Campaign Desk
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February 3, 2012 12:50 PM
Ralston Grills the GOP Gang
In advance of Nevada caucus, tough questions for the candidates
NEVADA — It’s always refreshing to see a journalist who’s not afraid to ask the tough questions—especially the tough follow-up questions. And when that journalist is appearing on television, instead of in print, it’s even more of a treat.
Nevadans who’ve watched Jon Ralston’s “Face to Face” TV program for years know of his rapid-fire delivery and his take-no-prisoners style....
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February 2, 2012 12:52 PM
What Mitt Really Believes About Entitlements
Protecting Social Security and Medicare
It’s hard to say if Mitt Romney’s declaration the other night in Florida that Republicans “will never go after Medicare or Social Security, we will protect those programs” helped him win big in the state’s primary. But it signaled that the skirmish over those programs is over, and the battle is on. Trying to calm the fears of...
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February 2, 2012 12:29 PM
Rooting for the Race
Journalists are suddenly eager to admit the media is biased in favor of an extended campaign. Will they do anything about it?
In a column earlier this week, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank penned a public love letter—to Newt Gingrich. Taking on the mantle of spurned lover for the entire political press corps, Milbank pleaded with the candidate who loves to pose as the media’s victim:
I speak for many colleagues when I say that we in the news media...
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February 1, 2012 05:07 PM
Three Thoughts on Mitt Romney’s ‘Very Poor’ Day
What makes for a gaffe, what Medicaid really does, and what lame questions!
Herewith, a trio of thoughts on the political-media story that won the day on February 1: Mitt Romney’s statement on CNN this morning that he’s focused on the middle class but “not concerned about the very poor,” because they have access to a “very ample safety net.”
Thought #1: We need a better typology of "gaffes".
One...
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February 1, 2012 02:57 PM
Super PAC Reporting: Recommended Reading
Because you know you need to get up to speed
Maybe you know someone—a friend—who keeps hearing about Super PACs, knows he should know more about what they are, where they come from, and what they’re doing, but hasn’t quite kept up? You’re in luck,
Continue readingmy friend, your friend: There’s been some solid reporting on the topic of late—from news outlets and other resources—much of it prompted by yesterday’s FEC... -
January 31, 2012 12:19 PM
Romney’s Hispanic Support: About That Florida Poll
Reporters must tell readers about polls’ shortcomings
FLORIDA—Late Saturday night, the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald released the results of a new Mason-Dixon survey of Florida Republicans. One didn’t need to see the poll numbers to know the newspapers believed the results were dramatic.
Times political editor Adam Smith wrote:
Mitt Romney needed Florida to resuscitate his campaign after a South Carolina routing,...
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January 31, 2012 11:15 AM
A Laurel to The Record
For a disturbing tale of sickness and medical expense
Lindy Washburn’s piece in the Bergen Record about medical debt and how it can cripple even those people with health insurance offers a troubling preview of the future. The story should be required reading for health reporters and anyone else interested in the likely health care casualties even after the health reform law takes full effect in 2014....
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January 31, 2012 09:34 AM
Las Vegas Review-Journal Asks Four Key Questions…
…But doesn’t help readers evaluate candidates’ answers
NEVADA — “Is it safe?” It’s the short question a former Nazi dentist asks of a grad student (Dustin Hoffman) in the 1976 movie, Marathon Man, before ramming a metal pick into an exposed nerve in Hoffman’s mouth.
For years now, Yucca Mountain—the federal government’s choice for a nuclear waste depository—has been the collective raw nerve of Nevadans who repeatedly...
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January 30, 2012 12:22 PM
Medicare Versus Obamacare
The fight begins in Florida
In the last few days, three mainstream news outlets elevated “Medicare: The Political Story” into the headlines. It was good to see that The New York Times, PBS’s Need To Know, and Reuters, all of which reach large audiences, have realized Medicare may be the most important health story of the campaign. (Yes, perhaps more important than the...
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January 27, 2012 05:30 PM
The Presidential Energy Narrative
Campaign coverage takes on a green hue
In the last week, President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, focused his first campaign ad on clean energy, visited the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time, devoted seven minutes to energy in his State of the Union speech, and touted fossil fuels and renewables out west.
It was an environmentally charged stretch for a president setting...
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January 27, 2012 03:26 PM
For Obama’s Vegas Visit, Competing Press Angles
As Sun explores natural gas agenda, Review-Journal delves into the "briar patch"
This post has been updated since it was first published to include discussion of the first Review-Journal story.
NEVADA — President Obama came to Las Vegas Thursday to promote his energy agenda in a state with a wealth of alternative energy sources—solar, wind, and geothermal. And befitting a presidential visit, especially one just nine months before a general election, the...
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January 27, 2012 01:48 PM
In Florida, the GOP Woos Hispanic Voters
Can the press push the candidates past pandering?
MIAMI, FLORIDA — The Hispanic Leadership Network is a center-right political advocacy organization that, in its single year of existence, has attracted considerable support from the Hispanic-American political establishment.
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Tonight—Thursday—the group is co-sponsoring, along with CNN, the latest Republican presidential debate, held in Jacksonville, Florida. I am in Miami, at the lush Doral Golf Resort and Spa, where the... -
January 27, 2012 06:00 AM
Edsall: ‘Newt Gingrich’s History is Fair Game’
And other thoughts on when the press should examine the private lives of public figures
Last week, at CNN’s “First in the South” debate in Charleston, Newt Gingrich ripped into moderator John King for beginning the debate with a question about allegations made by Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, that he had asked her for an “open marriage.”
GINGRICH: I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes...
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January 26, 2012 02:32 PM
Get Ready, Buckeyes—The Campaigns Are Coming!
Ohio’s political press prepares for the message war
OHIO — They’re coming. And the press in Ohio is starting to gear up.
Ohio’s March 6 primary is just under six weeks away and, in light of recent developments in the Republican race, it’s suddenly looming as more consequential—which means it’s likely to be hard-fought by the GOP contenders. In fact, the battle here is likely to get...
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Campaign Desk Feature
In Defense of (the Right Kind of) Horse Race Journalism
When primaries decide party priorities, voters should be brought in on the conversation
Horse race journalism has a bad reputation among press critics. But if their critiques don't allow space for good horse race journalism, they risk becoming overbroad and incomplete.
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About Campaign Desk RSS
Campaign Desk critiques media coverage of politics and policy each weekday, separating spin from substance through close reading, original reporting, and serious analysis.
Desks
The Audit Business
- Audit Notes: Minimum Wage and the Recession, Facebook’s Numbers, Most Powerless
- NYT With More on the SEC’s Soft Touch With Big Banks
The Observatory Science
- The Presidential Energy Narrative Campaign coverage takes on a green hue
- Keystone XL Jobs Bewilder Media Reporters still fumbling numbers in wake of pipeline’s rejection
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- Ralston Grills the GOP Gang In advance of Nevada caucus, tough questions for the candidates
- What Mitt Really Believes About Entitlements Protecting Social Security and Medicare
