White House Correspondent Monica Paige Baldwin moved from OAN to Turning Point USA and has harnessed the power of the new media seat created by the Trump Administration in the White House press briefing room.
The firecracker journalist has her eyes on the future as she takes a step into a new-age media outlet.
“I feel like I had so much more potential and creativity to offer,” Baldwin said.
The move to Turning Point USA also came with a move of seats in the White House Briefing Room. She no longer has to compete with other outlets for a seat and can often be found sitting proudly in the “new media seat.”
“Being in a new media space at the White House is pretty different, too, because we’re in this weird niche where Turning Point USA is strongly — if not already — becoming a household name. But we also don’t have TV presence,” Baldwin said.
Not having a TV presence might actually be helping the outlet’s growth among its target audience because “our main demographic are a lot of young kids.”
Baldwin added that Turning Point’s target audience is those “who are ready to go to college, maybe, or just graduated college, or are kind of stuck in this weird life path where they don’t know what they want to do, but they can’t afford anything.” It’s a niche, but a growing audience group that feels TV and radio outlets typically skew to older groups.
Catering to this group, Baldwin believes, gives her “a lot more opportunities to tell a story. There are so many different angles that I could cover.” It also gives her an opportunity to talk to people on both sides of the aisle. “If you don’t talk to people, then you’ll just believe what everyone’s saying on mainstream media.”
Baldwin went on to say, “It’s so important to talk to those people that may have felt maybe forgotten over the last four years in these really industrial cities that I know the President is really trying to bring to life now, with all these jobs and manufacturing. And, you know, people felt like maybe they were forgotten about. So I think talking to those kinds of people is one thing.”
In her search for truth, Baldwin is armed with a cornicello — an Italian chili pepper necklace — around her neck. It is typically worn in Italian culture to protect against the evil eye. Through our years of friendship, I’ve seen it not only ward off the evil eye in her life but also protect her work as well.
Baldwin says she holds her journalistic integrity to the highest standard, which isn’t always easy. “It takes a lot of guts [and] it takes a lot of grit,” Baldwin explained.
Despite her tedious work, Baldwin’s journalistic integrity has come into question by none other than The New York Times. “The New York Times included me in a piece where they literally said that I was ‘parroting right-wing talking points,’” Baldwin said. The critique came after Baldwin asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt a question about how “not one single Democrat senator voted in favor of keeping men out of women’s sports.”
When faced with adversity like this, Baldwin says she prefers to take the high road. “People will call [my hard work] not journalism, even though I do all my research,” she remarked, “but that’s okay [because] I’m glad that we live in a world where people can disagree with me.”
Baldwin went on to note that unlike the Times, Turning Point USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means, “I can’t be biased even if I wanted to.” Baldwin added, “Every time I write a script or do a story, I have to get it checked: fact-checked, [and] triple-checked, to make sure that I’m covering all sides of things.”
Even though some on the left may see Baldwin as “parroting right-wing talking points,” she thinks there are some things President Donald Trump’s administration can do better. “There are stories that people are really frustrated with, like Epstein files and all that kind of stuff.”
More importantly, Baldwin would like to see the media have even more access to the administration. “The events could be opened up more, like when there’s an executive order signing in the Roosevelt Room or in some of the other rooms in the White House,” she added. “It could be opened up to the press more.”
She also would like to see an expansion of the Press Briefing Room. While she can be found in the new media seat, there are times when she is standing. Calling the room “a fire hazard,” she said getting a question in to Leavitt “can get really competitive [especially for someone like me] who’s 5 foot 3.”
Baldwin believes her journalistic style and work at Turning Point is imperative in today’s world because “you’re being honest with yourself and the American people. That’s what matters the most.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
