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April 29, 2008
Just Say No (News)
Zachary Roth's latest at CJR Daily demonstrates the difference between print (in which I include the internet) and television as news media. Print is a medium of propositional content and television is not. Television is a medium of sound and images.
The L. A. Times has ten questions for the candidates. These are not the kind of questions you typically hear from reporters working for television (although the best among them try). The reason is simple: Television cannot handle the answers. Television demands sound bites and moving pictures. Answers to these questions demand that the candidate deal with the normal complexities and contradictions of politics and policy. Only print can handle these kinds of questions and elicit the kinds of answers necessary to understanding the candidates' policies (or lack thereof).
Roth quotes Adam Nagourney, of The New York Times, questioning what has become the conventional wisdom (the master narrative) of the last Democratic debate:
For all the concern voiced about the lack of discussion about issues like Iraq and health care, it seems fair to say that even the most slightly attuned Democratic voters already have a well-formed sense of the views of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama. Further, one of the central dynamics of this campaign — and why things have seemed so strained as the candidates have sought areas of difference — is that these are two Democrats with fairly similar views of the world.
I think he's wrong about what people know about the candidates (largely because substantive reporting about policy and governance is sparse compared to the horse race). But let's suppose he's right about something else. What a wonderful argument this is for sending all those reporters home to their families. What he's saying here — perhaps without knowing it — is that no news happens regularly on the campaign trail. I know that's true.
But when you fill the campaign bus with reporters —especially those who struggle to make TV work — and give them a 24-hour beast to feed, nonsense and trivia are what you're going get. The debacle of the last debate is exactly what we all should expect.
Tags: journalism, rhetoric, politics
Posted by acline at April 29, 2008 10:39 PM | | Spotlight