Opinion: New era of political campaigning?

I recently watched a three-hour Joe Rogan podcast where he interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his views on COVID, why he wanted to run for president and a variety of other topics.

One of the interesting points that RFK raised was how political campaigning has changed over the years.

Kennedy made the point that Franklin D. Roosevelt brought radio into the arena with his “Fireside Chats.” Kennedy’s uncle John F. Kennedy carried television fully into the political wars with the Kennedy-Nixon debates. Donald Trump used Twitter masterfully during his presidency, and in Kennedy’s view the new media of choice would be the long form interview on podcasts.

I agree with him.

When you see candidates on television, for instance on the Big-4 Sunday shows generally considered the pinnacle of the genre, one thing you will get for sure is a commercial break every few minutes. This does several things. For one, it allows the politician time to thank the interviewer for the question and pontificate on why the topic is so important to the voting public as a “dinner table” issue. This will generally leave time for the ubiquitous “sound bite.”

“It’s the economy, stupid,” comes to mind.

This format seems almost designed to give a limited amount of information while leaving you with the impression that you have seen the candidate interviewed.

I’m not necessarily a huge Rogan fan. His guest list doesn’t appeal to me, but when he has someone like Kennedy for politics or Dr. Robert Malone, who is a virologist and immunologist, on to discuss COVID or Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, the three-hour discussion format can be riveting.

Rogan’s interview technique comes across more or less like a bull session between two friends having a beer or a cup of coffee. If you think this is easy, get a friend in a room and talk to him, with no dead air time, for three hours.

Rogan isn’t the only podcaster doing this kind of thing, but he is probably the best known, with an estimated audience of 11 million per episode. If you don’t like Rogan, find a podcaster you like with a long format interview and follow them.

Could Donald Trump, or Joe Biden, or Nancy Pelosi, or Chuck Schumer, or Mitch McConnell, sit for a three-hour interview? I would like the opportunity to find out.

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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