President Trump again used reality TV tropes to announce his U.S. Supreme Court pick

Deadline

Like the Neil Gorsuch announcement in January 2017, President Trump used primetime to make his selection of Brett Kavanaugh look like a reality TV reveal. The White House even tweeted a reality-style teaser less than a half an hour before the announcement. It was as if the entire event was, as Lisa de Moraes describes it, a Survivor: SCOTUS primetime special -- one that disrupted real reality TV shows like The Bachelorette. Still, Trump's reality-style announcement didn't seem as controversial this time around. Back in January 2017, says de Moraes, "Trump’s decision to summon both men to Washington, and his primetime TV special reveal seemed to shock some TV news talking heads and Supreme Court scholars not familiar with reality-TV tropes. (A year and a half later), the same reality-TV treatment for his second pick barely raised eyebrows."

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