Is Trump’s ‘flood the media’ strategy working?

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With daily announcements, executive orders and press conferences from Trump’s presidency in its first fortnight, how should we be navigating the daily torrent of news? Americast examines the deliberate strategy by the White House (also used in Trump’s first presidency) to “flood the zone” with news. Justin, Anthony and Marianna discuss whether Democrats and the media should be properly scrutinising each news story, what to ignore, and whether the strategy is successfully working for President Trump?

HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America Correspondent • Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Correspondent

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This episode was made by Purvee Pattni, Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo, Claire Betzer and George Dabby. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:04.8	We're being deluge with news from the Trump White House, announcements, executive orders, press conferences, etc., etc.
0:10.5	And it's not an accident.
0:12.0	It goes back to this phrase coined by Steve Bannon, one of the key architects of Trumpism.
0:19.0	I said, all we have to do is flood the zone.
0:21.6	Every day we hit them with three things, they'll bite on one and we'll get all of our stuff
0:26.6	done.
0:27.6	Pang, bang, bang.
0:28.6	These guys will never, will never be able to recover.
0:30.6	But we've got to start with muzzle velocity.
0:33.6	So it's got to start, it's got a hammer.
0:35.6	It's got a muzzle velocity. He invented it for the first term in office, and they did it then.
0:41.4	They are doing it again now.
0:43.0	So two questions.
0:44.0	Number one, does it work?
0:45.9	Did it work last time?
0:47.0	But number two, are we doing enough to scrutinize it?
0:50.7	Does it damage our ability to tell you what is going on in the White House and in America
0:55.6	more broadly? Are we doing a good enough job? And how do we do a better one? Welcome to
1:00.5	AmeriCast. AmeriCast from BBC News. God spared my life for a reason. Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
1:14.5	A star is born, Elon.
1:16.3	I'm not just MAGA.
	...

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