Politics and Policy
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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
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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Swing States Project — November 30, 2012 11:00 AM
In Pennsylvania, a niche site with wide reach
PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State
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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Swing States Project — November 29, 2012 02:50 PM
The future of factchecking
Here's what journalists should learn from the 2012 campaign
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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Swing States Project — 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
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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Swing States Project — 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?
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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Swing States Project — November 27, 2012 11:06 AM
Dart: CBS and the Goldman Sachs solution
Another weak showing on Social Security
Maybe CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley was so awestruck by a chance to visit one of the seven trading floors over at Goldman Sachs, and by a rare interview opportunity with Goldman’s CEO, that he forgot about good, skeptical follow-up questions. He and the CBS Evening News get a CJR Dart for this fairly embarrassing effort.
Pelley...
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Swing States Project — 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?
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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Swing States Project — 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
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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Swing States Project — 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
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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Swing States Project — November 20, 2012 04:00 PM
Key stories in the Keystone State
Four issues Pennsylvania’s political press should stay on
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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Swing States Project — 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
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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Swing States Project — 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
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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Swing States Project — November 16, 2012 02:50 PM
Hope and change in unlikely places
Three cheers for campaign coverage from BuzzFeed and the Los Angeles Times
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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The Observatory — November 16, 2012 11:00 AM
Climate roller coaster back on track
With Obama talking global warming, media see ups and downs
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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Campaign Desk — 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
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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Swing States Project — November 15, 2012 01:12 PM
An election post-mortem on Medicare coverage
Coverage? Yes. Guidance? Not so much
In mid-August, when Paul Ryan burst on the scene with his voucher scheme for Medicare, the 47-year old program suddenly became hot news. Until then, the media had paid scant attention to Medicare, except in the fall when they served up some “how-to” stories for choosing new Medicare Advantage plans. This time it was different. Ryan’s plans for transforming Medicare...
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Swing States Project — November 14, 2012 02:50 PM
Little Havana turns blue (or maybe not)
Choose-your-own-poll-number reporting on the Cuban-American vote
FLORIDA — Somehow the Florida election is beginning to feel a bit like an episode from the old I Love Lucy comedy. Not only did the Sunshine State hang over election results for four days—and still counting in some races—but there has been forehead-slapping confusion over who won the Cuban-American vote here, by how much, and what it might mean....
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Swing States Project — November 13, 2012 02:55 PM
Predictable in retrospect
The dangers of hindsight bias in election postmortems
The media has undergone a strange change of mindset. Immediately before last Tuesday's election, many reporters and commentators ignored or dismissed the consensus among forecasters and betting markets that President Obama was very likely to defeat Mitt Romney and acted instead as if the candidates were neck and neck or Romney was ahead. Afterward, however, coverage of how Obama won...
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Swing States Project — November 13, 2012 02:50 PM
Four stories to follow in Virginia
What the Commonwealth’s political reporters should focus on now
VIRGINIA — Election Day has come and gone, leaving many vital story threads for Virginia’s political reporters to continue to pursue. Here are four to follow in the weeks and months ahead:
1. Purple Virginia
The changing demographics of the country’s electorate—and the growing numbers of minority, single women and youth voters that helped push the president to victory...
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Swing States Project — November 13, 2012 11:12 AM
What happened, anyway?
The election may be over, but the self-protective spin is not
Shortly after 11 p.m. (Eastern) on Election Night—with the polls still open only in Alaska—Mitt Romney aides were pleading with Fox News not to call Ohio for Barack Obama.That delicious detail, buried in a New York magazine article by Gabriel Sherman about Karl Rove’s on-air meltdown, tells you all you need to know about how spin is embedded in the...
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Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
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