Media Backtalk

Consumers used to get their news from newspapers, magazines and evening broadcasts from the three television networks. Now, with the Internet, cable TV and 24-hour news networks, the news cycle is faster and more constant, with every minute carrying a new deadline. But clearly more news and more news outlets are not necessarily better. And just because the press has the ability to cover a story doesn't always mean they should -- or that they'll do it well.

Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."

Howard Kurtz (washingtonpost.com) _____Related Links_____ • Recent Columns by Howard Kurtz • Media Backtalk Archive • Message Boards

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Cincinnati, Ohio: Howard,

One of the best articles I've read all year.

Thanks

washingtonpost.com: Campaign '04, Bar Trivia '05 (Post, Nov. 1)

Howard Kurtz: Who am I to argue with such a reader of such obviously good judgment?

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Alexandria, Va.: Don't you think that while it is still possible that either George Bush or John Kerry may win tomorrow, it is obvious that the mainstream medium thinks it is going to be Bush? This is evidenced by all the liberal commentators predicting at best a tiny Kerry victory in the electoral college and the "news" column saying the race is "dead even." You know that if the media really thought it was dead even they would be predicting a narrow Kerry victory.

Howard Kurtz: I think many, but not all, journalists believe that Bush has a slight edge going in to tomorrow's voting--it's hard to defeat an incumbent, after all--but the truth is that no one really knows. I've read hundreds of polls and almost as many scenarios about get-out-the-vote, battleground states, young-people-with-cell-phones-who-favor-Kerry, folks who don't like Bush but don't want to change commanders during a war, and so on. Who knows how this thing turns out? It might all depend on the weather in Ohio.

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Baltimore, Md.: How do Karl Rove's claims that his polls show the President ahead and gaining ground warrant enough credibility to be published? He is obviously saying what he thinks will benefit his candidate (and at this time four years ago was saying Bush would win 300 electoral votes).

Howard Kurtz: So are Tad Devine and the Democrats. The are-you-going-to-win questions to both sides at this stage of the game are so pointless that I can't believe journalists bother to ask them, or to carry the responses.

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Washington, D.C.: Did you mind it when Leslie Stahl addressed you as "Howie" yesterday on CNN's "Reliable Sources"?

Howard Kurtz: I'm a big boy. I can take it. More interesting was the discussion we were having about whether CBS should be lumped in to what she called the "salad bowl" of media outlets that have sometimes trivialized or screwed up their campaign coverage. She said no, and I said no news organization is exempt from what I see as the problems with the coverage.

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Bethesda, Md.: Hi Howard,

I know you'll probably be scanning all the TV coverage tomorrow night, but if you weren't working what channel would you mainly watch for election coverage? Which coverage will be the most fair and conservative in "calling" a winner? Do you have any recommendations for us?

Howard Kurtz: I've been channel surfing for so many years, both professionally and personally, that I'm not sure I know what it's like to watch one station any more. (You should have seen me checking the Yankees/Red Sox during of the debates.) But I've talked to people at all the networks and they're all going to be more cautious than in the past about projecting state by state winners, if only because they were all so humiliated by the fiasco of 2000.

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Philadelphia, Pa.: I thought that the networks use real vote totals to call states and that exit polls were used to find out factors in voters' decision and voter demographic information. But is the main reason for exit polls to call a state? Why not use real votes like they did in 2002 and use exit polls for other informaion?

Howard Kurtz: The main reason for exit polls is to call states. Yes, they provide a wealth of important demographic information on how young, old, black, white, rich, poor, religious, non-religious, highly educated, poorly educated, wealthy and poor people are voting. But the nets wouldn't be spending a combined $10 mil on the effort if it didn't at least potentially enable them to project the next POTUS. You can't call a state on the basis of real votes for hours because it takes so long for the votes to trickle in and you're not sure which parts of the state they're coming from--a problem made even more acute by this year's surge in absentee voting.

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New York, N.Y.: Dear Mr. Kurtz: My disappointment in the performance of the press both during the runup to the war and now, during the election, is profound. I no longer trust you guys at all.

Here's one reason: you've got case after case, in state after state, of clear, specific, readily verifiable instances of Republican attempts to suppress the vote, tamper with the voting process, and perpetrate fraud on the electorate--and on the other side, frivolous Republican accusations about Dem voter misregistration, which don't hold up under scrutiny.

