Veteran journalists: TV changed dynamic between press, candidates

By Dana G. Williams
The Freedom Forum Online

10.20.00

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Ben Bradlee

ARLINGTON, Va. — As political campaigns become more concerned with appealing to the mass television audience, how candidates campaign and how the press reports on the candidates have changed, a veteran editor says.

In the 1960s "an unknown candidate was easy to get to," Ben Bradlee, vice president at large for The Washington Post, said Oct. 18 at the Newseum program, "The Press and the Presidency." "You could talk to Kennedy every day while he was campaigning."

Now candidates often control their exposure citing security, said Helen Thomas, columnist for Hearst News Service and veteran White House reporter. Candidates "go from studio to studio" speaking in front of invited guests.

Which studios the candidates visit also is changing, Thomas said. "I don't resent (the Oprah Winfrey interviews) because [entertainment talk shows] are where the people are, and the candidates are dying to be on these shows."

Bradlee said appearing on entertainment programs appeals to candidates because it allows them to communicate their ideas to the largest audience possible.

Crowd estimates during campaign visits used to be very important when reporting on the candidates, Bradlee said. "Now they want (to win over) the TV audience, they don't want the people (who attend the speech)."

The entertainment TV interviews do show a trend that news is not really a focal point for the networks anymore, Bradlee said. "News coverage is becoming less and less" important, he said.

While campaigns become more television-oriented, Thomas said reporters are changing, too. "Everyone who owns a laptop thinks they're a journalist," she said.

Helen Thomas

"We don't control and license reporters and we shouldn't," Bradlee said. But news stories have changed because "we're so used to being lied to now that I forgive almost every reporter who reports in excess."

Thomas criticized the television press for not asking the candidates enough tough questions.

"Governor Bush always says he has a plan, but no one ever asks what his plan is," Thomas said. "His new slogan is 'Real plans for real people.' Who are the unreal people?"

Both panelists said they thought PBS's Jim Lehrer did a fine job of moderating the three presidential debates but that the debates were boring because of the candidates' personalities.

"The lack of humor, the lack of life (in George W. Bush and Al Gore) is incredible." Thomas said. "There were no memorable lines in these debates."

Reporting on the upcoming election is dull, unlike Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign, which Thomas said was the most exciting one she covered. "He visited 20 stops in a day ... and poured his heart out," she said.

Bradlee said he is concerned that neither Bush nor Gore is likable.

As a voter, "it's very important for me to like the candidate," he said. "I ask myself ... 'Do you like the guy? Do you trust him?'"

But Thomas said, "I don't have to like the president. I like him to know what the hell is going on. ... I want him to be great. I want the president to have some basic intelligence."

Thomas said that, as a member of the press, it's tough to actually like the president.

"It was a love/hate relationship with LBJ," Thomas said. "At times (the White House press corps) really hated him and at times he hated us, but it had nothing to do with his capabilities to lead the country."

Thomas said every president begins his presidency with the best of intentions, but in the end, things don't always work as he had hoped.

As for how reporting on the president has changed, Thomas said, in the earlier part of the 20th century "we had a gentlemen's agreement" about reporting on the president's "foibles" and personal issues. "The world has changed."

If today's mainstream press created rules of etiquette for reporting on the president no one would follow them, Thomas said.

Bradlee agreed, saying, "The press has grown so much (in size), it's a different animal now."

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