[lit-ideas] Re: Campaigns
- From: Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Robert Paul)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 14 Aug 2004 12:22:13 PDT
Ursula writes:
> Nothing on the front page of the NYTimes web edition.
> Nothing in the San Francisco Examiner.
> Nothing in the Chicago-Sun-Times.
> Nothing in the Chicago Tribune.
>Nothing in...
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Ursula is onto something. The size and enthusiasm of Kerry's crowd (vs. Bush's
invitation-only 3,000 or so) isn't the story for the national media. Even this
morning's Oregonian plays it as a debate over the economy, taxes, etc. They
presented it with that faux even-handedness that gives equal time to nonsense on
stilts, and made sure to note that both candidates spoke to wildly enthusiastic
crowds, even though one crowd outnumbered the other by 46,500. Would anybody
expect hand-picked Bush supporters not to cheer el Joffre?
CNN had a story fairly late in the evening our time, which means that few on the
East Coast would have seen it. And of course there were the tropical storms,
which were covered pretty much non-stop even though the reports were
uninformative, uninformed, and repetitious.
Something else though: I was watching the local noon news yesterday. They were
switching back and forth between the waterfront crowd and the empty podium at
Bush's high school. Then, one of the talking heads announced that they would go
live with whichever candidate began to speak first (and play a tape of the other
immediately following). Of course, W's handlers were adept enough to wind him up
and get him onstage first. The noon news became George Bush's speech to a
captive audience. (This might even have gone out live on one of the cable news
networks.) Kerry's team gets an F for this. They just blew it. Nobody had Kerry
live.
Anyway, W flew to Seattle, Friday night. (Laura stayed in town to speak at a
Republican fund raiser.) Kerry went for a bike ride along the river. Today he's
going up the Columbia Gorge to do some windsurfing.
There's another thing that explains Ursula's report. All of this happened on the
West Coast somewhere outside of Los Angeles. The entire Pacific Northwest could
fall into the ocean without its being front page news. It might make the sports
page if the Mariners happened to be playing--but only if they were playing the
Yankees.
Robert Paul
The Reed Institute
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