Shortly before I headed to lovely California earlier in March, Sinclair Broadcast Group reporter Amanda Ota wrote up a long conversation we had about the White House’s social media full-court press around the nomination of Merrck Garland to the Supreme Court. Amanda really dug into the topic, covering in detail how the Obama administration has used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to:
- Highlight past statements by Republican senators that clash with what they’re saying now
- Rebut specific arguments against Merrick Garland’s nomination, including from the Left
- Provide ammunition for allies and supporters
- Fire up those allies and supporters
- Shape media commentary
Also quoted extensively in the piece: friend-of-e.politics and Georgetown prof Dave Karpf as well as Bruce Newman from DePaul University. If you’re interested in how social media plays into a modern political messaging and rapid-response war, this article is for you. It appeared on the websites of many Sinclair broadcast TV stations; here’s a link to the version published by DC’s own WJLA. Great work, Amanda!
– cpd