The Erosion of Democratic Checks in the Age of Social Media

Since Trump’s second inauguration, there has been a firehose of news out of the White House – and longtime adviser Steve Bannon says that’s all part of the plan.  

“It looks like chaos, but there's certain internal logic to it,” Bannon told Sarah Ellison, media and democracy reporter for The Post. “It's amazingly compelling content.”

Sarah and tech reporter Drew Harwell have been reporting on the White House’s new aggressive approach to messaging. Host Colby Itkowitz talks with Sarah about how that strategy involves sidelining legacy media in favor of newer outlets, and with Drew about how the White House is leveraging social media to attack critics and turn policy into meme-worthy moments.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Sam Bair, with help from Sean Carter. 

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