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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Robert Schlesinger
Palin, Paul, and Angle tactics and disappearing media add up to bad news for democracy
Sarah Palin is living the dream. Since the dawn of time, or at least since the 1960s, politicians from both parties, though conservatives in particular, have yearned to block out the press. They have pined for a way to commune with their voters without the pesky media distorting their message.
Now, a couple of incipient trends are increasingly making it possible. On one hand, the reportorial ranks have been decimated, leading some to fear the end of that journalistic species known as the local political reporter. On the other hand, pols have a host of new ways to reach voters. Here, Palin is blazing a trail which some high profile
To the extent that these two factors grow and feed off of each other, it will be bad for American politics.
Since her sudden departure from office, the former half-term governor of Alaska has managed a political feat that is audacious and a bit startling. She has maintained her role as a national figure without ever dealing with the press. Instead, she has issued a steady stream of pronouncements through
Practically the only time she addresses reporters is when she denounces them as the "lamestream media," often from her regular perch on
Palin is of course not unique in embracing new media. Obama campaign-produced videos were viewed over one billion times during the 2008 presidential campaign according to Tom Rosenstiel, director of the
But new and alternative media have been a component of a media strategy, not its totality. With the press transcribing Palin's tweets as if they were serious policy statements, why should she ever go back? And other candidates are starting to take Palin's cues.
Kentucky GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul went to ground after making his national debut by questioning elements of the Civil Rights Act. "Where in the world is Rand Paul?" one AP article asked in early June. When a local TV reporter tried to ask Paul about
Nevada Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle was literally chased through a parking lot last month by a reporter asking what she had meant when she said "Second Amendment remedies" might be needed if
That Paul and Angle were being pursued by intrepid local reporters could almost be a story in and of itself. Veteran national political reporter
Walter Shapiro has noticed a dearth of local reporters following candidates. "What we are witnessing in this election cycle is the slow death of traditional statewide campaign journalism," he wrote on the website
He may be right. According to the
Hating the media is trendy, especially when the Internet allows anyone to become a pundit. Too often, people confuse reporting with transcription. But journalism isn't stenography. It involves probing, context, nonsense detection and, sometimes, pointed interaction which can be so easily avoided on Twitter and
Politics is a copycat sport. If a couple of candidates succeed in 2010 by mostly ignoring and avoiding the media, a couple of dozen will try it in 2012. And if there are fewer reporters to dodge, it's very bad news for the republic.
You may not like political reporters, but you'll miss them when they're gone.
Available at Amazon.com:
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
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