Mr. Lehrer…
Jay Rosen asks: Does Jim Lehrer of PBS have a style and what are the consequences of that style in a presidential debate?
As for personal style, I’d call him a slightly grumpy Ward Cleaver. He’s the dad you don’t want to try to fool because his B.S. detector is very sensitive. Yet he’s understanding without being condescending. His ethos: trust.
Lehrer’s personal style mixes well with his superior reporter’s ear. He listens well enough to know what to follow-up and when to do it. You can see this in the list of questions. It’s organic. It evolved as the debate progressed (did you see that book of notes!?). His skill turned what promised to be nothing but a presentation of spin and sound bites into something more nearly debate like. In this he did citizens a great favor.
post-debate chatter
Just a collection of links I’ve collected for my American Dialogues course: The first round. I’m mixing commentary from bloggers with that of columnists for the “traditional media,” as well as overview news articles. More later, ac (after coffee). Mich…
[cross posted at PressThink]
A. Venesky’s comment sparked this thought. Where was the question about furthering democracy in the world? For example, was it interesting that Iran was discussed concerning their nuclear program, but not their democratic movement.
I examined the rhetoric, key words, in the transcript and thought I would share what I found.
In fact, the word democracy was mentioned only 6 times in a transcript containing over 15,000 words. President Bush said it four times. Once in reference to Iraq and the other three times referring to Russia in response to Mr. Lehrer’s question about Putin’s reforms. Senator Kerry mentioned it twice, both times referring to Russia in response to the same question.
Hmmmm, Mr. Lehrer was moderating a debate about foreign policy, right? American foreign policy? Exporting democracy? Defending liberty?
Liberty was mentioned 4 times. Each time by the President, not once by Senator Kerry.
Freedom was mentioned 11 times. President Bush mentioned it 9 times total, 8 times before Senator Kerry mentioned it once. All total, Senator Kerry mentioned it twice.
Free?
Free was the clear winner. Said 30 times (not counting one nuclear-weapons-free North Korea). President Bush said it 28 times, Senator Kerry – twice. In fact, the President said it 20 times before the Senator used it twice, his total, in the same sentence.
The breakdown for Bush:
- free Iraq (12)
- free Afghanistan (5)
- free nations (3)
- free world (1)
- free (7)
Obviously the candidates had different themes and democracy, liberty, freedom and being free was more a theme for the President than Senator Kerry.
I wonder how much of that was influenced by the questions, defending foreign policy objectives, or message speak independent of what was asked?
At one point Lehrer could be criticized for trying to act as an interviewer, pulling a response from Pres. Bush, remember the following exchange:
[KERRY] [...]Just because the president says it can’t be done, that you’d lose China, doesn’t mean it can’t be done. I mean, this is the president who said “There were weapons of mass destruction,” said “Mission accomplished,” said we could fight the war on the cheap — none of which were true.
We could have bilateral talks with Kim Jong Il. And we can get those weapons at the same time as we get China. Because China has an interest in the outcome, too.
LEHRER: Thirty seconds, Mr. President.
BUSH: You know my opinion on North Korea. I can’t say it any more plainly.
LEHRER: Well, but when he used the word “truth” again…
BUSH: Pardon me?
LEHRER: … talking about the truth of the matter. He used the word “truth” again. Did that raise any hackles with you?
BUSH: Oh, I’m a pretty calm guy. I don’t take it personally.
LEHRER: OK. All right.
BUSH: You know, we looked at the same intelligence and came to the same conclusion: that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat.
And I don’t hold it against him that he said grave threat. I’m not going to go around the country saying he didn’t tell the truth, when he looked at the same intelligence I did.
(BTW: Did Congress have the same intelligence Bush had? I thought Bush and Cheney had separate WH operations going on? Chalabi, etc.)