MAINSTREAM CAUGHT ON

Footnotes on The WSJ & Semafor Highlights

“All Literature Is Gossip”

— Truman Capote

PHOTO BY DENISE AVALOS

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Yesterday, after friends alerted me that my feature in the Wall Street Journal had made it to print, Mike and I drove around town for an hour trying to find a copy. Orange County doesn't keep up with or care about world news, or what? The newspaper was nowhere to be found. Even the girl who answered the phone at our local Barnes and Noble sounded confused. "I think I've seen it here before." 

Recently, I agreed to a couple inquiries about my campaign coverage. I figured now is probably a good time to open up communication and explain some things seeing how both requests seemed more fascinated than demeaning or vindictive in nature.

I've been told editors at mainstream outlets are rightfully baffled by the intimate or “unusual” access. They are confused how one can cover Trump AND Kennedy with equal curiosity. As if that's not the whole role of old school journalism — a notion that’s seemingly gone extinct: to be interested in what all candidates offer during an election year and what about them appeals to supporters. Admittedly, I tend to like most people I meet. I get along with everyone, which makes for a well-rounded scope when it comes to tracking social engagements that wrangle all kinds of people and beliefs.

People trust when I show up that I’m there out of respect and most likely going to zero in on the more positive angles that regularly go overlooked or manipulated by other media.

In the past, I haven’t had great luck contributing quotes to articles. My words are often twisted, taken out of context, or used to discredit me. Even the compliments come edged by demeaning undertone. Until now, I've had little reason to participate. I handle my own self-promotion—convincing people every day to care about the things I care about. So far, it's worked fine. I dedicate my days to arranging slides for IG and my nights to writing longer posts here to extend the hot takes into stretched narratives that offer more detail. I've never needed validation, but the recognition is nice. People who sit on a Sunday morning and open up a big printed newspaper introduces me to a whole different crowd. For them, this is an introduction to an alternative take on politics. I appreciate that aspect of it.

For the past two years, since I dipped into trial coverage and culture critiques, I’ve been dismissed in print as a fringe influencer peddling "dangerous misinformation" and all the other lazy taglines they slap you with if you step outside the box: "Anti-vax Qanon conspiracy theorist rape apologist Hollywood gossip hound." I agreed to these interviews thinking I would step out of my comfort zone and discuss how and why political coverage desperately needs to evolve. But also to shut down rumors that I’m paid to write flattering or emphatic pieces about controversial candidates. Really, the death of journalism is apparent in that mindset— assuming one must be profiting financially by secret PR arrangements to write freely about Trump or Kennedy. The truth is far more lovely, actually, in that there is mutual respect for both men. When I am with Team Trump they ask questions and are interested in hearing about RFK. When I show up for a Kennedy event team members are eager to hear about Trump with the iPad at Mar-A-Lago. There is zero resentment or animosity which is what makes it so refreshing.

Last month, I spoke to Semafor (an outlet I was not familiar with) because Max Tani sounded like he genuinely enjoyed the campaign chapters, and the WSJ because Sara Ashley O'Brien  relayed that she was interested in examining the story from a business perspective: how brand I built the brand. 

I thought both pieces were fair and balanced. Though, in my mind, I was never a 'mommy blogger.' I know it's a phrase that stuck, but I view myself as a writer with children at the time. I focused on lifestyle; yes, it was all-encompassing from the perspective of a stay-at-home mom. I wrote about chaotic family life raising four boys in Southern California and juggling everything on a budget. Later, it became about DIY renovations. As many of you know, Mike singlehandedly transformed our home here in San Clemente. Going on six years, he's still building and transforming. 

In this next phase, we're of course adjusting and learning to navigate life with new positions and expectations. But we always manage to have fun with new experience. 

It's all about trusting time and purpose. 

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WSJ

“Unusual Access”

“By the thousands, people followed her Instagram account @HouseInhabit and signed up for her $7-a-month Substack newsletter. After the trial ended that June, Mike quit his construction job to handle child care while Jessica focused on her burgeoning business. What started with celebrity gossip and conspiracy theories has expanded to include coverage of the 2024 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both of which have granted her unusual access. Kraus now pays a team to help run the House Inhabit brand, which has 1.2 million followers on Instagram. Based on the percentage of her 290,000 subscribers that she said are paying, her Substack is pulling in more than seven figures a year.”

