We’re accustomed to newsmakers who stay on message – folks who have one point to make and many different approaches to make that single point. This hedgehog messaging, communicating one thing well, has turned many news interviews into a verbal game of “Simon Says” where the journalist’s sole purpose is to maneuver guests into saying things they didn’t mean to say.
But what if the newsmaker turns this game on its head? Suppose an interviewee has dozens of points to make, and a single approach to making them all? That would be birdshot messaging, and Donald Trump is a master.
Birdshot messages are volleys of independent fact statements spoken at once.
Independent, meaning we are not making a logical argument with these facts, we’re just “putting them out there.” It is critical that the facts not depend on each other so that the refutation of one does not lead to the refutation of all.
They are spoken at once to assert as many facts as possible before being interrupted. Your interlocutor is able to rebut one fact at a time, and after that one refutation it’s your turn to speak again. Salvo, single rebuttal, salvo, single rebuttal, etc.
Here’s Trump interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper on June 3. How many unanswered assertions does Trump make?
Birdshot messaging is a fallacious tactic, outside the realm of rational discourse. It deliberately abandons reasonable argument. It is not a tool of persuasion; it’s a tactic to exploit biased assimilation. Salvos of independent factlets reach millions of ears, largely unchallenged – a few are believable to one small fraction of audience, a different few to a different fraction, and so on – because even if you’re as tenacious as Tapper, you can’t catch them all.