New York Times August 3, 2004
By PAUL KRUGMAN
A message to my fellow journalists: check out media watch
sites like
campaigndesk.org,
mediamatters.org
and dailyhowler.com.
It's good to see ourselves as others
see us. I've been finding The Daily
Howler's concept of a media "script," a story
line that shapes coverage, often in the teeth of the
evidence, particularly helpful in understanding cable
news.
For example, last summer, when growth briefly broke into
a gallop, cable news decided that the economy was booming.
The gallop soon slowed to a trot, and then to a walk. But
judging from the mail I recently got after writing about the
slowing economy, the script never changed; many readers
angrily insisted that my numbers disagreed with everything
they had seen on TV.
If you really want to see cable news scripts in action,
look at the coverage of the Democratic convention.
Commercial broadcast TV covered only one hour a night.
We'll see whether the Republicans get equal
treatment.
C-Span, on the other hand, provided comprehensive,
commentary-free coverage. But many people watched the
convention on cable news channels - and what they saw was
shaped by a script portraying Democrats as angry Bush-haters
who disdain the military.
If that sounds like a script written by the Republicans,
it is. As the movie "Outfoxed" makes
clear, Fox News is for all practical
purposes a G.O.P. propaganda agency. A
now-famous poll showed that Fox viewers were more
likely than those who get their news
elsewhere to believe that evidence of Saddam-Qaeda links has
been found, that W.M.D. had been located and that most of
the world supported the Iraq war.
CNN used to be different, but Campaign Desk, which is run
by The Columbia Journalism Review, concluded after
reviewing convention coverage that CNN "has stooped
to slavish imitation of Fox's most
dubious ploys and policies." Seconds
after John Kerry's speech, CNN gave Ed Gillespie, the
Republican Party's chairman, the opportunity to bash the
candidate. Will Terry McAuliffe be given the same
opportunity right after President Bush speaks?
Commentators worked hard to spin scenes that didn't fit
the script. Some simply saw what they wanted to see. On Fox,
Michael Barone asserted that conventioneers cheered when Mr.
Kerry criticized President Bush but were silent when he
called for military strength. Check out the video clips at
Media Matters; there was tumultuous cheering when Mr. Kerry
talked about a strong America.
Another technique, pervasive on both Fox and CNN, was to
echo Republican claims of an "extreme makeover" - the
assertion that what viewers were seeing wasn't the
true face of the party. (Apparently
all those admirals, generals and
decorated veterans were ringers.)
It will probably be easier to make a comparable case in
New York, where the Republicans are expected to feature an
array of moderate, pro-choice speakers and keep Rick
Santorum and Tom DeLay under wraps. But in Boston, it took
creativity to portray the delegates as being out of the
mainstream. For example, Bill Schneider at CNN claimed that
according to a New York Times/CBS News poll, 75 percent of
the delegates favor "abortion on demand" - which exaggerated
the poll's real finding, which is that 75 percent opposed
stricter limits than we now have.
But the real power of a script is the way it can
retroactively change the story about what happened.
On Thursday night, Mr. Kerry's speech was a palpable hit.
A focus group organized by Frank Luntz, the Republican
pollster, found it impressive and persuasive. Even pro-Bush
commentators conceded, at first, that it had gone over well.
But a terrorism alert is already blotting out memories of
last week. Although there is now a long history of
alerts with remarkably convenient
political timing, and Tom Ridge politicized the announcement
by using the occasion to praise "the president's leadership
in the war against terror," this one may be based on real
information. Regardless, it gives the usual suspects a
breathing space; once calm returns, don't be surprised if
some of those same commentators begin describing the
ineffective speech they expected (and hoped) to see, not the
one they actually saw.
Luckily, in this age of the Internet it's possible to
bypass the filter. At
c-span.org, you can find transcripts and videos of all
the speeches. I'd urge everyone to watch Mr. Kerry and
others for yourself, and make your own judgment.
....back to:
....alternative news
American Pictures
....gives Moore
thanks
....gives pizza
.....gives the plane truth
....gives
liberation
.....gives you the
blues
......gives Bush a human face
.....gives billionaires for Bush a free rap
....gives you the
world vote on Bush-Kerry
|