By: Todd Shields Stories Focused On Campaign Strategy, Not Issues
WASHINGTON - The American public long has told pollsters it
is tired of negativism in political campaigning. If so, readers
may be tiring of newspaper coverage as well. For, according to a
new survey, press coverage was "strikingly negative" during the
closing weeks of the 2000 presidential campaign.
Newspaper stories in late September and October that concentrated
on Democrat Al Gore were negative 56% of the time, as were 51% of
newspaper stories about Republican George W. Bush, according to
research conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The Washington-based group, part of Columbia University's
Graduate School of Journalism, assessed coverage by broadcasters,
Internet sites, and four newspapers: The Washington Post, The
New York Times, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel,
and The Oregonian of Portland, Ore.
Leading Internet news sites surveyed were more negative than
newspapers, and TV was less so, the project said in its study
issued Oct. 31. The survey assessed coverage during weeks when
debates offered a vehicle for discussion of issues. Yet the press
focused on strategy, the study found.
Newspapers devoted 31% of presidential coverage to issues such as
health care and taxes - a higher percentage than TV or
Internet sites, the survey found. Even so, it found 53% of
newspaper stories mulled such matters as campaign strategy or
reviewed the debates as dramatic performances.
Said Amy Mitchell, a Project for Excellence staff member, "Even
newspapers, while they did better than other media ... were not
focused on the issues."
Todd Shields (tshields@editorandpublisher.com) is the Washington editor for E&P.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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