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Date Posted: 22:28:28 08/07/04 Sat
Author: Weird_Enigma
Author Host/IP: 172.209.166.179
Subject: Convention coverage showed the lies of cable news
In reply to: Weird_Enigma 's message, "Media drawn into politics' labyrinth of lies" on 01:43:54 07/15/04 Thu

Some networks buying in to political `script'

Convention coverage showed how cable news adds, or removes, filters

PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times

A message to my fellow journalists: Check out media watch sites such as campaigndesk.org, mediamatters.org and dailyhowler.com. It's good to see ourselves as others see us. Particularly helpful in understanding cable news has been The Daily Howler's concept of a media "script," a story line that shapes coverage, often in the teeth of the evidence.

For example, last summer, when economic growth briefly broke into a gallop, cable news decided the economy was booming. The gallop soon slowed to a trot and then a walk. But judging from my recent mail after I wrote about the slowing economy, the script never changed. Many readers angrily insisted that my numbers disagreed with everything they had seen on TV.

If you really want to see cable news scripts in action, look at the coverage of the Democratic convention.

Commercial broadcast TV covered only an hour a night. We'll see whether Republicans get equal treatment. C-SPAN, on the other hand, provided comprehensive, commentary-free coverage. But many people watched the convention on cable news channels, and what they saw was shaped by a script portraying Democrats as angry Bush-haters who disdain the military.

If that sounds like a script written by the Republicans, it is. As the movie "Outfoxed" makes clear, Fox News is for all practical purposes a GOP propaganda agency. A now-famous poll showed that Fox viewers were more likely than those who get their news elsewhere to believe that evidence of Saddam Hussein-al-Qaida links has been found, that weapons of mass destruction had been located in Iraq and that most of the world supported the Iraq war.

CNN used to be different, but the Campaign Desk web site, run by the Columbia Journalism Review, concluded after reviewing convention coverage that CNN "has stooped to slavish imitation of Fox's most dubious ploys and policies." Seconds after John Kerry's speech, CNN gave Ed Gillespie, the Republican Party's chairman, the opportunity to bash Kerry.. Will Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe be given the same opportunity right after President Bush speaks?

Commentators worked hard to spin scenes that didn't fit the script. On Fox, Michael Barone asserted that conventioneers cheered when Kerry criticized Bush but were silent when he called for military strength. Check out the video clips at Media Matters: There was tumultuous cheering when Kerry talked about a strong America.

Another technique, pervasive on Fox and CNN, was to echo Republican claims of an "extreme makeover" -- the assertion that what viewers were seeing wasn't the true face of the party. (Apparently all those admirals, generals and decorated veterans were ringers.)

It will probably be easier to make a comparable case in New York, where the Republicans are expected to feature an array of moderate, pro-choice speakers and keep Rick Santorum and Tom DeLay under wraps. But in Boston, it took creativity to portray delegates as out of the mainstream. For example, CNN's Bill Schneider claimed that according to a New York Times/CBS News poll, 75 percent of the delegates favor "abortion on demand" -- which exaggerated the poll's real finding, which was that 75 percent opposed stricter limits than we now have.

But the real power of a script is how it can retroactively change the story about what happened.

Thursday night, Kerry's speech was a palpable hit. A focus group organized by Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, found it impressive and persuasive. Even pro-Bush commentators conceded, at first, that it had gone over well.

But a terrorism alert is already blotting out memories of last week. Although there is now a long history of alerts with remarkably convenient political timing, and Tom Ridge politicized the announcement by using the occasion to praise "the president's leadership in the war against terror," this one may be based on real information.

Regardless, it gives the usual suspects a breathing space. Once calm returns, don't be surprised if some of those same commentators begin describing the ineffective speech they expected to see, not the one they actually saw.

Luckily, in this Internet age it's possible to bypass the filter. At c-span.org you can find transcripts and videos of all the speeches. I urge everyone to watch for yourself. Make your own judgment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Krugman is a columnist for The New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., Room 943, New York, NY 10036, or krugman@nytimes.com.

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Replies:

  • conservatives & liberals believe in government magic -- Weird_Engima, 22:30:31 08/07/04 Sat
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