BOSTON GLOBE'S ROBINSON DOESN'T PLAY FAVORITES

By: Todd Shields E&P's Campaign Confidential





WASHINGTON - It's been a good political season for The Boston Globe's Walter V. Robinson. During the presidential primaries, he uncovered U.S. Sen. John McCain's use of corporate aircraft, and he later found a puzzling gap in George W. Bush's military-service record. But don't think that only a Republican will attract the reporter's attention. In a front-page story on Sept. 18, Robinson pointed out Democrat Al Gore's problems with drug prices.



Vice President Gore told seniors his mother-in-law paid nearly three times as much for the same arthritis medicine used for his ailing dog. But aides couldn't confirm that either the woman or the dog actually takes the drug. "Gore, the master of many policy details, mangled the facts," wrote Robinson.

Robinson, 54, said he followed a tip and found that Gore had cited drug prices that were identical to costs cited in a congressional study. "It was immediately apparent he lifted those figures," Robinson told E&P.



In May, Robinson looked at Bush's much-researched life and found the Republican may not have reported for some National Guard duty in the early 1970s. (Bush insists he did.) Newsweek and other publications followed with their own stories.



Robinson said both nominees' backers are mad at him because, he said, "I've gone down the middle of the street and shot out windows on both sides."



Anybody listening? (I)


Third-party candidates are not happy with the level of press coverage they're receiving.



"There's no doubt that there's been a media blackout on our campaign for a year," Reform Party

nominee Patrick Buchanan told National Public Radio's Bob Edwards in a recent interview.



The perception is no brighter over at the Green Party. "Yesterday I had a press conference on corporate crime, great detail, a very important issue ... and there's virtually no press," nominee Ralph Nader said at Long Beach State University in mid-September. Low press interest may result from low poll numbers. Nader said the equation works the other way, too.



Anybody listening? (II)



Fewer and fewer Americans turn to newspapers as their principal source of news about presidential campaigns, according to the Pew Research Center. In a survey conducted in July, the center found 31% of respondents listed newspapers as their leading source of campaign information - down from 48% four years earlier. Pew found older people are the most likely to rely on newspapers for coverage.





Todd Shields (tshields@editorandpublisher.com) is Washington editor for E&P.





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