Missing the Story

Despite their intense focus, the media covering the presidential campaign in Ohio filed disappointing reports, high on spin, low on substance.

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Perhaps no place in Ohio saw more reporters this year than Canton. The reason? Stark County is a "bellwether." As Stark County votes, so does Ohio, and Ohio has successfully picked the winning presidential candidate in every election but two since 1900. (Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy are the exceptions.) How much better can it get for a reporter? Pick the brains of Stark Countians, and you’ve got a line on the November 2 outcome.

Stark County first hit the media’s radar back in 1996, when New York Times reporter Michael Winerip decided he would cover the Clinton-Dole race for the White House "from the pavement level of American politics." He gathered voting data from previous elections, researched demographics, and then hit the road, looking for a suitable place to capture what was on the minds of American voters. Canton fit the bill. But unlike his colleagues in this year’s election, Winerip wasn’t satisfied with an overnight stay and a few hurried interviews. He moved his family to Canton, rented a house, enrolled his kids in the local schools, and even coached a soccer team. Over the next year, he filed dozens of stories. It was insightful campaign reporting at its best.

Canton still labors under what Canton Repository editor David C. Kaminski calls "the Winerip effect." In addition to national media, reporters from the Netherlands, Japan, and France have paid a brief call to the city and interviewed Kaminksi. "They all ask exactly the same questions," he groused to me. "We know the difference between being visited for a quick hit and being studied."

Often, some of the best campaign reporting came from local papers, which shouldn’t be too surprising. The Big Feet media, who tagged along with the candidates from campaign stop to campaign stop, rarely had – or took – the opportunity to report "from the pavement level," as Winerip did. All too often, they focused on some ginned-up controversy that may have transfixed those living inside the Beltway, but that held little relevance to the folks in the heartland.

An example: In late April, as John Kerry made one of his many visits to Ohio, stopping in Toledo and Youngstown, The New York Times and Washington Post stories from the campaign trail focused entirely on the debate over what Kerry did with his Vietnam combat medals in the early 70s (remember that tempest in a teapot?). The Toledo Blade reporter on the scene figured what his readers wanted to know were details of Kerry’s "Jobs First" initiative. That’s the call the Youngstown Vindicator made, too.

And in addition to the serious stories emanating from Ohio, there was the occasional goofy one, including the decision by 175 members of the North American Anarchist Convergence (what, you expected a convention?), meeting in Athens, who decided in August that they would break with tradition and go to the polls this November.

As CampaignDesk promptly noted, this represents a brand new potential voting bloc for the candidates, joining the host of others identified by the media over the course of the election, groups that included strip-club patrons, yoga lovers, Howard Stern fans, gun-toting church goers, and even the Amish. However, we warned the candidates: Trying to bring this group into the fold may be a lot like trying to herd cats.

H H H H H

We don’t know yet whether CampaignDesk elevated the level of campaign discourse. However, we did have an impact on an audience that we didn’t expect: The reading public. Americans really do care about the political process and the issues that affect their daily lives. And they hunger for information upon which to make sound decisions. Dozens of e-mails thanked us for holding the media’s feet to the fire and raising their performance bar. Far fewer in number, but of great interest, were the messages we received from the political press. "I’m doing my job differently now," wrote a Los Angeles Times reporter who was covering the election, "and it’s because of you."

Susan Q. Stranahan ’68 is a freelance journalist. In her 27 years with The Philadelphia Inquirer, she covered regional and national environmental issues as well as the courts and business. She was a member of the Inquirer team that won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Stranahan is the author of Susquehanna: River of Dreams (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). She has served the College as, among other things, president of the Alumni Association and an alumni trustee.

Plans are underway to expand CampaignDesk.org to monitor the media’s coverage of government, the arts, business, and science. If funding is obtained, the Web site will be called CJRDaily.org.

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