Campaign Desk

November 30, 2012 02:50 PM
NBC News sets good example for Medicare reporting

People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes
By Trudy Lieberman
As tax and spending talks grind on in Washington, The New York Times tells us Friday that in his latest proposal, President Obama has “embraced $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other entitlements to be worked out next year with no guarantees.”

Guarantees or not, that means the reporters on the Medicare beat will have plenty to report on...
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November 30, 2012 11:00 AM
In Pennsylvania, a niche site with wide reach

PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State
By Ken Knelly
PENNSYLVANIA — Whether it is a presidential swing state or not, Pennsylvania is always a political battleground. With countless boroughs, school districts, the state legislature, and more in a near-constant state of electing, there is never a shortage of campaign news.

What there can be is a shortage of boots on the ground, particularly those with broader statewide perspectives. So...
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November 29, 2012 02:50 PM
The future of factchecking

Here's what journalists should learn from the 2012 campaign
By Brendan Nyhan
As journalists close the books on 2012 and look forward to coverage of a second Obama administration, one important question is where the factchecking movement goes from here.

The general election campaign was unquestionably the most intensively factchecked in history. While factchecking did not eliminate falsehoods from our politics, this was always an unrealistic expectation. The relevant question is whether...
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November 29, 2012 11:00 AM
Can people afford to lose their Social Security COLA?

So far, the press has given this public policy concern the brush off
By Trudy Lieberman
This post is the first of several primers on Social Security we will publish in the coming weeks to help journalists report on this topic.

The Washington Post, whose news columns and opinion pieces have beat the drum for entitlement reform and cutting the federal deficit, banged out an editorial Sunday making a case for changing the way the cost-of-living...
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November 27, 2012 04:00 PM
What if there are fewer polls in 2016?

Is the editor-in-chief of Gallup’s warning a nightmare vision or… sort of beguiling?
By Walter Shapiro
As a feud, it does not rise to the level of Lyndon Johnson versus Bobby Kennedy or even Jack Benny’s radio war with Fred Allen. But, still, anyone organizing a post-election panel discussion might be wise to put a few chairs between New York Times polling guru Nate Silver and Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief of Gallup.

The triggering events were...
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November 27, 2012 06:50 AM
‘Resetting’ The Plain Dealer

What’s to become of Cleveland’s daily, a bright spot in Ohio's coverage of election 2012?
By T.C. Brown
OHIO — The frenzy of presidential candidates and entourages overrunning the Buckeye State is history, but questions about how Ohio’s largest newspaper will cover future political campaigns loom large.

Managers of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland—the 19th largest newspaper in the nation and the place I spent 17 years covering Ohio politics and government—are primed to make a major announcement...
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November 26, 2012 07:00 AM
Closer look at a cash cow

Denver's KUSA says newsroom's "Truth Tests" set high bar for campaign-ad vetting
By Mary Winter
COLORADO — Barack Obama wasn’t the only winner in the 2012 campaign here. The state’s TV stations—especially those in Denver, the dominant media market—did pretty well, too.

Political groups spent roughly $86 million on election ads in this battleground state, Denver Post TV critic Joanne Ostrow reported earlier this month. According to Ostrow’s source—an anonymous “knowledgeable local TV source”—perhaps $68...
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November 23, 2012 10:45 AM
In Michigan, a look back on the 2012 campaign

A veteran journalist and a young reporter talk about lessons learned
By Anna Clark
MICHIGAN — It was hard. That’s how Marisa Schultz, political reporter for The Detroit News, sums up the experience of covering her first presidential campaign. Or, to put it another way: “It was the toughest professional job I’ve ever done.”

