Political reporters have been busy this week writing obituaries for the Howard Dean campaign, and trying to explain what on earth happened to the candidate who a few weeks ago was the undisputed frontrunner. Some blame Dean for not keeping his cool, and some blame his staffers for squandering the campaign's nest-egg. Many blame the media. But Clay Shirky, a theorist on the sociology of the Internet, tells Bob that we should instead be trying to explain why we ever thought Dean's lead existed at all.
We're often told that John Kerry has won 15 out of 17 states in his quest to be the Democratic nomination. But might the common parlance of the campaign horse race be a bit misleading? In November's presidential election, candidates win states. But in the primaries, they win delegates. NPR's Mike Pesca joins Brooke from the campaign trail to vent about this and other media misunderstandings.
It has become almost trite to observe that TV coverage of election campaigns obsesses on the horserace, to the exclusion of the underlying issues. But a new study by mediachannel.org quantifies the substance gap. MediaChannel concluded that in January, the big three news networks devoted less than 5% of their campaign coverage to the five issues voters say matter most. MediaChannel Executive Director Timothy Karr joins Bob to discuss the study.
The presidential election is still nine months away, but the Bush re-election campaign is already on the offensive. Or is it defensive? This week, the campaign posted on its web site an advertisement-style video that isn't about George W. Bush at all. Instead, the spot focuses entirely on the Democratic frontrunner, John Kerry. It occurred to Bob that this could be a first.
It's been two months since Congress narrowly passed a major overhaul of Medicare, and initial indications are that many seniors are less than clear about its details. And so this week, the government launched a 12.6 million dollar advertising campaign targeted at seniors who still have questions about the new program. No sooner had the spot hit the airwaves than critics denounced it as election-year sloganeering by the Bush administration. Bob speaks with William Pierce, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which is overseeing the ad campaign.
After their embarrassing mistakes on Election Night 2000, the big three news networks swore that they'd be extra careful - and responsible - when reporting election returns in the future. This week in New Hampshire, they had their first opportunity to demonstrate their mended ways. One of their cardinal rules is not to call the election until after the polls are closed. But Andrew Tyndall, who monitors newscasts for the Tyndall Report, tells Bob how attentive viewers can discern the results as early as half past six.
At last, Americans can use their cell phones to register their choice of presidential candidate! Not for the heated contests being held in South Carolina, Arizona, and New Mexico… but rather for Showtime's very own 10-episode primary. On "American Candidate," political polemics meets reality TV meets the American dream, and anyone can become the next President. Bob chats with R.J. Cutler, the creator and Executive Producer of the new show.
After the votes were tallied this week, pundits continued to debate how much the Iowa caucuses really matter. But if there's any lesson we take away from Iowa, it's that the media love a winner, and love to hate a loser. And according to National Journal media critic Bill Powers, the theatrical coverage of the rise and fall of candidates follows the same predictable stages as celebrity tales of triumph over adversity. Bob parses the coverage with Powers.
