Reporters at The Washington Postnoted that Donald Trump has a history of calling reporters under the guise of phantom spokespersons named John Barron and John Miller. He uses the guise to share the wonderful things he's been up to, or depending on how you look at it, to spin his bad press into something more golden, especially his relationships with women he believes are attracted to him.
If these allegations are true, it's troubling on many fronts, including his use of the press and women to promote his business interests. But it sounds like some in the press suspected his disguise and quoted his "spokesperson" anyway. What is the media's role in this?
Also this hour: President Obama told a journalism student from Rutger's this past week suggested we make Election Day a national holiday. This could be a hard sell in a country where each individual state controls their own election rules.
But this isn't the only way to make it easier for citizens to vote. Some states are experimenting with same-day registration, mail-in voting, extended-day voting, and online voting. All of these efforts would certainly increase voter participation. Right? Michael Lind might disagree. None of it will matter if people don't think their vote matters.
GUESTS:
- Marc Fisher - Senior editorat The Washington Post; author with Michael Kranish of Trump Revealed forthcoming on August 23
- Ben Mathis-Lilley - Edits “The Slatest” for Slate
- David Pogue- Founder of Yahoo Tech, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and host of science shows on PBS’s NOVA; correspondent for “CBS Sunday Morning”
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Colin McEnroe, Chion Wolf, and Greg Hill contributed to this show.