I think the organized Republican effort to throw the election by fraudulent means is a national scandal and a disgrace, and newsworthy in its own right.

The media's take? A glib, "Both Sides Do It!"

Do you personally know of any SPECIFIC instances where Democrats are deliberately perpetrating election fraud? And if not, can you explain to me the media's fondness for providing "balance" where there actually is none? In what way is the public's interest being served here?

Howard Kurtz: I bet I can guess which side of the electoral divide you're on. I happen to think the reporting in this area has been pretty good. While the Republicans in some states have been very aggressive in trying to intimidate or restrict or knock off potential voters who are probably Democrats, there have been some instances of real voter fraud as well -- people like Mary Poppins voting, votes being traded for crack cocaine, and so on. It's our job to look at both sides.

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West Bethesda, Md.: How is it that the so-called liberal media is giving Rudy Guiliani a pass on his disparging remarks about the troups being at fault for not looking for the explosives in Iraq? If this had been the remarks of a noted Democrat, the press would be all over it--Coulter would be crying treason, Buchanan would be organizing the pitch-forks, and Novak would be lip-syncing to Karl Rove.

Howard Kurtz: I've read and seen many stories about Giuliani's remarks, in part because Kerry aides were very aggressive in criticizing them. But if you remove it from the partisan hothouse of the campaign, what he said is not that outrageous. Is the president of the United States really responsible for every misjudgment made by a military unit, as in the case of this particular unit not searching the al-Qaqaa facility for high-grade explosives? What a president is responsible for is having a plan for a military occupation, making sure there are enough troops, communicating a strategy, setting realistic goals.

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Iowa: Can the states start counting the many absentee ballots before election day? Are there poll watchers observing the absentee ballot opening and counting?

Howard Kurtz: I don't know about the poll-watchers part, but abesentee ballot counting is under way in numerous states as I sit here typing.

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Frederick, Md.: I will be sooooo glad when the elections are over! Maybe we can go back to the regular media smut. What's Martha doing in prison? What politician is commiting adultry? And who's winning the cola wars?!

Howard Kurtz: Hey, closing arguments begin today in the Scott Peterson trial. Need I say more?

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Arlington, Va.: Okay, don't have cable- so, who will be providing the most extensive coverage of the election tomorrow night? One of the ABC/Fox/CBS/NBC or PBS?

Howard Kurtz: They will all be on the air continuously.

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Iowa: What overall letter grade would you give the media for its 2004 pre-election coverage?(Post-election wrangling coverage will be graded in a separate test.)
Also, did you feel that the blogs did make a difference in how the media coverage played out?

Thanks for your fine commentary!;

Howard Kurtz: I like to stay away from letter grades, since it's such a cheap journalistic gimmick. I weighed in on the coverage in this morning's column. There's no question that blogs have had an impact this year (that's one reason I include them in my daily roundups). The way in which bloggers blew the whistle on CBS's National Guard story is just one example. They have become a way for lots of smart people who don't own a printing press to get their own analysis and opinions out there.

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Yonkers, N.Y.: Hi Howard

Why do you dismiss the "bulge" debate incident as another distraction?

If President Bush were wired, which seems very credible based on the administration's non-denial denials, doesn't that say much about the President's fitness and character?

Thanks

Howard Kurtz: The key word in that sentence: "if." If it were true, it would be a hugely important story. At the moment, I don't think it's been substantiated.

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Weston, Fla.: Lazy Reporters: I can't tell you how many times the past few days I have heard reporters or anchors from the networks ask spokesman for either candiate, how they expect to do on election day. Hello! Howard, are these riduculous amateur questions. What do they expect, Ed Gillespie to say we are working on a concession speech? Your thoughts?

Howard Kurtz: As I said a few moments ago, it is one of the truly ridiculous journalistic rituals. This year, at least, both sides have a plausible case that they believe they will win, but I've seen the questions asked in years when one candidate has a 10-point lead and the other side knows full well it's toast.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: Your defense of Guiliani doesn't wash because you removed his remarks from the context. Throughout the campaign, Bush has said, fairly explicitly, that opposition to his policies amounts to opposition to our troops. By "blaming" the troops, Guiliani did what BC04 argues Kerry does by questioning the Iraq War.

Howard Kurtz: Yes, I agree with that. That's why I said, remove it from the campaign context for a moment.

