PAPERS SHOULD TACKLE ISSUES IN ELECTION'S FINAL DAYS

By: Joe Strupp Stop Focusing On Internal Campaigns, Veteran Reporters Say





In the final two weeks before the election, newspapers need to keep a firm eye on the issues, according to a panel of veteran political reports who spoke last week at the annual Associated Press Managing Editors conference in San Antonio.



Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism reiterated findings from three studies released this year that indicate most presidential campaign stories had veered from the presentation of facts to opinion or interpretation. "There is a problem here," Rosenstiel said. "We don't write enough about what is happening, but about why we think it is happening."



Rosenstiel cited a February 2000 study of 430 stories leading up to the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses that showed only 13% were about candidate ideas or issues, while 80% focused on matters impacting the parties or the campaigns, such as tactics or internal campaign problems.



"We did not do very much this year scrubbing the public record of these candidates," Rosenstiel added. "We did it in looking at their campaigns, but not at their records."



Other panelists complained that reporters use too many anonymous sources, which allows the campaigns to dictate reporting. "To allow someone only identified as a key advisor to Al Gore to say that George Bush can't put his pants on right is unconscionable," said Walters Mears of The Associated Press.



Geneva Overholser of the Washington Post Writers Group agreed. "It's worse than just losing credibility, it's actually harming democracy," she said. "One thing we need to do is give more of the candidates in their own words."



David McNeely of the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said the length of the campaign has caused many reporters to be worn out during the final weeks and possibly become complacent. But the final weeks are the worst time for a slowdown because most voters begin their focused attention on the races at that time, he said.



"In a perfect world, this is the time we would come back and do some real examination of Social Security and issues that really do matter," McNeely said.



The panel offered a list of suggestions for editors to make coverage in the final weeks more useful:





o Cut back on tracking polls.

o Don't ignore state and local elections.

o Think "counter-approach" - find stories that don't appear elsewhere.

o Provide side-by-side comparisons on issues.

o Edit out anonymous attacks between campaigns.

o Monitor campaign spending and advertising claims.







Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.







Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.