IOWA — You heard it last week from an Iowa transplant: Iowans eat meatloaf, casserole and Jell-O molds. This was one of several sweeping generalizations made by Stephen G. Bloom last week in his much-discussed Atlantic online article, sub-titled “thoughts from a university professor on the Iowa hamlets that will shape the contours of the GOP contest.”
So, what of the media diet of GOP contest-shaping Iowans?
Conservative talk radio, Fox News, and, to a lesser extent, the Internet are key information sources for the likely GOP caucus-goers I interviewed at two recent political events here in Iowa. My snapshot jives with a New York Times/CBS poll of likely Iowa GOP caucus-goers earlier this month which found that 37 percent of respondents get most of their TV coverage of politics from Fox News, compared to 27 percent for all the major news networks combined. Another 32 percent frequently listen to political call-in shows.
Donna Thompson of Paton was among the thousand-plus crowd in Des Moines last week at the premiere of The Gift of Life, an anti-abortion film produced by the conservative group Citizens United and narrated by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. (The event attracted four presidential candidates—Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum). Thompson gets most of her political news and information from conservative radio talk show hosts like Jan Mickelson, Simon Conway, and Rush Limbaugh on WHO Radio in Des Moines. She doesn’t subscribe to a newspaper, watch TV newscasts, or read political coverage online, but feels well-informed about the presidential candidates.
“I enjoy hearing about people’s views on each of the candidates,” Thompson said of the radio programs. “It kind of helps me to know what direction I want to go. But it seems like when I get one I want, then they’re out of there or I’m told I shouldn’t vote for them.”
Those shifting messages may help explain why, when we spoke, Thompson was still unsure whom she would support at the caucuses. She liked businessman Herman Cain and is now interested in Perry. A self-described “proud Christian,” she also likes Bachmann, but doesn’t think the Minnesota congresswoman can beat President Obama.
And while Thompson gets most of her political news from right-leaning sources, she said she wishes there were a TV station that presented “fair” coverage of both political parties—which, as she explained it, seemed to mean less aggressive, or less hostile, coverage. “It’s too bad there isn’t a station that’s fair with both of them,” she said. “I just wish there was somebody that just wasn’t biased against somebody, just let everybody talk and give their opinion.”
Jim Welsher of Des Moines, also in the audience for the premiere, listed talk radio shows and Fox News as his major sources of political information. Welsher referred to CNN as “the Clinton News Network,” and said he doesn’t read the Des Moines Register. “Oh yeah,” Welsher said when asked if he thinks the state’s largest paper is biased.
His favorite show hosts, Welsher said, include Huckabee, Mickelson, Conway, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. But perhaps the biggest influence on his thinking this election cycle have been the numerous GOP presidential debates—a hallmark of what the Washington Post and Politico have referred to as this campaign’s “national” character—which Welsher compared to Super Bowl Sunday at his house. He said he’s supporting Gingrich in large part because of Gingrich’s strong debate performances.
“I like Newt because he’s not afraid to say how it is or [refuses to] sugarcoat the issues with euphemisms. He seems to be a tried and true leader,” Welsher said, adding that he was initially a Perry supporter. “He’s got his baggage but I think he’s strong enough to overcome it. He seems like the smartest man in the race. He’s won each debate that I’ve watched.”
The skepticism about mainstream sources was shared by others in the audience. Barbara Welch of Polk City, who plans to support either Santorum or Ron Paul, agreed that outlets like CNN and the Register are “biased.”
Here’s our show about Bloom’s article:
“Four native Iowans talk about the depiction of them and the state they call home in Stephen Bloom’s scathing and controversial article in The Atlantic Monthly, his motives for publishing it, the response its generated across the state, and its national implications with regards to Iowa’s first in the nation voting status.”
http://patv.tv/blog/2011/12/18/talking-with-stephen-blooms-observations-oniowa/
#1 Posted by Yale Cohn, CJR on Tue 20 Dec 2011 at 01:32 PM
What do Democratic rank-and-filers eat, wear, drive? Where do they get their information? Republican constituency groups are objectified (and stereotyped) as a routine part of mainstream journalism. What is missing is a similarly dispassionate objectification of the other side. It's not as though liberal activist Democrats are not themselves an easily-identified social category, from their bumper-stickers to their eating habits.
#2 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Tue 20 Dec 2011 at 04:49 PM
Could it be that the lack of Democratic Presidential primaries makes the Republican ones more interesting to write about? Nahhhhh.
#3 Posted by garhighway, CJR on Tue 20 Dec 2011 at 06:39 PM
Excellent pivot Mark, change the subject, attack the messenger don't address the substantive issues in the article. FOX and Rove couldn't do it better.
Don't like the facts? Attack the reporter.
Story is about where voter in the GOP primary get their news, to attack it because it doesn't say bad things about Liberals or Democrats, if churlish and irrelevant. Typical whinny thin skinned Winger victim. (See that's how you do it, point the flaws then call the person names.)
