By: Who won? Who lost? And in the end, who cared? The simple assessment of the importance of the lavishly covered three presidential debates is that they mattered little because, by most accounts, Kerry won all three but still lost the election.
Still, most of those who spoke with E&P found the reporting fair and accurate, while praising the increased fact-checking by newspapers of statements and accusations made during the 90-minute events. In some cases, newspaper Web sites debunked incorrect comments almost in real time.
"Newspapers really pointed out the inconsistencies and accuracies," says Jack Germond, former columnist for The Sun of Baltimore (he grades overall press performance for the campaign a C-). Page of USA Today also gave a thumbs-up.
This year may also mark the beginning of the end for "spin alley," the post-debate gathering where campaign hacks tell reporters why their candidates won. "It became less important to be in the debate city to get a dateline," says Sandalow. "It was better to cover it on television instead of sitting in a spin room." Blankley declares: "Spin alley is almost ready to disappear. It's become more and more obvious that it's just straight-out lying. It's gotten sort of silly."
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