Campaign Remedies: Missed Issues

By: So, in all this excitement, what did the press miss during the presidential election? Most agree that it was the influence of the religious right and the swelled ranks of conservative, evangelical voters who came out in the "red" states for Bush, enough to push him over the top. "Everyone is having to go back and look at the issue of religion," says Balz. "It was a motivating force for many voters."

Cal Thomas expands this notion to include other issues such as voters' opinions on abortion and values. "They shied away a lot from the moral, spiritual issues," says Thomas. "You see it covered in terms of what leaders say, but you rarely see a sound, reasoned presentation of abortion." The columnist also believes newspapers "failed to ask the question about why people think the government can fix their morals."

Beyond this, other under-covered issues included social security reform, health care changes, gas prices, the economy, poverty, and fiscal issues. Some in the press argue that they can only cover what the candidates choose to bring up. "Newspapers tried to cover the health issue, but had a tough time because the candidates wouldn't talk about it," Susan Page says. "People did stories on them, but the campaigns should have done more."

Brownstein made the same argument for Social Security, claiming it was covered, but it was unable to be inserted often: "The press should not shape the day-to-day dialogue, because we are not running." Germond contends that issues such as health care and the economy were covered, but voters didn't focus on them. "Kerry told us what his health care plan was and newspapers printed it, but not everyone read it," he says.

USA Today columnist Walter Shapiro, who wrote a book about the presidential race at its midpoint, found a lack of stories offering an "astute primer" of what a second Bush term would look like. He also criticizes the disappearance of the Abu Ghraib scandal and a lack of reporting on how campaigns spent money.

"On the whole, newspapers got a B," Shapiro judges. "There was not some big missing ingredient. There are no major shocks coming out afterward."

Alex Jones claims voters could find out from newspapers all they needed on a candidate if they looked for it. Others, such as Jeffe, praised the more effective use of Web sites, including in-depth electoral graphs and maps. "I loved that things could stay online longer and be expanded," she says. "There was a greater synergy [between print and Web] than before."