ABC Campaign Coverage–or GOP Campaign Commercial?

The right-wing Media Research Center released a study (10/22/14) slamming the evening newscasts for not giving the midterm election much airtime. It has a partisan interest here; the group wants more attention paid to the Republicans’ impending victories. ABC World News, it said, was notable for having nothing on the election over the study period.

Contrary to the MRC’s claims, there’s no bias that corporate news outlets worry about more than seeming to have a liberal bias. So on October 31, ABC World News served up some midterm coverage–and it was exactly what the Center would have ordered.

The segment zeroed in on the race for the US Senate race in Iowa, where Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Bruce Braley are vying for Tom Harkin’s old seat. Anchor David Muir told viewers the race “features a Republican candidate with a novel argument using her history with hogs to make a point about cutting pork–Washington waste.”

For a news story that promises to be about a conservative candidate’s TV commercial, ABC sure delivered. Reporter Cecilia Vega announced: “Listen to this pitch about hogs.” Next viewers see the ad, where Ernst says that since she “grew up castrating hogs,” she will “know how to cut pork.”

Vega follows up by saying that Ernst is “a mom, a wife, and a Harley rider”–cut to a photo of the candidate on a motorcycle–who, ABC explains, says she will “do to Washington what she’s done to the hogs.” It’s not clear why repeating what we just heard in the ad is necessary, but surely the Ernst campaign is thankful.

Vega explains that Ernst is in a close race, but her competitor is an afterthought:

There’s someone hoping to stop Joni Ernst: Hillary Clinton, who this week stood beside the Democrat in the race, Congressman Bruce Braley. And what did he hand her? A onesie. On the trail, she’s embracing her new role as a new grandmother.

The piece then segues into talking about “Walmart Moms,” so Vega goes to a store to interview members of this “powerful group.” What are they concerned with? The economy, the “price of food and gas,” and healthcare. Not exactly revelatory, but Vega links those issues to the Republican candidate: “All of them, fed up with Washington. Joni Ernst, counting on that.” And then one more clip from that commercial, with Ernst on the screen, saying, “Let’s make them squeal.”

Is the UN really plotting to tell Iowa farmers, “You don’t have property rights anymore”? That’s a part of Joni Ernst’s platform that ABC News didn’t get into. (cc photo: murphydean)

There’s no shortage of things to cover about Ernst. She’s encouraged the impeachment of Obama, whom she calls a “dictator” (Yahoo! News, 7/8/14). She says the UN is engaged in a conspiracy to force Iowa farmers off their land (Mother Jones, 9/25/14). Talking Points Memo (10/3/14) reported that in 2012 she “said she would support legislation that would allow ‘local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement’ Obamacare.”

And in an appearance at an NRA event in 2012, Ernst laid out this defense of using guns against government officials (Think Progress, 10/23/14):

I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family–whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.

ABC could have talked about any of these issues–or any issues at all, for that matter.

Instead, it fashioned a news segment out of Ernst’s TV commercial, airing the “Let’s make them squeal” punch line twice for maximum impact. Who’s she running against? Braley’s name is mentioned in passing, and apparently only because he knows Hillary Clinton. He probably doesn’t even have a funny commercial.

And if “Walmart Moms” is the relevant angle, it might be worth mentioning that Braley is polling better with female voters (Des Moines Register, 11/1/14).