Alex Cooper Can Do Whatever the FCK She Wants

The 'Call Her Daddy' host is catching shit for interviewing Kamala Harris. Here's why that media strategy was key.

Oct 07, 2024

As I wrote here just two posts ago, I listen to the Call Her Daddy podcast. Daddy, a pop culture chat show-cum-frank relationship/sex discussion podcast with a girl power bent helmed by “founding father” Alex Cooper, may be considered among conventional political journalists an unconventional choice for a presidential candidate interview in terms of media outlet, but I believe this union was a brilliant move by two brilliant women 29 days from the most important election for women in our nation’s history. Hear me out.

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This meeting of the minds is a ratings royal flush for Cooper but, in plain English, flakers are gonna flak: According to The Daily Beast, Cooper is facing backlash on social media for “peddling propaganda” for the Democratic Party nominee. Harris is also getting flaked upon for “dodging mainstream media interviews—and hardball questions—and instead plumping for cozy chats with softball questions from ‘safe’ interviewers.”

Meanwhile, on Instagram , a sprinkling of Cooper’s “fans” saw the interview as “political” and vowed to ditch Cooper completely while most applauded her for this incredible coup. (Some also questioned why she didn’t mark this momentous occasion by ditching her trademark hoodie just this once, but Cooper is nothing if not dedicated to her brand.)

To all these flakers, I’m decidedly team Cooper and thus feel compelled to respectfully say, please shut the FCK up. Is it journalism? Hell, no. But it’s not meant to be.

It’s hubris to lump podcasts like Call Her Daddy in with traditional journalism. Daddy has always been dedicated to the issues that plague women sexually and otherwise, and the domain of female reproductive rights falls squarely under this umbrella. Cooper does not represent a publication—she only represents herself—and thereby is not bound by trad journalist ethics (as watery a domain as that now is) to present both sides of an argument concerning this election. Brick by brick, she successfully established her very own platform and reserves the right (just as we do right here on Substack), to climb aboard the soapbox she built and dispense her opinions and the opinions of her guests if they further her girl power objectives, as she so chooses.

Kamala Harris’s PR team understands full well that Cooper has the rapt attention of the Gen Z-Gen Alpha Audience with a capital A (Sirius signed her to a three-year deal for $125 million for a reason). Cooper’s young female listeners, specifically those in red states, are the voters Harris needs to show up and vote for her in this election. Before they make their initial foray toward the voting booth, Cooper feels it’s her responsibility to make them aware of Harris’s viewpoints and policies. Our rights as women are at stake and there is no argument to present about that—either we vote Harris and our reproductive rights are restored, or we lose them completely and become oppressed under ugly male hatred and dictatorship.

I don’t know what those listeners who say they’re bailing expect from Cooper, but they should damn well expect more for themselves.

I mean, you don’t come here expecting neutral bullshit, do you?

We’ll see how this nonsense plays out but you know what? Good for Cooper. She may be young. She might wear hoodies. But she got the interview. And she did her part.