Ready or Not, Hillary Clinton, Newest Newsie Coming Down the Pike

“The yet-to-be-titled show will be co-produced by audio giant iHeartMedia, which produces original content such as Will Ferrell’s “The Ron Burgundy Podcast,” and, through iHeartRadio, is also a major distributor for the biggest names in conservative talk radio. (Politico) “They include a who’s who of right-wing commentators who have pilloried Clinton and her family over the years: Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro, and Sean Hannity.”

“But it was Clinton’s recent experience with two other famous interviewers that influenced the kind of show she wanted to create. Last fall, Clinton and her daughter Chelsea recorded an episode of Conan O’Brien’s audio show, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” They were promoting The Book of Gutsy Women, their co-authored collection of stories about women who have inspired them. (Politico)

“She wants to try to have a wider-ranging conversation that will be lasting, so you can listen to it in a year or you can listen to it tomorrow and it will be interesting. And then of course she’ll do some ranting and raving about news of the day.”

“The other radio personality who influenced the format and style of the new Hillary Clinton show was even more unusual: Howard Stern. “Clinton had avoided Stern for decades when she was in the White House, Senate, Obama administration and as a presidential candidate. She finally agreed to appear on Stern’s show late last year during her promotional book tour. It was scheduled to be an hourlong session, but Clinton quickly succumbed to Stern’s well-known skills at getting his guests to open up with a mix of flattery, empathy and emotional mirroring. "Stern and Clinton ended up recording for almost 2½ hours, producing Stern’s longest interview for a non-musician in the show’s history. “Clinton was unfiltered.” “She joked that she “likes men” despite “what you may have heard,” discussed how Sen. Lindsey Graham may have suffered a “brain snatch,” complained that Bernie Sanders’ delayed endorsement in 2016 “hurt me,” and recalled that, when she phoned Trump to concede the election, “he was so shocked he could barely talk.” “There is some irony that Clinton has gravitated to doing a podcast. As Stern repeatedly shows, what makes for a great interview is when a subject opens up and offers windows into character, motivation, relationships — the very things that Clinton the candidate was often unwilling to do. Her guardedness led critics to regard her as “inauthentic,” which arguably harmed her two presidential campaigns. “Overall the project is guided by the spirit of Clinton’s recent media blitz: the Stern podcast, a recent podcast with David Plouffe in which she suggested that Tulsi Gabbard was being groomed by the Russians, and an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote a new Hulu documentary series in which she says of Sanders, “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done.” “The show also continues the trend of former major political leaders, especially Democrats, becoming media entrepreneurs. After he lost the 2000 election, Al Gore created his own TV network and starred in an important documentary about climate change. Upon leaving office, the Obamas created Higher Ground, a multimedia production company whose first documentary, “American Factory,” just won an Oscar. If Trump had lost in 2016, he was reportedly prepared to start his own conservative media organization.”

“Another focus of the show for Clinton is to use the podcast to share good news about problems that are actually being solved rather than produce yet another regular conversation strictly about how the world is going to hell.” (Politico)

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