Swing States Project

Campaign Desk, Swing States Project — June 19, 2012 12:05 PM

Why Romney looks more ‘confident’ in reporters’ eyes

It’s journalism-speak for “seeming more likely to win”

By Brendan Nyhan

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Devastatingly right. And it's more than a little ironic that pointing out the journalistic meme about confidence exposes how much of expert political coverage is itself a confidence game.

#1 Posted by RobC, CJR on Tue 19 Jun 2012 at 12:34 PM

Good overall point by Brendan Nyhan about fickle and often evidence-free campaign coverage, but what about today's NYT piece about Romney's continuing wooden, tone-deaf campaigning style? Some things don't change no matter what horse-race reporters say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/us/politics/road-trip-helps-romney-brush-up-on-banter.html?hp

#2 Posted by Harris Meyer, CJR on Tue 19 Jun 2012 at 02:33 PM

MSM journalists are dupes, court historians, and cowards. The only way they can get away with telling their readers that the two candidates are fundamentally different is by not exposing the sameness of the candidates' fascistic, lying, tyrannical, imperial, war-mongering tendencies.

#3 Posted by Dan A., CJR on Wed 20 Jun 2012 at 04:21 AM

It seems remarkable to me that the CJR is just now realizing how much journalists suck at their jobs. The rest of us have known this for many years.

The reality of modern journalism is that journalists seldom have deep knowledge of what they are reporting, are burdened with ridiculously naive political biases and work in an environment where the duty to inform is irrelevant as compared with the duty to drive traffic.

Ill-educated and improperly motivated equals failure.

#4 Posted by Mick Stockinger, CJR on Wed 20 Jun 2012 at 12:59 PM

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