye State.
Antonio echoed the sentiments of Price and others by asserting that she discounts the validity of most things she reads on social media until she confirms it with a more trusted source.
“I read clips from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and then some of the Ohio specific media: The Columbus Dispatch, Cleveland.com,” she said. “When I want to know where the gossip is or what’s flashing [as news], that’s when I look at Twitter, or X, but I, but I don’t trust anything I read there.”
Antonio added that specificity of coverage and point of view is important to her.
“I do specific kinds of reading about progressive issues and LGBTQ-specific issues because I’m part of that community,” she said. “More and more, little snippets of stuff are pushed to me, and then I have the advantage of going to read about it in more depth.”
Turner joked that when she wants to understand anything going on in the news, her first move is to “call Nikki.” She cited Cleveland.com and the digital sites for 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 paper.”
Variety’s whirlwind interviews on the convention floor were not entirely focused on hard-nosed questions about trust in media and changes in news consumption. We asked important questions such as: Who should play Kamala Harris in the inevitable biopic? What artists should be tapped to perform at the inauguaration should the Harris go 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 mostly predictable. Kerry Washington is the consensus choice to portray Harris. “She has the power and the passion,” Gordon observed. Lyons admitted she can never remember actor names but feels confident “there are a number of great actresses who could convey her story.”
As for artists at the inauguration, Beyonce and Taylor Swift were definitely consensus choices.
Bailey suggested the Isley Brothers and John Legend. Antonio, who recalled the electrifying performance by Bruce Springsteen at Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, is rooting for Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
And finally, the shows.
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 checking out the reboot. Antonio acknowledged that she is 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 the conventional wisdom that younger viewers don’t watch linear TV with her choice: 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 awesome.”