Almost nine decades ago, Franklin D Roosevelt, then governor of New York, tried an experiment that made some journalists fume: he started using radio to broadcast directly to listeners. He did this partly out of curiosity, but he and his political team had a second motive: the Democrat Roosevelt wanted to find a way to talk directly to voters without relying on the local papers, which were largely Republican.
The tactic worked so well that when Roosevelt was later installed as president in 1933, he became the first incumbent of the White House to conduct so-called “fireside chats” on the radio. Newspaper journalists frowned — but, eventually, they started reporting on those radio shows until this became entirely normal.
Could this little anecdote provide a clue to what might happen with President Donald Trump and his hyperactive Twitter feed? It is an intriguing issue to consider, as the latest wave of Trump tweets tumbles out.