#4 Posted by Grumpy Demo, CJR on Wed 21 Dec 2011 at 08:47 AM
It's concerning and indefensible that brain-washed dimwits like these have such an outsized influence over which Republican candidate is going to run for president. Iowa should be collectively embarrassed and ashamed.
#5 Posted by James, CJR on Wed 21 Dec 2011 at 11:52 AM
James I don't agree with any of what these people say, but why call them dimwits? The point of the article seems to be that the people will will pick the GOP candidate don't get their news from the MSM. Which is interesting given the amount of money going into running TV ads on MSM sources. If you disagree with theeir views and they are telling you where they get those views, you could encourage a more diverse set of information sources, or encourage the sources they do use to have different views. But given the information diets these people consume they are making decisions based on some reasoning, even if id does not agree with your reasoning. The point appears to be that they are starting from completely different facts, and discussions about issues that the MSM disregard entirely.
Brain-washed I agree with. And the shame extends to the entire country.
#6 Posted by Timothywmurray, CJR on Wed 21 Dec 2011 at 01:51 PM
To garhighway, I can't comment on a story that doesn't run. There will be Democratic voters this year in spite of the absence of a primary fight. The overall point, supported by the story above, is that political journalists spend far more energy skeptically objectifying and stereotyping groups and movements on the political Right than on the political Left.
To Grumpy, attack the reporter? Where'd I attack the reporter?
To James, Iowa has 'collectively' elected the by-the-numbers Democratic Harkin to be its US Senator for going on 30 years. Is this the shame of the state to which you refer? Same question to Timothymurray in regard to the US and Obama. If there's any state that should be ashamed of its politicians, it's smart, hip, solidly Democratic California, but a lot of people in the chattering classes avert their eyes from the dysfunction in that state which has now gone on for over a decade. Or maybe Democratic Illinois, which just sent the fourth of its last eight governors to prison, and which is trying to hold on to businesses after raising its taxes again. But, as I say, journalists seldom isolate and scrutinize these places - they're not 'conservative' environments.
#7 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Thu 22 Dec 2011 at 12:24 PM
Shocking... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Q2EVcCWzU
#8 Posted by really?, CJR on Fri 23 Dec 2011 at 09:34 PM
To ca political news, that's what they used to say about the state of New York. If you live in high-profile media precincts, such as NY and California, it is true that you get a lot of press. But it is strikiing that a state like Texas, still seen by NY and CA as some kind of backwater, now headquarters more Fortune 500 companies than does NY, an amazing shift in American economic history. Texas is not a 'media industry' state, so you don't hear much news framed around this reality.
California's great advantages are being squandered by its complacent upper classes. There is a comparison to the way Britain lost its leadership of the industrial revolution in the late 1800s, and the way New York squandered its standing as the premier state in the country after World War 2 (First in population when John Kennedy was elected, it is now fourth.) The political elites got comfortable with the way things were and started legislating against growth and innovation. 'The next big thing' might come out of California, a state with enormous natural and human resources. But the inventor of a better mousetrap looks at a lot of other places first nowadays, and those middle class workers who are needed to make a great industry cannot afford to move to California the way they used to. For the reasons why, you could do no better than to look at the quality of political leadership the state has produced since its days of dynamism started to wilt in the 1980s.
Writers at CJR and elsewhere in the mainstream media have written a lot of pieces unfavorably contrasting the US and western European countries, usually with a more-government, more-regulation, higher-taxes subtext. But you don't see much about the relative performances of states in the US with reference to their politics. Which states are growing in jobs & population, which are not, which states are 'younger', which states are 'aging' - and why. There's a reason for this.
#9 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Sat 24 Dec 2011 at 06:49 PM
Gay Marriage and mandatory healthcare became law under Governor Mitt Romney. He supports gay rights, abortion and affirmative action. Check this youtube video out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI
#10 Posted by David Marshall, CJR on Fri 30 Dec 2011 at 04:27 PM
Re David Marshall's post, President Obama has been winking/nudging/signalling his support of same-sex marriage after saying he opposed it in the election year of 2008. My guess is that Obama will say he is for same-sex marriage after, and if, he is re-elected. Flip-flops are OK with the lamestream media if the flip-flop is to the cultural Left side of issues. That's called 'evolving'. But if you flip-flop the other way, the lamestreamers - painfully and pathetically predictable in how they frame 'the news', particularly concerning the 'social issues' - really slam away.
The President also spoke at the outset of his assuming office that if things didn't improve significantly by 2012, he ought to be a one-term president. I wonder if journalists will hold him to that one in the upcoming year's political framing and coverage. Nah.
#11 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Sat 31 Dec 2011 at 12:30 PM
Let me summarize California's political problems - Everyone complains that they have less money, while spending like there is no tomorrow. You can't have it both ways.
#12 Posted by california political news, CJR on Tue 31 Jan 2012 at 07:17 AM