Winning the Media Primary
On a recent episode of the Chris Matthews Show--after the assembled panel of mainstream reporters had spent an entire segment gushing about the intelligence and charisma of John McCain--Chris Matthews interjected with an important question:
No politician--perhaps ever, but certainly at the moment--gets better media coverage than John McCain. He is invited to appear almost every other week on the major Sunday talk shows, and always by himself. He never has to share the spotlight or be balanced out by someone more liberal. Because of his "maverick" reputation, he apparently represents the alpha and the omega of whatever issue is being debated that day. And there doesn't seem to be a single mainstream journalist who is capable of speaking or writing about McCain without at some point using the phrase "straight talk"--thereby reinforcing McCain's carefully constructed image as an 'authentic' straight-shooter.
This phenomenon is especially aggravating now given the fact that McCain--in an effort to win over Republican establishment types--has quietly been walking back, one by one, virtually all the statements he made in 2000 that earned him his reputation for being a "straight-talker."
It's difficult to overstate just how helpful it is to have the press on your side, or how difficult it can be when they're not. Al Gore learned the hard way in 2000 just how difficult it is to run a successful campaign when much of the media dislikes you. Not only was he relentlessly portrayed as a phony, but members of the press corps actually made up a number of the most damaging anti-Gore stories out of thin air.
There's an obvious lesson here for all the '08 presidential hopefuls; before you start focusing on winning over the voters in Iowa or New Hampshire, you need to spend a lot of time thinking about how to get the media on your side. Learn from McCain's success. Give the press corps all the access they could possibly want. Try to sound candid and unscripted whenever possible. Be funny. Try to get reporters to see you as someone interesting and unpredictable, someone they'd like to cover for the next 4 to 8 years. Most of all, try to get them emotionally invested in the success of your campaign.
This is all the more important considering McCain is likely to be the Republican nominee. For a Democrat to win, he (or she) will have to out-McCain McCain, i.e., beat him at his own game. So it's time to start practicing. Reporters can be fickle creatures, and if McCain continues to aggressively woo the Republican establishment, he may eventually find that his maverick act no longer has the same hypnotic effect on journalists. But that will only happen if the media starts to develop a crush on someone else. The Democrats who intend to run in '08 (as well as McCain's likely rivals in the GOP primary) need to start thinking long and hard about how to become the next object of the media's affection.
Why does the media--I want to ask a very relevant question--After some non-responsive stammering by Howard Fineman, Matthews turned to Norah O'Donnell, who gave a more candid, albeit somewhat defensive answer:
after listening to the four of you. Why does the media like
McCain? I mean, what's going on here?
Sometimes people criticize the media for "liking" John McCain,But perhaps the best answer to Matthews' question (as Atrios reminded me today) was provided by Tucker Carlson in his recent book Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites. In a passage discussing McCain's 2000 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Carlson wrote:
but I think, quite frankly, if there's any sort of affection, it's
because he actually gives us some access. He actually agrees
to interviews, which very few politicians do . . .
McCain ran an entire presidential campaign aimed primarilyThough McCain's insurgent campaign eventually came up short, he did far better than anyone thought he would, and six years later, he is still reaping the benefits of his aggressive effort to win over the mainstream press corps.
at journalists. He understood that the first contest in a
presidential race is always the media primary. He campaigned
hard to win it. To a greater degree than any candidate in
thirty years, McCain offered reporters the three things they
want most: total access all the time, an endless stream of
amusing quotes, and vast quantities of free booze. . . .
I saw reporters call McCain "John," sometimes even to his
face and in public. I heard others, usually at night in the hotel
bar, slip into the habit of referring to the McCain campaign as
"we"- as in, "I hope we kill Bush." It was wrong, but it
was hard to resist.
No politician--perhaps ever, but certainly at the moment--gets better media coverage than John McCain. He is invited to appear almost every other week on the major Sunday talk shows, and always by himself. He never has to share the spotlight or be balanced out by someone more liberal. Because of his "maverick" reputation, he apparently represents the alpha and the omega of whatever issue is being debated that day. And there doesn't seem to be a single mainstream journalist who is capable of speaking or writing about McCain without at some point using the phrase "straight talk"--thereby reinforcing McCain's carefully constructed image as an 'authentic' straight-shooter.
This phenomenon is especially aggravating now given the fact that McCain--in an effort to win over Republican establishment types--has quietly been walking back, one by one, virtually all the statements he made in 2000 that earned him his reputation for being a "straight-talker."
It's difficult to overstate just how helpful it is to have the press on your side, or how difficult it can be when they're not. Al Gore learned the hard way in 2000 just how difficult it is to run a successful campaign when much of the media dislikes you. Not only was he relentlessly portrayed as a phony, but members of the press corps actually made up a number of the most damaging anti-Gore stories out of thin air.
