16. Sustaining a Populist Persona: CNN Philippines’ Political Interview with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as Image Restoration

Using a critical discourse analytical perspective combined with Image Restoration Theory, this chapter examines a political interview conducted by CNN Philippines with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on November 29, 2019. The paper argues that the government-sanctioned political interview functions to sustain Rodrigo Duterte’s populist public persona. The analysis surfaces specific strategies of image restoration that either repair Duterte’s image or sustain its public appeal. The maintenance of a public persona is vital to a president’s grip on political power and to his legacy building. The chapter also reveals that the interview becomes a contested site where a favorable image of the politician being interviewed is crafted, restored and projected through his utterances, while the interviewer carefully works towards showing the interviewee’s inconsistencies and vulnerability. The revelation of the political interviewee’s inconsistencies and vulnerability can make or break the presidential persona. Ultimately, the chapter attempts to shed light on how rhetorical strategies deployed in political interviews are mobilized to either reinforce populist visions or challenge them.