- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
- Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears
- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- Rodgers rejects 'false' suggestions of role in Saleh dismissal
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
- US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
- Musk's X returns in Brazil after 40-day showdown with judge
- Call her savvy? Harris unleashes unconventional media blitz
- Lucian Freud 'masterpiece' fetches £13.9 million at London sale
- SoFi Stadium to hold next two CONCACAF Nations League finals
- McIlroy and DeChambeau set for PGA-LIV 'Showdown' in Vegas
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Run blitz edges India and South Africa closer to World Cup semi-finals
- Zelensky to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Israel captain says 'difficult' to focus on football in time of war
- Macron to host Ukraine's Zelensky after meeting Ukrainian troops
- Root says 'many more to get' after England Test runs landmark
- India pile up World Cup high to rout Sri Lanka
- One year later, Israeli hostage family learns of loss
- Texans receiver Collins, Pats' safety Peppers out for NFL clash
- Biden-Netanyahu talk as Hezbollah, Israeli forces clash
- Musk's X available again in Brazil after 40-day ban
- Reddy stars as India crush Bangladesh to clinch T20 series
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- Arch rivals Ghana, Nigeria drawn together in CHAN qualifying
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Trump lauds India's Modi as 'total killer'
- Wall Street, Europe rise as Chinese shares tumble
- Hunkering down for Hurricane Milton at Disney -- but first, a few rides
- Reddy, Rinku power India to 221-9 in second Bangladesh T20
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Time running out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- The long walk for water in the parched Colombian Amazon
Call her savvy? Harris unleashes unconventional media blitz
She loves raisin bran and exercise, and is as comfortable talking about abortion as she is about beer. Meet Kamala Harris -- or at least a rather different side that emerged in an unconventional US media blitz this week.
After weeks of largely avoiding interviews since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris has taken a leaf out of rival Donald Trump's playbook and started speaking to a host of podcasters and friendly outlets.
From the popular "Call Her Daddy" podcast aimed at Gen-Z women to former radio "shock jock" Howard Stern, the 59-year-old vice president has barely been off the airwaves.
It's true that Harris did also sit down for a full-on interview on topics with one of the biggest US news institutions of all, the "60 Minutes" show on CBS — one that Trump himself backed out of.
But it was in less formal settings, which also included Hollywood star Whoopi Goldberg's daytime show "The View" and with the late-night comic Stephen Colbert, where Harris appeared to relish a more relaxed atmosphere.
Her campaign has heavily played up what it says is a way of targeting specific groups of voters, including young people and women, especially as Americans increasingly abandon "legacy" media.
"This plan makes a ton of sense to me," former White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told the left-leaning MSNBC network -- rejecting as sour grapes the complaints by some traditional media that Harris would face softball questions.
- 'Daddy gang' -
Psaki highlighted Harris's appearance on podcaster Alexandra Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" show, which features frank discussions on sex and mental health, saying it was "far more valuable than any interview with a more traditional outlet."
The podcast was ranked as Spotify's second-biggest of 2023, behind "The Joe Rogan Experience," and the top podcast for women listeners.
Harris's interview with the podcast was a prime example of a more at-ease side of America's first Black, female and South Asian vice president, who has often appeared tense in major interviews.
Asked by Cooper to "tell the daddy gang" about her views, Harris spoke at length on protecting abortion rights and slammed Republican Trump for his sexist comments, saying it was "really important not to let other people define you."
Predictably in a deeply polarized America, there was some backlash against the host, including from listeners who criticized her for bringing politics into the show.
Trump has had similar success with unconventional media, reaching out to a core constituency of disaffected young men with macho messaging on influential right-wing podcasts -- and through an interview and campaign appearances with tech titan Elon Musk.
But Harris has been keen to show she has her own mediasphere on the left.
Former bad-boy Howard Stern hailed Harris on his SiriusXM show on Tuesday as "great" and "compassionate" and urged her to "end this nightmare" by beating Trump -- while Harris spoke about her fondness for raisin bran cereal and exercises while watching a left-leaning morning political show, and how she is a fan of Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
- 'Softball questions' -
Trump hit back the next day. "BETA MALE Howard Stern made a fool of himself on his low rated radio show when he "interviewed" Lyin' Kamala Harris, and hit her with so many SOFTBALL questions that even she was embarrassed," he said on his Truth Social network.
But Harris faced multiple probing questions on her blitz. Colbert, with whom she shared a Miller High Life beer, pushed her repeatedly on Israel's war in Gaza, while Republicans pounced on Harris for saying on ABC's "The View" that there was "not a thing that comes to mind" that she'd change about President Joe Biden's policies.
Kenneth Miller, a political science expert of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said non-traditional media were increasingly a better way to get policy across to voters.
"Frankly, traditional outlets ask bad questions," he told AFP.
He said Trump and Harris were doing similar things for different reasons.
"Trump is about seeking out friendly outlets," he said, whereas "Harris is about seeking outlets that give her access to the voters that she needs" including under-50s and independents.
"It's a style of media that candidates enjoy," he added.
Two strangely similar remarks by Trump and Harris on Tuesday seemed to bear that out in the middle of a punishing campaign.
"This is my form of therapy, right now," Harris told Stern, just hours before Trump said on a Los Angeles radio station: "You know what this is for me? Therapy."
B.Shevchenko--BTB