Made-for-TV Trump Summit Hits Polish Media in Election Fever
Made-for-TV Trump Meeting Has Polish State Media in Overdrive
(Bloomberg) -- The Polish president’s White House visit was resounding success and a turning point in the country’s history, proof that he can secure a bright future for the nation -- at least based on the coverage it got in the eastern European country’s state media.
The stories paint a picture of Andrzej Duda -- who’s running for re-election on Sunday -- having wrangled major deals on military cooperation and a prospective Covid-19 vaccine during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday. Some of the coverage includes swelling music to accompany the imagery of waving Polish flags and the two leaders shaking hands.
Duda and his allies in the ruling Law & Justice party have pulled out all the stops to gain positive coverage, especially in state-run outlets that have become part of their propaganda machine.
The coverage coincided with some harsh criticism of Poland’s public television. According to global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, it has “abandoned any pretence of being a public service broadcaster” in the run-up to the presidential election, acting almost exclusively as the mouthpiece of the government and of the president.
Critics, though, dismiss the adulating tone as ineffective and the White House visit as light on substance, even if it does show strong ties between the two countries.
The Trump administration “gave what they could give, a photo op,” Wawrzyniec Smoczynski, head of the social studies program at Warsaw-based private university SWPS, told Radio TOKFM. But “this won’t help Duda much in the election.”
Duda’s Image
The Duda-Trump buildup dominated the airwaves before the summit, which took place late in the evening Warsaw time. The highlight of Wednesday’s 40-minute main evening newscast on state-run news channel TVP was a nearly five-minute clip, interspersed with footage an earlier meeting between Duda and Trump.
Narrated like a campaign commercial, it included a testimonial from Polish Formula One driver Robert Kubica and scenes of the Polish president mingling with voters. The dramatic score is punctuated by the reporter’s potent assessment of what Duda represents: “Pride, dignity, respect, tradition and history, responsibility and credibility.”
“Shall I continue? All right, I will,” Duda tells crowds as we see him braving the elements, rain pelting his head during a rally. At the end, we cut back to an anchor visibly moved by emotion.
The incumbent, who just two months ago looked set for an easy first-round win with well over half the vote, suddenly needs all the help he can get. While he still leads all candidates, there will almost definitely be a runoff and polls show him in a knife-edge head-to-head race with Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski in the second round.
Duda’s campaign hoped that the Trump visit could provide a boost. Before the meeting, media reports raised expectations of the U.S. announcing a new permanent base in Poland being the centerpiece deal. Instead, the American leader pledged additional troops to be stationed in the country. The two sides said they were also close to an agreement that may help the country build its first nuclear power plant.
It’s unclear whether such a result will be enough to jolt a campaign stalled amid corruption scandals and rage over government officials failing to observe lockdown rules.
Recently, Duda refocused his message to cast himself as Poland’s defender from the threat of what he called LGBT ideology. The White House visit was designed to shore up his image as the nation’s protector, from enemies within and outside the nation’s borders.
State media followed that script. Newscasts ran stories on rain damage in southern Poland, showing Duda as a caring leader, in contrast with cold-hearted opposition politicians.
“If TVP is to be believed, incumbent Duda has no weaknesses while Trzaskowski is on the payroll of the biggest enemies of conservative and patriotic Poland,” RSF said in a report this week.
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