The daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), Alexandra Pelosi, does not “advertise” her last name while she is working, but told uPolitics that journalists and documentary filmmakers such as herself face other obstacles in gaining public trust.
Alexandra Pelosi directed the Showtime documentary, American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself, which sought “to take the temperature of how people feel about America today — to take a selfie of how America looks in 2020,” she said in a statement, calling it “an artifact of this moment in time.”
In filming the movie, Alexandra traveled all over the country, and told uPolitics that as a person with a camera, people are naturally suspicious — but that her last name usually isn’t what creates that suspicion.
“I don’t really advertise my last name,” she said. “I should’ve taken my husband’s name in hindsight. If had known I was going to pursue a career as a documentary filmmaker for this many years, I probably should have take my husband’s name, but I don’t advertise that, let’s just put it that way.”
She continued to say she makes it known that she is from New York and working for Showtime, so “people automatically assume anyone with a camera is fake news.”
“You have a lot to overcome regardless of your name or your outlet that you’re working for nowadays,” she said. “Everybody is suspicious of a person with a camera. Unless you say Fox News, then you’re okay.”
Alexandra noted that the shift in the public’s trust and perception of the media has “really changed” within the last four years.
“Nobody trusts the media, period. And that’s sort of a new thing that in the last four years it’s really changed,” she said. “They automatically don’t trust you if you have a camera in your hand.”
American Selfie is now available on Showtime.
