the kicker

The "Race Card" Game: Ginned Up?

Politico’s Avi Zenilman makes a great observation: The “race card” dispute between McCain and Obama has baredly shown up on the front page of swing-state papers...
August 1, 2008

Politico’s Avi Zenilman makes a great observation:

The “race card” dispute between McCain and Obama has baredly shown up on the front page of swing-state papers across the country–so far–even if it made the front of The New York Times.



A look at Newseum’s archive showed that the story made the front in Springfield, MO and Fort Collins, Colorado, while Exxon’s record profits got top billing all over the countrly.



The Detroit Free Press wrote that the personal attacks could backfire on McCain, and almost every Iowa paper focused on Obama meeting with flood victims or talking about energy policy.

Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.