From wading through back-and-forth rhetoric to getting beyond the agenda at campaign events to finding time for deep reporting on...
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November 20, 2012 04:00 PM
Key stories in the Keystone State

Four issues Pennsylvania’s political press should stay on
By Ken Knelly
PENNSYLVANIA — Political reporters and commentators here will continue to ponder, as the Philadelphia Inquirer did on November 9, Pennsylvania’s future swing state status. Even so, there are other key issues confronting the Keystone State and its political press corps—issues that will continue to be clouded by inflamed rhetoric and political money.

Here are four evolving stories Pennsylvania’s political reporters...
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November 20, 2012 11:15 AM
Papa John’s Pizza and the business backlash

The real story: how some employers are still working to undermine Obamacare
By Trudy Lieberman
The media have latched onto the story of John Schnatter. That’s the John of Papa John’s Pizza, a CEO with an Ebenezer Scrooge approach to his employees and customers. He is vowing to reduce employee hours and wages while jacking up the price of his pepperoni pies—all because of Obamacare. The press has presented the story as sort of funny...
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November 19, 2012 02:50 PM
Election reflections from the Silver State

Las Vegas Sun political editor Anjeanette Damon wants face time with presidential candidates, more time with voters
By Jay Jones

NEVADA — Midway through the election cycle just completed, longtime Nevada political writer and TV analyst Anjeanette Damon got a promotion. (I’ve praised her work more than once here). Her bosses at the Las Vegas Sun moved her from political writer to political editor, adding to her responsibilities during a campaign season that already promised plenty of challenges.
...
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November 16, 2012 02:50 PM
Hope and change in unlikely places

Three cheers for campaign coverage from BuzzFeed and the Los Angeles Times
By Walter Shapiro
Channeling the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado, I’ve got a little list of those parts of 2012 coverage that none of them be missed:

Over-wrought chroniclers of the Iowa Straw Poll. Gullible reporters beguiled by poll numbers from disengaged Republicans foretelling President Trump and President Cain. Cable news producers whose frenetic sets and blood-lust live audiences turned the...
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November 16, 2012 11:00 AM
Climate roller coaster back on track

With Obama talking global warming, media see ups and downs
By Curtis Brainard
At his first post-election press conference on Wednesday, President Obama talked about his current position on climate change in greater detail than he’s done in two years. News outlets’ attempts to interpret the meaning of his remarks produced bewilderingly disparate takes, however, whether that involved Obama’s personal commitment to addressing the issue:

“Obama vows to take personal charge...
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November 15, 2012 03:10 PM
Factchecking the ‘gifts’ theory of politics

LAT, NYT break news on Mitt Romney's remarks—and also offer a skeptical look
By Greg Marx
The big electoral politics story of the day (well, ok, of late Wednesday) is the news that Mitt Romney, on a phone call with contributors to his campaign, attributed his loss to the Obama administration’s strategy of giving “gifts” to groups of voters. As Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times tells it:

"The Obama campaign was following the old...
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Campaign Desk Feature

In Defense of (the Right Kind of) Horse Race Journalism

When primaries decide party priorities, voters should be brought in on the conversation

Horse race journalism has a bad reputation among press critics. But if their critiques don't allow space for good horse race journalism, they risk becoming overbroad and incomplete.

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Campaign Desk

People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes

PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State

Here's what journalists should learn from the 2012 campaign

So far, the press has given this public policy concern the brush off

Is the editor-in-chief of Gallup’s warning a nightmare vision or… sort of beguiling?

What’s to become of Cleveland’s daily, a bright spot in Ohio's coverage of election 2012?

Denver's KUSA says newsroom's "Truth Tests" set high bar for campaign-ad vetting

A veteran journalist and a young reporter talk about lessons learned

Four issues Pennsylvania’s political press should stay on

The real story: how some employers are still working to undermine Obamacare

Las Vegas Sun political editor Anjeanette Damon wants face time with presidential candidates, more time with voters

Three cheers for campaign coverage from BuzzFeed and the Los Angeles Times

With Obama talking global warming, media see ups and downs

LAT, NYT break news on Mitt Romney's remarks—and also offer a skeptical look