Don't Let Them Kill You with Charisma

Feb 14, 2024

Top Story: Killing Us with Charisma

Let’s talk about charisma — or something the German sociologist Max Weber called charismatic authority.

If you are doing journalism today, it's a concept you can’t ignore since the MAGA movement — locally, statewide and nationally — has whole-heartedly embraced it, using charismatic spokespeople to spread bad, undemocratic ideas, often on your beat.

Here’s how Max Weber defined charismatic authority:

[A] certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.”

Here’s how Reporting Right defines it:

That je-ne-sais-quoi that makes Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Alex Jones, Charlie Kirk and so many other local figureheads on the Radical Right so appealing to so many.

So, what does that have to do with you?

We journalists love charismatic characters. They tend to give good quote. They make great features. The photo department likes them; and they are always the ones getting your attention.

The problem is — even when we think we are being vigilant, we too, can get blinded by all the charisma.

We forget all the bad stuff — supported the insurrection, denied the 2020 election outcome, lied a lot (Hello, Kellyanne Conway) — and focus on the personality, the jokes, the snappy outfits, the turn of phrases, and the great quotes.

We risk writing stories with light-hearted tones, that ought to be riddled with repeat warnings.

Charismatic authority is a tool. And right-wing operatives inside the dangerous MAGA movement and beyond, know that. They also know that journalists can become tools too.

So how do you cover these folks, without giving in to all the charisma?

Carefully.

Five Tips for Covering the Charismatic

Don’t get suckered by the charisma; write about it.

Focus on process:

Report on how your subject has grown their fan-base, and attracted listeners, rally-goers, and/or voters. None of this is happenstance and shedding light on the behind-the-scenes work to garner support suggests that all the charisma, is anything but divine.

Like This: NPR’s Shannon Bond on how Alex Jones came to be.

Or this: NYT profile of Mitch McConnell by Charles Homans (maybe not really a charismatic character, but the piece is so….good.)

Find the behind-the-scenes backers:

Charismatic characters pumping out MAGA talking points aren’t born, they’re made. Your readers deserve to know who birthed them and how.

Like This: Vanity Fair's Tina Nguyen on how right-wing Hollywood invented Ben Shapiro.

Get curious:

Don’t glamorize them, explore who sees them as glamorous and why.

Like This: Jeff Sharlet’s NYT Mag profile on Trump (one of the best profiles…ever.)

Tell their story:

Charismatic characters often have an ax to grind and they want to tell you what it is. But there is usually an underlying reason they are so bent out of shape about the order of things: Maybe they were abused, bullied, or hated on in school. This background can be an important bird’s eye view into how they are both vulnerable and potentially vengeful.

Like This: Tim Alberta for Politico on James O’Keefe and his life mission: to be respected.

Unpack their work with a critical eye:

Charismatic characters use the media to spread their message. Make sure you are putting their work in context, not just repeating it.

Like This: Eamon Whalen reports for Mother Jones on Candace Owens and her faux documentary about George Floyd, with whom she has limited sympathy.

We’re Watching

God and Country

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COMIC RELIEF

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Our Staff

Executive Editor Kyle Spencer

Managing Editor Christen Gall

Our Board of Advisors

Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability

David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy

Lisa Graves, founder and executive director of True North Research

Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations

Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.

Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War

Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America

Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War

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