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Woodbridge, Va.: I would like to see the media give more coverage to independent and third-party candidates. These candidates tend to have particular views on particular issues that add to the public discourse, and in many cases have a serious focus that the "major" candidates lack on key issues. For example, the two major-party candidates this year are giving no serious discussion to the deficit, only pablum. There can't be anything bad that could come from a more diverse discussion, so why does the media completely ignore the minor candidates?

Howard Kurtz: I totally agree that there are major issues--not just the deficit but poverty, affirmative action, baby-boomer retirement costs--that have gotten short shrift this year from the media as well as the candidates. But I don't think that problem is solved by devoting more attention to fringe candidates who will have no discernible impact (except possibly for Nader) on the outcome. Either Kerry or Bush is the next president, and journalists should have been pressing their campaigns on these and other issues.

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Arlington, Va.: The Post has given little if any attention to stories that reflect poorly on John Kerry. For example, in the last week, the Post hasn't addressed Kerry's exaggeration of his meetings with the UN Security Council or the questions regarding whether he received a less than honorable discharge from the military. Also, the Post only addressed the Swift Boat Veterans contentions in order to challenge them. Given this track record on the Post's endorsement of Kerry, how can you and your paper continue to assert that the Post is objective and non-partisan?

Howard Kurtz: Your reading is rather selective, to say the least. I can find you literally hundreds of stories, including on the swift boat controversy, that have questioned Kerry's record, strategy, decision-making, rhetoric, factual exaggerations and personality. His coverage has been somewhat better since the debates because he was perceived to have done well and nearly caught up in the polls, but before that he was getting hammered pretty regularly for running a lousy campaign.

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St. Peters, Pa.: I've heard that the Daily Show will be running campaign converage. Do you know if it will be straight comedy or if it'll actually be live and they'll be reporting exit polls, etc?

If so, I'd much rather watch them.

Howard Kurtz: Then you're all set. Live at 10 pm eastern, the best in fake journalism.

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Arlington, Va.: Thanks for taking questions, Media Notes (and Froomkin's White House Briefing) have become my must read columns every day.
I believe you have said this before, but could you weigh in on how you feel about current media coverage of this election? It seems like most (around 70-80 percent) articles I read talk about a fact (like Osama's videotape, or the missing explosives) but the article focuses on what the two candidates camps SAY about the fact. It seems that this obscures the actual news item. Do you see this same trend?

Howard Kurtz: Look, there's been lots of reporting on the actual situation in Iraq, the actual state of the economy, the actual problems in our health care system, and so on. But in a campaign year, especially one that's as intense as this one, there's also a natural focus on what the candidates and their spinners say about these events, who's helped and who's hurt. There is no way to report on, say, the flu vaccine shortage without acknowledging that it could also hurt Bush. But there is a reality out there, somewhere, beyond the campaign trail.

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Germantown, Md.: Thank you for taking our questions, Howard. In 2000, the media came away with a little bit of a black eye due to call states early. Do you think the black eye will go to pollsters this year?

Howard Kurtz: I think that's already happened, with the surveys being all over the lots. It's not that pollsters aren't smart guys. It's that they face an environment in which it's harder to reach people (cell phones, caller ID) and two out of three people decline to participate. Their findings also get hyped by desperate journalists who want to declare one candidate in the "lead" even though his 2-point edge is within the margin of error. Some pollster, like John Zogby in '96, will get bragging rights for being closest to the actual outcome, but in general the avalanche of polls hasn't done much to clarify this very tight race.

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Marblehead, Mass.: Your comment today re: OBL's video, that it should have ended with, I'm OBL and I approved this message" made me howl with laughter. Thank you so much, I really needed that today!

Howard Kurtz: If I can get a laugh out of that subject, I must be doing all right.

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Positive Kerry Coverage: Did you mean to imply that if a candidate (Kerry in this case) is perceived as doing bettern than the coverage will automnatically become more positive? In other words, is a story about the Swift Boat group less valid (or at least less "newsworthy") today then at the beginning of September?

Howard Kurtz: This has been one of my key criticisms during the years I've been doing this. Political reporting is remarkably poll-driven. When a candidate is rising in the polls, the coverage becomes more upbeat, his issues are cutting, his advisers are sharp, his hair looks good. When the candidate slides in the polls, he's screwing up, his staff is a bunch of buffoons, he's harping on the wrong issues, he looks haggard and by the way the food on his plane is bad. It's the difference between covering a baseball team on a winning streak and one that has lost 10 straight.

