When utilizing my media literacy skills in an attempt to analyze articles such as “Still Standing, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Step back in the Spotlight” by Maggie Haberman and Katie Rogers, it is important to decode the message through looking at their sources, motivation and agenda before taking their reports for facc values.
Given that the source is the NYTs is apparent that their main audience is left leaning, therefore if there is any agenda it is to discredit the Trump administration. Or more specifically they’re are making an attempt at exposing both the nepotism in the Trump administration and how Ivanka and Jared play a more central role in influencing policies and agendas despite their seemingly low profile in the past eighteen months. In addition to this one of the authors, Maggie Haberman, she won a pulitzer in 2018 for reporting on Trump’s connection with Russia, it is essential to keep all this in mind before immersing oneself in the information one is given.
The purpose of this article is to show despite the Kushner’s unpopularity in the media and with activist groups at the start of Trump’s time in office, they are still stepping back in the spotlight and continue to use their platform for political gain. Although many believed they would be the few forces that could him control the President from his impulses, the article focuses on how they fail to be moderating force on the President. However their reemergence in the public eye in cahoots with the President shows that they have adjusted to his policies and techniques and are not the saving grace that they had seemed to emulate, to their friends and the public, before Trump’s time in office.
The way in which the article holds the attention of the reader is by comparing and contrasting differing opinions within. The article begins by giving accounts of sources saying that President Trump did not want Ivanka and Jared in Washington. However the tone of the article quickly changes as more prominent sources indicate that Ivanka and Jared despite their outward distaste for the political lifestyle are more integrated than many originally believed. The article quotes Ivanka criticizing the Capital Hill lifestyle saying according to someone familiar with her thinking “Ivanka said that she did not intend to stay in the capital long enough to become one of its “political creatures” — people she feels are “so principled that they get nothing done”’. Even with that being said, the Kushner’s presence in Washington is more influential than before. They juxtapose what the Kushner’s have been heard saying at the beginning of their journey in Washington and their actions now as close advisors to the President.
The authors point to the logical conclusion of Kushner and Ivanka’s influence by using a few examples. Beginning with Kushner pushing for Kim Kardashian’s presence in the White House to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson despite Trump’s oppositional advise from his advisors. In addition where some believed Ivanka and Jared would speak out against the violence at the border stayed silent in public amid the outcry over the White House’s “zero tolerance” measures to stanch the flow of immigrants, some of them unaccompanied children, coming over the border, further proving to support Trump’s agenda
Where at the beginning of the article Jared Kushner and Trump’s relationship is questioned due to multiple sources hearing Trump claim he “could’ve had Tom Brady as a son-in-law…but inside got Jared”, despite this Kushner’s loyalty to the President seems to surpass these distasteful remarks. Kushner has spoken about “clearing the republican party of any lingering resistance” He has privately said that he has been taking action against “incompetence” and that any tensions are a result of fighting for his father-in-law’s best interests. The authors go on to use some direct quotes from Kushner himself: “those who have tried to undermine the president have found me to be an obstacle.”
The authors use both sources from high expertise such as Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, Hilary Rosen, democratic strategist, and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, which present arguments both in support and criticism of the Kushner’s actions, to present a more unbiased basis for their claims. In addition they also use sources such as unnamed White House aides, close friends, and unnamed advisors to provide a higher proximity to the information yet a lower level of expertise. Their diversity of sources gives the article and its conclusion more credibility, than it would otherwise have if their sources were mainly one narrative.
This article is clearly written for left leaning readers and therefore those who intensely disagree with the agenda of the Trump administration will most likely condemn the actions of both Ivanka and Jared. However those who are right leaning will possibly see this as an attempt to paint the Trump administration as corrupt with the increased involvement of family members in the cabinet. Whereas some may find this article informative and responsible journalism others may see it as another way of discrediting the Trump administration.
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