The Washington Post Associate Editor and political columnist Karen Tumulty spoke at the Kelly Writers House on Nov. 13 to analyze the outcome of the 2024 presidential election and the current state of political journalism.
Tumulty discussed the changing role of journalism in the political media landscape — including the rise of unconventional information sources like TikTok and other social media platforms — and the factors that she believes contributed to president-elect and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump’s victory. She was joined for the fireside chat by professor Dick Polman, who acted as the moderator, and an audience of about 35 attendees.
Among eight Post columnists who made predictions about the election outcome, Tumulty was one of four who predicted that Trump would win the 2024 election. She cited low approval ratings for the Biden administration, a greater proportion of Americans identifying as Republicans, and increased Republican voter registration in Pennsylvania as obstacles to a Harris victory.
She addressed how traditional journalism is being forced to adapt in an era of media distrust and the increasing popularity of social media as a news source.
“People come to traditional media expecting their preconceptions to be reinforced and get mad if they’re not,” she said. “I am concerned. But the fact is, they’re in their silos.”
Tumulty, a former member of the Post’s editorial board, also addressed the controversy surrounding Jeff Bezos blocking the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris — the first time the newspaper had declined to endorse a candidate since 1988.
She said that, in her view, Bezos made the wrong decision. However, she added that Bezos "had been a remarkably hands-off owner on the journalistic content of the newspaper” until the endorsement controversy. Tumulty said that she doesn’t believe the endorsement would’ve made much of a difference in the election due to the diminishing role of mainstream media, adding that editorial boards could soon be “a thing of the past.”
For Tumulty, the real problem surrounding the non-endorsement in a time of a changing media landscape was the loss of more than 250,000 subscribers that followed.
“The reason subscriptions matter more than they ever have is the challenge of the business model these days,” she said.
She explained that the greater availability of free media eliminates two of the Post’s three main revenue sources — advertisements and online searches — leaving subscriptions as the sole source of income.
“Reporters are still going to need the resources to do the work that the people who are angry out there about the editorial are going to want them to do,” Polman agreed, acknowledging that without subscriptions, newspapers would have a difficult time funding their reporting.
Tumulty also gave her views on the 2024 election in a question and answer session with attendees, acknowledging the persistent unpredictability of covering a Trump administration.
“I am so scared of answering any question that begins with ‘how likely is Trump to …’” she joked in response to a question regarding the likelihood that Trump’s tariff plan could be executed.
She shared anecdotes from her time covering the first Trump administration with the Post, calling the president-elect the “most [media] accessible president ever.”
Tumulty told a story about one of her Washington Post colleagues, Robert Costa, who went to the White House to check in with someone at the communications office. However, after hearing that Costa was in the building, Trump invited him to come directly to the Oval Office.
“And that was sort of like the way Trump was,” she said. “I haven’t interviewed him that many times, but it was remarkable.”
College senior Elizabeth Collins, a communications major who had previously met Tumulty, said that she appreciated Tumulty’s insights about political media and the election.
“I met [Tumulty] at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this summer because I was there on behalf of a class … and she spoke, and I really liked her,” Collins said. “I think [the event] was a really nice complement to what she spoke about this summer at the RNC, and it was nice to hear her thoughts in a post-election world.”
Tumulty — whose roles have included the Post’s deputy editorial page editor and national political correspondent throughout her almost 50-year journalism career — said that her perspective of the election was ultimately rooted in what she’d seen firsthand working as a columnist by “talking to people and putting pieces together.”
“The very best opinion writing begins with reporting,” she told The Daily Pennsylvanian after the event. “You go out and report the whole landscape, and then you decide what the big conclusion is to draw from that.”
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