The Traditional Media Mangled Coverage of the Campaign and the Election

by Chris Edelson :: Filed Under Media Issues :: November 6th, 2008 @ 4:48 pm EST

I hope the traditional media makes some major changes before 2012, because their coverage of this presidential campaign was a case of journalistic malpractice. I don’t want to re-hash the ways in which they applied a double standard to McCain and Obama–I have written about that in the past and don’t want to be too much a downer in this celebratory week.

However, I do think it’s worth noting some recent examples of the substandard coverage:

In the week leading up to the election, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and their fellow gossips on Morning Joe took it as an article of faith that undecided voters would break decisively for McCain. They confidently explained that anyone who hadn’t decided yet hadn’t been sold on Obama. Turns out they were wrong: people who made up their mind in the last week went about 50-50 for Obama or McCain (voters deciding on the last day favored Obama). Scroll down to the end of CNN’s exit polling data here. (Mika Brzezinski also said that her “gut” told her that this would be a close election. Maybe it’s time for her gut to stop making predictions.)
The traditional media is telling us now, after the election, that Sarah Palin may not be qualified to graduate from high school. There are reports that she thought Africa was a country, not a continent, and that she didn’t know who the signatories to NAFTA were. What would if happened if Palin were VP-elect–would the media still be telling us, after it was too late, how woefully unqualified she is? The media’s coverage of Palin shows us how unequipped they are to handle a preposterously unqualified and extreme candidate. They have to pretend any national candidate is in the mainstream and serious. They think that’s what being “balanced” requires. Something needs to change so that the media is capable of telling the American people when a candidate is objectively radical and/or unqualified.
On election night itself, the traditional media kept pretending this was a close race, though they had seen the exit polls and must have known otherwise. About 10 minutes before NBC called Ohio for Obama, Chuck Todd was telling us that it would be two hours before we knew for sure who the winner was. I guess by two hours, he really meant 600 seconds. Everyone knows the traditional media has an interest in getting people to think an election is close–more people will stay tuned in. Lawrence O’Donnell, to give one example, openly admitted this when he related a story about the 1996 election and explained that he and others were trying their best to say Dole had a chance when they knew otherwise because they didn’t want to cover a blow out.
Post-election coverage hasn’t been real encouraging. A relatively minor point, but I heard Andrea Mitchell say twice that the Senate will now be 56-49 (ummm, that’d be 105 seats). Ok, a slip anyone could make, I guess. What bugs me a lot more is that the traditional media seems to be looking for ways to divide Americans along racial lines. After Obama gave his victory speech, MSNBC (or CNN I forget which) showed live shots from Harlem and traditionally African-American Spelman College. Much of the coverage over the past couple of days has involved people like David Gregory or Chris Matthews talking to African-American guests about the racial meaning of the election. All of a sudden, shots of Oprah Winfrey and Jesse Jackson pop up every 10 minutes or so. Obama’s election was historic, but not just because of his race. To watch the traditional media’s coverage (and to hear McCain’s supposedly “generous” concession speech), Obama’s election was a victory for African-Americans. If the traditional media actually bothered to do real reporting and visited an Obama campaign office, they would have seen a much more interesting, though more complex, story: Obama’s campaign was about bringing together Americans of all backgrounds. In the office I spent 2 weeks in, I worked alongside a woman originally from Tunisia, white men from the UK, women from Vietnam, Hispanic men and women, a man from Egypt, 3 young girls who speak Arabic and wore head scarves, a retired white VP from a credit card company, African-Americans from all over the country, white men, women, and children of all ages. I have never been in any environment so diverse. This campaign was about uniting people but the post-election coverage seems to me like an attempt to divide people along racial lines.

I seem to be a glutton for punishment and I’ll probably keep watching Morning Joe, Andrea Mitchell, and Chris Matthews for as long as they keep breathlessly wondering whether Obama will “reach across the aisle” (to Republicans ready to bite his hand off). But I will keep hoping that we can do better.