Feels like enshittification is now hitting our main wire service. AP is not (or at least never has been) in the business of bitching that something already being floated by reliable sources Thursday is A) a surprise; and B) left them scrambling for art alongside video outlets. And the angle certainly isn’t “It’s a Sunday in summer.”
I know what scrambling for art looks like when the entirety of your filers are physical and need to be scanned again. But this is not 1998, and falling down the rabbit hole of believing you need video for a major newsbreak makes me wonder just how many rounds of buyouts they’ve done that this is the public-facing reaction.
It’s a stupid stance, ignoring the utter unprofessional nature of the piece. Y’all are supposed to be providing outlets with what they need, not handwringing that everyone was blindsided. That’s demonstrably false, so bitch in the newsroom, do a bit of swearing, and then put out competent copy.
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After a week saturated with the endlessly repeated and parsed video of former President Donald Trump being shot at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, and the carefully choreographed four-day television show of the Republican National Convention that followed it, here was a dramatic news story that lacked the visual element in almost every way.
Because it was a summer Sunday afternoon, TV news’ first string wasn’t immediately available, giving opportunities to ABC’s Rachel Scott, CBS’ Kristine Johnson and NBC’s Hallie Jackson to anchor the initial reports.
Biden’s former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was in a studio after finishing her Sunday show, which put her in place to break the news about her former boss.
The networks quickly pivoted to talking about a Harris-Trump general election matchup, even before Harris announced — again, via a printed statement — about two hours after Biden’s endorsement that she would be a candidate.
That was a complete surprise, compared to the seemingly endless discussion that absorbed the political world during the past three weeks about whether the 81-year-old Biden could effectively continue as a candidate following his disastrous performance in a June 27 debate against Trump.
But Biden had repeatedly and emphatically insisted he was staying in the race, and the Sunday morning political talk shows featured surrogates pushing that line.
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