Much ado about nothing…
Teddy Roosevelt called the office of president a “bully good pulpit” because the presidency attracts the kind of media and public attention that allows the chief executive to bypass Congress and take concerns directly to the people. Television, radio, internet, and print journalism are the primary media of this bypassing.
A president’s communication strategy should be complex because journalism, while a structured practice, is not practiced uniformly among the various media. It doesn’t take an academic study to demonstrate the differences between the quality of journalism produced by a local TV station and that of a major daily newspaper.
In the era of electronic communication, the pulpit strategy has been refined. Now presidents try to bypass certain media because, as George Bush says, there exists a “filter” between himself and the people. There’s actually more than one, some of them even created by the administration. But never mind.
That President Bush is taking his message to regional TV is not surprising. There is something very amusing here, however, and that is all the hand-wringing by big-time journalists over the competence of local media. These national boys just don’t trust the yokels to get the job done:
Andrew Kohut, who runs the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, said the White House is correct that viewers tend to trust their local news more than network television, and he said local news has held its own while network news has declined. Coincidentally or not, Bush’s public standing has improved. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday found his support had jumped to 56 percent from 50 percent in September.
But some in the national media say the White House strategy amounts to shopping for softer questioning. “It’s much more often the case in doing local or regional interviews that reporters come to the interview at least a bit star-struck, at least a bit less prepared for how to focus the interview on questions and answers in the public interest and a bit more willing to accept what the White House position is on matters of controversy,” said Mark Halperin, ABC News political director. Halperin said he intends no slight to regional reporters but that Bush is “more sophisticated” about avoiding the national media “than anybody who has ever held the job.”
What’s really silly about all of this is: We live in a rich media environment. So it’s unlikely that Bush can control the message to such an extent that other messages will be blocked or ignored. If the locals don’t get the job done then the print jockeys, the radio flamers, the bloggers, and the entertainers, who are watching all of this unfold in real time, will.
This is an interesting point. I am aware of research out there that suggests that once a campaign begins the “people” are not swayed by campaigns ads, posters, bumper stickers etc… these things only serve to re-enforce pre-existing tendencies… in otherwords if people don’t like it they just ignore it. To what extent though does that same thing work here? In otherwords is Bush doing anything by changing an outlet or are people simply going to pick up on what they like and ignore what they do not like?
What’s the verdict? Also… though if people trust local news more than network or “hollywood” or whatever… is it possible that Bush’s tactic may take the Agnew attacks to a new level… that this may help re-enforce existing opinions and give the “people” an easier way to ignore nat’l press, democrats, 9/11 victims who have been shafted, hollywood, the U.N., every breathing literate person on earth?
Alexander…Yes, I’m aware of those studies–they also demonstrate that people are not turned off by negative campaigning
I have no “verdict” other than this: In my opinion, the media enviornment is too rich today to allow this particular “pulpit” tactic to do much good.
Dear Dr Cline
Going to the local press is an easy way to get a message out without having hard questions asked by the locals. If the treatment of celebrities is any way that the President will be treated, all that will happen is that there will a few softball questions asked and possibly a semi-hard one to justify their claim of being journalists. I’m afraid that they will be awed by the office of the President and not force any issues. The recent Ashcroft tour/defence of the Patriot act seemed to be a warm-up to Bush’s tour. The local media let him have a platform with little or no critique as few questions or questioners were allowed. WIth most people getting their news & information from television they are not going to look for more from the net or other sources.
daveb…yes, I’m aware of all that. My contention is that this really doesn’t work as well as some may think because we live in a rich media environment.