Media Criticism

Anyone who has lived in “flyover country” is aware of the prevalence of community newspapers in addition to major dailies. These newspapers put on the appearance of hard news provided under a folksy lens. The reality is that most of these community dailies, weeklies and monthlies are owned by major publishing companies and overzealous individuals. There are few aspects of community media left untouched by the growing slick of corporatism. The Port Reyes Light case offered in this month’s Columbia Journalism Review seems to be a microcosm of this problem.

Writer Jonathan Rowe outlines the takeover of the Light, a small community paper in West Marin County, California, by Robert Plotkin in 2005. Plotkin brought in the crass sensationalism and pretentiousness of a big-city journalist to a newspaper accustomed to covering local meetings and uncovering events. Plotkin’s approach to the Light alienated advertisers, old timers on the newspaper’s staff and others accustomed to pure journalism prior to the takeover. I was amazed to find out that the Light won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for investigating a local chemical company. The paper has won some local awards since Plotkin’s purchase of the paper though this has more to do with slick layouts and technical design instead of pertinent information.

The fight over the soul of the Port Reyes Light led former owner Dave Mitchell to work with the upstart West Marin Citizen and other projects to fight Plotkin’s journalism school sensibility. I admire Mitchell and others involved in fighting against the current version of the Light. There is something sacred about print dailies that talk about issues that matter to small communities. Journalism students may blanch at reporting on farm issues, debates over land use and other local issues but these are the lifeblood of most communities. West Marin County is not Los Angeles, Tokyo or London; it does not have the same issues as a major city. Reporters need to be acquainted with locals, going as far to live in the place they report on to become conversant in the issues.

I think the growth in self-publishing and blogging will benefit print dailies despite the antithetical nature of this statement. Individuals who see injustice in their own backyard will gain confidence in their writing ability as they show off their amateur journalistic skills. People who write about local issues in books that would not be published by a major publishing house and get some interest from readers will be emboldened to write more. The democratization of journalism means that students from Berkeley and Cambridge won’t be the only ones who can report on issues that matter to Americas living between the coasts. We can see with the situation in West Marin County that a small town in California can offer a plan of action for residents in Nebraska, Wisconsin and Montana.

The Des Moines Register published a poll on Sunday that showed Senator Hillary Clinton gaining a lead on previous Iowa favorite John Edwards and the “it” candidate, Senator Barack Obama. The Clinton campaign and the mainstream media have pushed this recent success by Clinton as a sign that she is emerging as the most viable candidate for the Democrats. My question about this poll and other polls is whether they are a product or a generator of media hype. In other words, does the Des Moines Register poll result from Clinton’s hype in the national press or will the poll generate greater press for Clinton and feed conspiracy theories among independents?

I look back to the Iowa Republican Party’s straw poll as an example of how starved for news the mainstream media is these days. The poll was bought by Mitt Romney and not attended by Giuliani, McCain and Fred Thompson. The hype around Romney’s success and the dark horse success of Governor Mike Huckabee were grasped onto by major newspapers and TV networks after months of exhausting rhetoric. The answer to my original question based on the Iowa straw poll and subsequent straw polls in other states is that the poll is reflective of media attention rather than grassroots support.

Clinton and Romney share a similar problem in a general election. Both candidates would try to point out flip-flopping and political opportunism while failing to address their own flip-flopping and opportunism in the past. The Iowa caucuses are still three months away and there are too many independents in states like Iowa and New Hampshire to claim that Senator Clinton has struck a blow against her opponents. I implore the national press and the voters of early primary states to consider their choices carefully and avoid these polls like the plague.

The underlying theme of any presidential primary debate depends on who is hosting the candidates. Forums held by the AFL-CIO will probably not deal with the environment while the Logo Network debate probably won’t get too far into the Iraq War. I understand that the good graces of the host make a focused debate a necessity in order to get the best questions from the panel. The Democratic debate held on September 9th on Spanish-language channel Univision may be drawing too fine a line in pleasing constituents with debates that few people watch.

I think that Hispanic voters who are interested in the debates have probably watched the endless hours of debates already conducted across the country. The political correctness that is rife within the Democratic Party was obvious when Senator Dodd and Governor Richardson (who is HISPANIC!) tried to speak Spanish to the chagrin of hosts. Every candidate was required to speak English which was then translated into Spanish for the viewing audience. The difficulty of listening to candidates of any party lay out their talking points for an hour and a half is made more significant when it is filtered several times over.

All of these points lead to one conclusion: the primary season is not too long, just the list of debates. While I have an interest in what candidates have to say on gay marriage or the environment, I don’t want to hear 90 minutes on the topic. I have not decided who I will vote for in my primary and I definitely have not thought about the general election yet. Like most voters, I will make a decision as I approach the ballot box. These debates are focused too much on a particular issue based on questions from single-minded forum moderators and offer nothing that a look at each candidate’s website won’t yield. If the Democrats and Republicans insist on holding similar debates in future election seasons, here are a few suggestions:

1) Let local news stations host the debates, not issue-oriented groups.
2) Space these debates out so that you have no more than one every month.
3) Stay away from the YouTube debate…please!

Citizen journalism may be coming to one of the biggest debates in the Presidential Primary season in New Hampshire.

A blurb from MediaWeek:

WMUR-TV Pacts With Gather.com for Pres. Debate
WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., the station at ground zero for presidential politics, is turning to the blogging community to recruit citizen journalists for the upcoming June presidential debates. Throughout the month, (May 8 to May 27), the Hearst-Argyle Television ABC station has partnered with Gather.com to sponsor an open writing competition (Your Voice, Your Vote, Your Next President) to find 15 citizen journalists (five Democrats, five Republicans and five Independents). Katy Bachman reports. more »

Above: Maybe the citizen journalist could ask Rudy what happened to his hair? Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani reacts when a supporter tells him she was getting his autograph for her 93-year-old mother following his campaign stop at Valley High School, Tuesday, April 3, 2007, in West Des Moines, Iowa. Rudy Giuliani Addresses Supporters in Des Moines, Iowa.

New Hampshire, primaries, debates, Presidential election, Presidential debates, 2008 election, citizen journalism