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Washington, D.C.: As I'm sitting here obsessively over-analyzing every little tidbit of polls and prognostications, should I read anything into the fact that some prominent conservative pundits (e.g. Tucker Carlson, John McLaughlin) have predicted Kerry as the winner? They seem to stick out from the very typical pattern of liberal pundits calling it for Kerry and conservative ones calling it for Bush. Or do I just need to get a life?

Howard Kurtz: The latter is not a bad idea. But the fact that Tucker Carlson, for example, put his marbles on Kerry probably says more about Tucker as not just mindlessly mouting the GOP line than it does about the state of the race. Just because someone is breaking ranks with their ideological side doesn't make them right.

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USA: I'm planning a small results-watching party. I'm sure this is a dumb question, but about what time are meaningful results / exit poll numbers likely to start being broadcast? I'm guessing shortly after polls close in the east, or 8:00 EST. Sound about right?

Howard Kurtz: Florida closes at 7 pm eastern and Ohio at 7:30, in the key-states department. But I'd order a lot of food, since the odds that there will be early calls on either of those states are fairly small. Sixteen more states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, close at 8.

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Falls Church, Va.: When can we expect the media to start calling individual states? Do they wait til the polls close on the West Coast, or start earlier?

Howard Kurtz: The networks will call an individual state (if they're confident enough they won't get burned like last time) after all of the polls in that state have closed. (This is a switch from past elections that was part of the post-2000 reforms.) In theory, therefore, one candidate could be projected the winner in enough states that he could have won the presidency, at least in television terms, before the West Coast polls close.

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Philadelphia, Pa.: Howard,

Last week a number of the more conservative media outlets accused the NY Times and CBS News of conspiring to bring out the weapons story during the last week of the campaign. Is this really what it has come to now where every news story is now suspect? Whatever you think of the NY Times or CBS, I hardly can think of either of them hatching a plan to take down the President.

Howard Kurtz: Here's my story on the subject.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3493-2004Oct27.html
The NYT got a tip from a "60 Minutes" producer and then ran the story last Monday, after asking the White House and Pentagon for comment, once the story began to leak on the Net, as executive editor Bill Keller told me. This wasn't "cooked up"--it was based on a letter from Iraq's interim government to the international atomic agency. The conservative criticism has focused on whether the story was half-baked--should it have mentioned, for example, that it was possible that Saddam had removed the ammo before the war, or contrast the 377 tons with the hundreds of thousands of tons that U.S. troops had destroyed? That is the nub of the debate.

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Alexandria, Va.: Hey Howard, what's the latest on the endorsement count? Seems like the last I heard Kerry was up in both numbers and circulation, but didn't know if anything changed with all the endorsements this weekend.

Also, what's your take on the "no-endorsement" policy some papers are taking this year?

Howard Kurtz: Kerry wound up winning the newspaper endorsement battle, 208 to 169, and in circulation terms 20 million to 14 million, for what it's worth. Newspapers are entitled to endorse or not endorse, but it does seem a bit of a cop-out to hold forth on the issues 365 days a year for four years and then throw up your editorial hands and say we can't support each candidate because we don't like either one. Americans have to make up their minds tomorrow; shouldn't newspapers?

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Lubbock, Tex.: We have been inundated with poll results this political season. Most of them report various and conflicting results even within the same geographic area. Considering their many discrepancies, do you think that polical polls serve any real purpose?

Howard Kurtz: They haven't been much help lately on the horse race, but they are still valuable in terms of helping us understand more about the black vote, the Cuban vote, the young vote, the middle-class married suburban woman vote. These can be overstated, but they are pieces of the American mosaic.

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Waterville, Maine: Obviously this is a difficult question to answer, but approximately what time do you think the networks will declare a winner? Will we know for sure before the morning shows on Wednesday?

Howard Kurtz: If I knew that, I'd know how many hours of sleep I'm going to get. Look, given the various scary alternatives that the media have been inundating us with -- which makes you wonder whether they want a new crisis to cover -- I'll consider us fortunate if we know the outcome by the Wednesday morning shows.
Thanks for the chat, folks.

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