Press Plays It (Mainly) Straight in First Reports on Bush-Kerry Debate

By: E&P Staff When newspapers weighed in on Thursday night's presidential debate, they focused, as did the contest, on the split between the two candidates on the war in Iraq. USA Today, like many, highlighted Sen. John Kerry's charge that President Bush made "a colossal error in judgment" in going to war in Iraq, while Bush said Kerry had sent "mixed messages" that endangered America's security. The Washington Post described the candidates' "different vision over how to protect the nation."

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the cable-news talking-head reactions was conservative commentators, such as columnist Mort Kondracke, giving the nod to Kerry or expressing disappointment in Bush's performance. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said that Kerry had clearly "won on points." Columnist Fred Barnes, on Fox News: "Kerry did very well, and we will have a Presidential race from here on out."

As many had urged, however, most of the news reports played it straight with little obvious spin. USA Today reported instant polls on Web site later Thursday night: "Early polls indicated Americans felt Kerry had won the debate. Fifty-three percent of Americans polled in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll said Kerry had won, compared to 37% for Bush. Kerry also was ahead in polls taken by CBS News and ABC News."

By Friday morning, opinion and analysis showed up in print. In his column, Robert Novak declared, "On debater's points, the Demcoratic nominee won a narrow victory. But he needed more than that."

The New York Times, in addition to its lead blow-by-blow, published a front-page "news analysis" by Todd Purdum that was kind to Kerry. Inside, a "TV Watch" column by Alessandra Stanley reviewed some of the style points, including a Bush problem caused by his campaign insisting on podiums of equal height for the two men. This cut off Bush at mid-chest and "made him look smaller, as if he were in a bunker."

The Times was also one of the first papers to weigh in with an editorial on the debate, scoring it for Kerry and noting Bush's "petulant" expressions.

The Associated Press moved at least two analysis stories. Calvin Woodward commented on the two andidates "stretching the record," noting that Bush exaggerated the decimation of al-Qaeda while Kerry seem to suggest only the rich got a tax cut recently. "Self-serving oversimplifications marked the first presidential debate," he wrote.

Another AP piece, by Terence Hunt, observed that "Bush appeared perturbed when Kerry leveled some of his charges, scowling at times and looking away in apparent disgust at others. Kerry often took notes when the president spoke."

Several other reporters also commented that no matter how you scored the debate on points, the cutaways to a candidate while the other spoke seemed to damage Bush the most, often finding him in a "grimace" or worse. His camp had tried to prevent TV outlets from doing this, to no avail.

Many newspaper sites sponsored their own Web polls, though notoriously unreliable. Polls this morning at the sites for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle all favored Kerry by a wide margin.

The thinking-ahead prize, however, goes to the Democratic National Committee, which ran a banner ad on the Washington Post's home page all night with the large words, "Debate Shows Kerry Strength, Bush Fails to Deliver Plan for Iraq."