Online. Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95184619058

IN THE CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE, discussions of the media have often boiled down to a matter of truth vs. deceit and fake vs. real. Even within the bounds of truth, however, the media has a wide latitude to emphasize or ignore stories based on their emotional appeal to sought-after audiences. In a discussion with CNN Political Commentator and Lincoln Project Senior Advisor TARA SETMAYER, members of the Penn Political Union explore the role of “media sensationalism” in setting the political agenda and unleashing partisan passions during the Trump presidency, the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer of Black Lives Matter protests, and the long electoral season leading up to November 2020.

TARA SETMAYER is currently a CNN Political Commentator, Contributor to ABC News and former GOP Communications Director on Capitol Hill. She has appeared on ABC's The View, ABC's Good Morning America, and on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. Setmayer was named as a Harvard Institute of Politics Spring 2020 Resident Fellow. She has joined The Lincoln Project as a Senior Advisor. In 2017, Setmayer was named as a board director for Stand Up Republic, a non profit organization formed in the wake of the 2016 election of Donald Trump to unite Americans behind the defense of democratic norms, ideals and institutions.