Where’s Whitmer? Social Media Allows For Tighter Political Image Control

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/12/2025) Politicians have many reasons for avoiding journalists, whether it is stepping out of the limelight, scandal or something embarrassing they don’t want to explain, but social media has created an end run.

MIRS compiled a spreadsheet looking at Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s media availability since 2023 and found since the second quarter of 2024 her interview time with Michigan journalists has crashed, while she’s still very active with her social media accounts. The one caveat was directly after the historic ice storm that froze northern Michigan and caused an emergency in March 2025.

“Social media has exacerbated so many things in our politics. It allows elected officials and candidates for office to even more tightly control access to their message. They can speak directly to their supporters and others without having to filter anything through a reporter,” said Oakland University Political Science Professor Dave Dulio.

Image is the name of the game in politics, and Dulio pointed out several historic moments that relied on that image. A look at the first public presidential televised debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy found that people who saw it thought JFK won, but those who heard it on the radio thought Nixon won.

Former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had their image moments, both good and bad, but in the era of social media, image landmines can come without warning.

“Just think about the internet kerfuffle that Gov. Whitmer got into with the Doritos thing, “ Dulio said.

There's also the picture taken behind a folder in the Oval Office.

Dulio said he could only speculate as to why Whitmer is avoiding journalists. He said laying low in 2025 didn’t do anything to dissuade people from thinking she was still in the running for president in 2028, which was proven during her appearance on a YouTube show with Caleb Hammer.

He said despite what she said and whatever avoidance of media she was doing, that she was still a potential candidate. If a groundswell around her happened, it could kickstart a campaign without her consent.

Dulio pointed to several mentions from Whitmer or in one of the three interviews she did in the last quarter of 2025 that she hasn’t lost an election in Michigan.

He also pointed to Whitmer’s recent appointment as vice-chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

“You’d think that they would want to be talking about that until the cows come home,” he said.

American Communities Project Director Dante Chinni said it is possible that she was just laying low in 2025, but he said he believes, given the number of interviews tracked by MIRS, that she could be setting up her exit from the stage.

“That sounds like a lame-duck politician who’s not running again,” Chinni said. “That’s what it feels like to me. It’s like, ‘Well, I don’t really need this any more’ and that’s where it goes.”

He said that since she made a splash in the Democratic Party and her name has been bandied about as one of the top contenders for the presidential ticket or a strong vice-presidential contender, that her retreat from the media spotlight has been noticed by politicos and journalists alike.

“Some people may be reading her kind of retreat from the public eye as she’s not throwing her hat in the ring. It’s certainly, when you look at it, she hasn’t been up (to) very much,” he said.

He said the only person who knows if Whitmer is in or out is Whitmer herself.

“You would suspect if she were running, that she would be trying to be a little more in front of (the) cameras. That’s how it works. If you want to run for president, especially at this point, we’re in media primary time now,” he said.

He pointed to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom as people actively looking to run for President in 2028 by seeking out the cameras, podcasts and eyeballs.

Chinni said the political environment under Trump was also a difficult one for Democrats to maneuver because he was so aggressive and tended to drive dialogue through fights.

“If you’re not running for president in 2028, maybe your idea about how to do the job as a governor or mayor is to just lay low and not start fights. Try to work things on the back burner,” he said.

Channi, who worked on the NBC News program Meet the Press, also agreed with Dulio that social media and the fracturing of the media landscape through streaming services has eroded how politicians look at journalists.

“If you really want to try to engage with voters and different kinds of voters, you have to be on social media. You have to creep into people’s feeds. That’s the way that the game is played now,” he said.

He said the world has changed over the last several years, and even between elections. Television ratings were dropping as more people migrated online and to streaming services away from traditional broadcasts.

“What’s it going to look like in five years? I don’t know. Everything is moving right now. It just feels like everything is in motion, but right now, if you’re running for president in 2028, you’d better have a big social media presence in 2025 and 2026,” Chinni said.

He said public servants and government officials have realized that social media and the digital arena is where the future sits.

He said being able to avoid the hardball questions from journalists was not something that got attention from people and opinion wasn’t something that you needed to turn on the television to see. It was ubiquitous online.

"Even if it is like, 'This is the official’s fault for not going on these shows’ or talking to journalists, Well, kind of, but it’s also the fault of the audiences for not caring. It just seems that the audiences just aren’t there anymore. They’re not interested, so where’s the pressure coming from for officials to talk to mainstream journalists?” he asked.

He said people paying for news was at an all-time low and youth are getting their news through social media.

“I’m not saying this is a good thing. I’m talking about this is the way they perceive the situation, ‘I don’t need you anymore’ that’s the way they perceive it, and it’s, in my opinion, not good for democracy, but they’re not going to change,” he said.

He said any politician going in front of journalists was also suspect, because they were looking for those soundbites that made them look like the good guy or clever for coming up with a terrific answer to a tough question.

“Like, ‘Wow, that’s a really smart answer. This is really good. I would vote for this person. They really seem like they know what they’re doing. Yes, I’m with them now,’” he said.

But the odds are just as likely a foot is inserted in a mouth and some, maybe like Whitmer who has had her share of bad image moments, feel the risk isn’t worth it.

“The truth is they feel like they don’t need journalists anymore and in terms of protecting their message and getting their image the way they want to get it, they may be right. In terms of what’s good for democracy, that’s a different question,” Chinni said.