Presidential Debates— Dems & GOP Win, Voters Lose
When the Commission on Presidential Debates excluded third parties from the presidential debates, the media generally accepted the terms without questioning the CPD’s corporate funding or the fact that it’s controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. Because the press failed to act as a watchdog, what the public got was exactly what the CPD wanted– a tightly scripted two-party debate so predictable that, as the ratings showed, audience size was among the smallest ever.
Nader the “Spoiler”
The media did a good job of downplaying Ralph Nader’s campaign, until it became clear that the Green Party candidate they’d largely ignored all year could cost Al Gore the election. That’s when the media kicked into high gear to defend the status quo, focusing mostly negative attention on a campaign the New York Times called a “real danger.”
Are All Exaggerations Created Equal?
Gore’s ability to tell the truth, often on relatively insignificant personal issues, became a main theme of campaign coverage, even when it turned out to be reporters who were getting their facts wrong. But what happened when Bush made significant exaggerations on important policy matters? Many journalists let obvious Bush distortions slide by without even basic fact-checking. As ABC‘s Cokie Roberts said, “The story line is Bush isn’t smart enough and Gore isn’t straight enough”– pundits wrote their script early on, and stuck to it.
Media Scrutiny MIA on DUI story
Late in the campaign, George W. Bush’s drunk driving arrest made headlines. Media interest was brief but intense; some pundits went so far as to suggest, without citing evidence, that the Gore campaign was behind it all. But most in the media missed the crucial element that should have concerned them most as journalists: Bush had lied about his arrest record to a reporter.
Political Ads– Big $ for the Media, Big Silence on Accuracy
Campaign advertising on broadcast outlets may earn media companies as much as $1 billion this election season. TV reporters have a special responsibility to analyze the accuracy of such advertising, but such scrutiny was hard to come by– perhaps unsurprisingly, given the fact that TV stations and networks were the ones benefiting financially from the ads.