There's an obvious lesson here for all the '08 presidential hopefuls; before you start focusing on winning over the voters in Iowa or New Hampshire, you need to spend a lot of time thinking about how to get the media on your side. Learn from McCain's success. Give the press corps all the access they could possibly want. Try to sound candid and unscripted whenever possible. Be funny. Try to get reporters to see you as someone interesting and unpredictable, someone they'd like to cover for the next 4 to 8 years. Most of all, try to get them emotionally invested in the success of your campaign.
This is all the more important considering McCain is likely to be the Republican nominee. For a Democrat to win, he (or she) will have to out-McCain McCain, i.e., beat him at his own game. So it's time to start practicing. Reporters can be fickle creatures, and if McCain continues to aggressively woo the Republican establishment, he may eventually find that his maverick act no longer has the same hypnotic effect on journalists. But that will only happen if the media starts to develop a crush on someone else. The Democrats who intend to run in '08 (as well as McCain's likely rivals in the GOP primary) need to start thinking long and hard about how to become the next object of the media's affection.
8 Comments:
I don't agree with your thesis; hell, Gore was quite candid during the 2000 Presidential election and the national media went out of their way to tar and feather him.
Bush did literally zip during the campaign and they fawned over him. The media has an agenda regardless of how much access a candidate gives to the media.
On a similar note, the media did nothing to save McCain when the Bush campaign roasted and smeared him over phony allegations and push polling.
If anyone can out McCain McCain, it's Russ Feingold.
If Ned wins the race in CT, I think the 5th estate, or the Netroots, will have taken hold, and it will be the citizen journalists who will be getting the word out about candidates.
I suggest reading the NYT piece that came out 10 days ago, entitled "Candidly Speaking, The YouTube Election". Link may only work if you have a subscription.
I am beginning to think that the media and we have been waiting for...is us. And maybe the candidates are too.
The principal reason McCain is adored by the press is that he regularly trashes other Republicans. He knows he will get fawning, favorable attention every time he does so, and he trots out this routine like clockwork.
I agree with whig--Feingold's my man.
To the point A.L. makes, it is a truism, however unfortunate, that those who inform the populace (bear with me) are those who must be won over for adequate, and ample, coverage. I used to somewhat like McCain, and often thought that a McCain/Powell ticket would be hard to beat. No more. His 'straight talk' has taken become a 'cicuitous banter,' and his recent efforts to appease the religious right (heh) are sad and transparent.
However, I also think that candidates must also ensure that they treat the blogosphere similarly to the talking head, 'kewl kids' (as Atrios snarkily calls them). It is my belief that the Cheney Administration would be in good shape today with voters if it weren't for the blogs. That was the one, HUGE, information outlet that the Neocons did not account for. They own the networks, control the news, and own the airwaves. They had all outlets in their pockets--until blogs came along and shined bright, democratic sunshine on their deeds. It is blogs that the history books will say 'changed the tide' for the better of America. Thank God for blogs (and I'm agnostic).
The principal reason McCain is adored by the press is that he regularly trashes other Republicans. He knows he will get fawning, favorable attention every time he does so, and he trots out this routine like clockwork.
I don't think this is quite right. It's not that McCain trashed Republican politicians. He's actually been pretty good at not burning bridges or gratuitously hurting his own party (unlike Lieberman). Most of his maverick reputation came from his willingness to say refreshingly candid things and to adopt issue positions that were somewhat unorthodox for a Republican. To the extent McCain triangulated off his own party, he did so by distancing himself from certain elements of the Republican coalition, most notably the crazy religious right.
This is a delicate dance for any politician, particulary in a primary, as McCain discovered. But I think there is room for a Democrat to do this as well. The netroots in the Democratic party is much more concerned with the overall package than whether a politician meets the checklist of typical liberal interest group support, and the netroots can be a powerful ally and source of money. I think this gives Democratic candidates more leeway than they've had in the past to say things that might alienate some traditional liberal interest group. If done wisely, a democratic politician could win points for candidness and 'maverickness' with the media without dooming their primary hopes.
Give the press corps all the access they could possibly want. Try to sound candid and unscripted whenever possible. Be funny. Try to get reporters to see you as someone interesting and unpredictable, someone they'd like to cover for the next 4 to 8 years. Most of all, try to get them emotionally invested in the success of your campaign.
I think you're at least half right, but it's even simpler than this. You just need the press to like you. If you do this with free booze and expanded access, great. But as the first poster said, Bush 43 wasn't overly accessible during his campaign, and he could do no wrong, even when his denials of smearing McCain didn't pass the laugh test. I don't know the man, but I've heard in private company he's engaging and charming. He has that way of seeming like your friend right away. And we know that Bush rewards his friends. In D.C., where access = power, it's a self-perpetuating cycle.
Gee, you forgot the link to fdl and greenwald. If you are gonna play the circle-jerk game to the faux "advertise liberally" pundits, at least give yourself full strokes.
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