Campaign Desk RSS
Fri, 9 May 2008
Campbell Robertson, Sometimes Cartoonist
The New York Times does non-fiction, political, comics
By Posted at 10:09 AM
Usually, Campbell Robertson, as a thirty-one-year-old theater reporter for The New York Times, writes articles on Broadway and the actors and shows that populate it. But recently the paper dispatched him to North Carolina, where he used the traditional tools of a newspaper journalism—pens and a camera—to untraditional ends. Campbell produced “Primary Pen & Ink,” three twelve-panel reported comic strips... Read More
Election Mania...in Europe
European media and their audiences catch the U.S.’s Election Fever
By Posted at 08:21 AM
On a Wednesday a couple of weeks ago, French, Dutch and Polish camera crews gathered in a small studio on Park Avenue. All were correspondents for TV news networks in their respective home countries, and all had come to interview Amber “Obama Girl” Lee, who was in New York shooting a video for her latest song. (Her debut, “I... Read More
The Obama Uncertainty Factor
David Broder points a finger at the wrong candidate
By Posted at 08:10 AM
David Broder wrote yesterday:
I’d like to know what kind of people Obama would bring into his White House and where he would turn for a Cabinet, because there is so much uncertainty about his actual policies at home and abroad.
Really? Is there actually all that much “uncertainty” about Obama’s policies, all things considered? Doesn’t seem... Read More
Thu, 8 May 2008
The Early Life of the Gas-Tax Story
Reporters let bloggers and columnists do the work
By Posted at 01:20 PM
The possible suspension of the federal gas tax has become a big issue in the presidential race, and the latest media frenzy surrounding the candidates. As we noted last week, the press aggressively (if belatedly) attacked the idea, which John McCain and Hillary Clinton support and Barack Obama opposes. But regardless of whether tax holiday amounts to political "pandering"... Read More
The World's Best Health Care--Really?
John McCain’s campaign canard
By Posted at 08:30 AM
The Rocky Mountain News’s coverage of John McCain’s campaign stop in Denver last week raises an important issue for reporters, especially those covering the election: Do you let a candidate’s remarks stand unchallenged even if they are wrong or misleading?
McCain had come to town to talk mostly about health care, the paper reported, noting that the topic... Read More
Wed, 7 May 2008
From Gas Tax to Safety Valve
The press gets wrapped up in one debate, but misses a parallel
By Posted at 12:49 PM Comments (1)
Since Hillary Clinton announced her support last week for suspending the federal gas tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the press has marshaled economists and environmentalists from around the country to wholeheartedly denounce the idea. Of course, it's not really the soundness of the plan that the media are after, or else they would have mounted a similar... Read More
Rejecting Post-Rationality
The press finds the faith to find the math
By Posted at 11:11 AM
This morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough—and much of the press—seemed to be of two minds about what last night’s results would mean for Hillary Clinton. “She needs a miracle,” he said. And then, twenty minutes later, as if almost by force of habit: “It’s too early to count her out.”
A race, it seems, is a terrible thing to quit.
Here’s... Read More
Hillary, We Hardly Knew Ye...
Hey, MSNBC: Why the remembrance of things past?
By Posted at 10:35 AM
Could it almost be…over? Is “our long national nightmare” soon to end?
After a night of nail-biting—“too early to call” morphing into “too close to call” morphing into “this one’s a real squeaker, folks!”—the results of last night’s Possibly Pivotal Double-Header of a Primary leave things, officially, at least…unclear. Yep: our residence in the Hotel California of party... Read More
McCain In Media Crosshairs? "In Time"
By Posted at 09:54 AM
How The Media Works 101: Can't Walk and Chew Gum, with Professors Chris Matthews and Tim Russert (and input from grad students/T.A.s Rachel Maddow and Dan Abrams) on MSNBC last night.
MATTHEWS: Do you think [Democrats worrying about the effects of ongoing primary] are aware of the way the media works? I was explaining this to a group of...Read More
Toobin Got It Right
But rest of TV news perpetuated a fiction in the service of suspense
By Posted at 09:21 AM Comments (1)
As we all waited for those final results to come in from northwest Indiana last night, everyone on TV seemed to collude in deceiving viewers—by propagating the fiction that the question of which candidate got more votes in Indiana was of any direct importance.
I was watching with my Mom, who’s visiting from overseas. From the breathless way that Russert,... Read More