A lot has been made about "gossip," I include. I will forever stand by the claim that gossip is a vital accessory. Everyone loves gossip. Working with anonymous sources has opened up so much truth where obstacles typically reside. People contribute to shaping stories but don't want to be named for fear of public judgment. Other media might call it "unconfounded" and "baseless," but how many times have I broken stories days (sometimes weeks) before mainstream?

SEVERAL.

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The Owl

“Kraus says that intuition guides all of her business decisions. In 2021, after a trip to New York to observe the start of the Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking trial, she says she had a series of visitations from an owl, a bird symbolic of wisdom and clarity. That led her to trust her gut and return to the city to cover the trial in full.”

I mentioned the owl thinking they would never include it. I assumed it was too mystical to add to a business piece so I was happily surprised to see he got his credit there. I have a longer tale about it I'll share soon. Probably my favorite (unwritten) campaign footnote.

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All-Access With RFK

“On a Wednesday in January, Kraus was fresh off a weekend of whale-watching in Hawaii with RFK Jr. At home, in the hideaway that’s become her office, her admiration for his family’s political dynasty was on display. There was a framed poster of his uncle John F. Kennedy on the wall and a copy of Victor Lasky’s JFK biography on her desk. Throughout the trip, she’d posted as if on a family vacation, sharing photos of her son with Kennedy and eliding any discussion of the candidate’s policies.”

The framed poster of JFK was a birthday gift from Mike. It's an original campaign poster in mint condition. The more interesting photo, however, is on display is above my desk, wedged between a few other Polaroids—a close-up of RFK JR.'s backside in dark Levis during the introductory hike. "The coverage we deserve" was the caption. Certainly, it set the tone :)

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Writing Politics for Women

“Kraus’s Instagram audience is over 90% female—a demographic that is more likely to get news from the social-media site, according to a recent Pew Research Center report. 

“Whether it’s about politics or celebrities or conspiracies or scandals, you just have to keep people engaged with what you’re putting into words,” Kraus says. “I kind of love the new challenge of making politics engaging again.”

Plus, “the drama is really good,” she says. “It’s better than anything in Hollywood right now.”

My main reason for making the political shift was that no one was writing about politics and how women think and talk about it. We live for the details, the gossip, the scandals, the parties, and the wardrobes.

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The Money

“Now, Kraus says, she’s “making more money than I ever imagined I could or anyone could make as a writer.” House Inhabit is Substack’s top newsletter in its culture category. The company declined to make anyone available for an interview but a spokesperson shared some publicly available stats.”

At first, I was very uncomfortable with such an emphasis placed on my income, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided it was a significant aspect. Fact is, most people are motivated by money. Others may follow this independent route if they see someone like me (an outsider refusing to fold on personal visions and convictions), they might be inspired to shift their focus as reporters. My success feels like a collective win. I see it as the purest form of media: I’m paid by the people, and in turn, I get to bring you along on each of these journeys. It feels like a healthy alternative to news relayed by reporters under an editor's thumb. Plus, spontaneous coverage is a costly undertaking. I pick up and leave sometimes on a few hours' notice. I couldn’t do what I'm doing without a decent income and four kids to consider. Making better money has enabled me to hire photographers and videographers, independent forms, and house sitters and childcare when needed.

The more I make the more I want to give back.

The headline boasted that I am making a fortune. I don't know about that. I’d pin Rupert Murdoch as raking in fortunes. Id’ say I’m making a good (fulfilling) living.

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Louis + Collection of vintage George Magazines (gift to myself) + Tiny Library in back kindly filled with old magazines gifted by friends & followers

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SEMAFOR

“The Only Ones Having Fun on The Campaign Trail”

“After meeting Kennedy in the summer of 2023, she has become one of the longshot independent candidate’s most prominent cheerleaders, posting flattering old pictures and quotes from him on her Instagram multiple times a week, sharing long dispatches from campaign events and personal trips, and encouraging fellow Californians to attend his events. She said that she felt the news media’s coverage of Kennedy — which has largely focused on his unsupported anti-vaccine conspiracy theories — was dehumanizing, and far from her experience interacting with him. She got close enough that his super PAC listed her on its website as its social media manager, though she told me no paid role ever transpired, and she’s never been paid for any political work.

