"Sometimes the most interesting thing is the person saying the thing they did not mean anyone to notice. It was always thus with Brexit. Time was when a press conference was a relatively rare event. Called only after diplomatic summits or when there was an important piece of news to be announced. Now, though, the format has been so downgraded it is being used for when any politician needs some attention. When the feeling that no one is listening to them becomes unbearable."
"It was Nigel Farage who started the current trend, with his weekly Monday Mornings with Nige shows during the summer. But since then, Kemi Badenoch has been suffering from severe Fomo. If she switches on the news channel and finds someone other than her talking, she has an existential crisis. She is yet to work out a way to be watching herself on TV and appearing on it at the same time. That would be her nirvana. Inner peace."
Press conferences have shifted from rare diplomatic events to routine spectacles used whenever politicians seek attention. The trend toward frequent pressers diminishes their impact and wastes reporters' and the public's time. Nigel Farage helped normalize regular broadcast-style appearances, and Kemi Badenoch now embodies a compulsion to be constantly visible, driven by FOMO. Low turnout at some events underlines public indifference and the inefficiency of on-camera grandstanding. A leader polling poorly risks appearing hubristic by overcommunicating instead of waiting for meaningful moments. Many announcements would be more appropriate and less performative as simple press releases.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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