And according to Kraus, her support for Kennedy got the Trump campaign’s attention.

A few weeks later, the Trump campaign invited her to stay at one of the private suites at Mar-a-Lago for the president’s Super Bowl party, a rare invitation not typically offered to journalists. In turn, she posted dozens of Instagram stories and Substack dispatches, describing the event as glamorous and Trump as handsome and “a much softer variation” of the man Americans see on television.

For Trump and for Kennedy’s gadfly campaign, Kraus has created an opportunity. Her news sensibilities — a mix of fashion, home inspiration, political stories from a human interest lens, and sensational celeb news and interesting but not-always-reliable gossip — are a callback to an earlier era. She has, in a sense, recreated the grocery checkout line magazine mix for Instagram. While Kraus would not give specifics, she told me that a senior Trump staffer told her in recent weeks she was doing more to help the former president win over women than anyone else in media.

Kraus reaches the suburban woman who are central swing voters in every American election — they used to be called “soccer moms,” and Kraus indeed has spent a fair amount of time ferrying her kids to sporting events (and blogging about it). And while the female face of the MAGA movement is often conservative religious activist groups like Moms for Liberty, who campaign against LGBTQ inclusion and references to sex in public school materials, Kraus says she’s not religious and doesn’t oppose abortion rights.

There’s a tone of dismissiveness that runs through the mentions of Kraus in mainstream news publications, which to me seems like some combination of disrespect for her approach (she publishes gossip that is often, at best, unconfirmable) and what reads to me as perhaps some light jealousy. Kraus admits she’s not concerned about whether she’s accurately labeled a journalist or not, and is freed from all the limitations that come with objectivity, which has allowed her to get unmatched access to people she covers in a positive light. One journalist compared her to a conservative DeuxMoi, noting that she often solicits anonymous tips and runs responses that are nearly impossible to verify.

But one thing is clear. Kraus and her longtime sidekick and photographer Denise Avalos are some of the only members of the media who seem to be having any fun on the campaign trail this year. My experience on the trail in New Hampshire was observing relatively muted campaign events with bored members of the press corps, or sitting around sparsely attended on-rec briefings for strategies that did not pan out. But with a million followers on Instagram and a willingness to write and post favorably and unapologetically about candidates she likes, Kraus’ version of life on the trail is surfing with a potential vice presidential candidate; searching for psychedelic mushrooms in Aspen after skiing with Kennedy and racer-turned-conservative pundit Danica Patrick; and gossiping in the bathroom at Trump’s Super Bowl party with Tiffany Trump and women who also happen to be some of the candidate’s senior advisors.

It wasn’t lost on me that at the same moment that Vice announced it was laying off much of what remained of the publication’s journalism staff, I was walking into a meeting with a woman who claims she is (at least for the moment) single-handedly financially supporting a family of six in a nice part of Orange County purely with the money from her Substack. It was a reminder that while the appetite for holding the powerful accountable is limited, sometimes it pays a whole lot better to be positive. That’s an old lesson in media, too.”

I’m just happy someone noticed and acknowledged how much fun we’re having all over the country!

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The owl subplot deserves it’s own comic book.

One day ….

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I didn’t find a copy in town, but my friends on the East Coast did.

I find the printed edit interesting, don’t you? Kennedy’s name was stripped from the headline; Almost like they don’t want his name in bold print.

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BNN

“What sets Kraus apart in the political reporting arena is her unprecedented access to high-profile political figures, including Donald Trump and RFK Jr. Her unique perspective and approach to reporting have allowed her to gain insights and share stories that often go unreported by traditional media outlets. This access has not only elevated her platform but has also provided her audience with a fresh perspective on political campaigns and the personalities behind them.

The evolution of Jessica Reed Kraus's career from a mommy blogger to a respected political reporter underscores a broader trend of individuals leveraging personal platforms to break into traditional journalism spaces. Her success challenges the norms of political reporting and suggests a possible future where access and insight are not solely determined by one's background in journalism. As Kraus continues to cover the campaigns of Trump and RFK Jr., her work will undoubtedly shape the dialogue around political coverage and the potential for new voices to emerge in the field.”

“Opening up the potential for new voices to emerge in the field.”

We can hope!

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Up Ahead: A lot of fun and surprise in store for NYC and Austin + I’ll be back later with a couple new chapters on Ghislaine Maxwell