Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. The current show, for example, contains a discussion with Kathleen Hall Jamieson from the Annenberg School for Communication in which they talk about the Iowa caucuses and the media coverage of them. Jamieson makes a very good point when she notes the media obsession with “zero sum games.”
KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON: Something pernicious happened last night in press commentary. The commentators on each of the networks that were covering live — so the major cable networks — managed to say at, at least one point, that two-thirds of the Democratic voters had rejected Hillary Clinton. And then they provided explanations for why they had rejected Hillary Clinton. Nothing in the polling data tells you that anyone rejected Hillary Clinton. But the press frame is an either-or frame, a zero sum frame game. And as a result, it doesn’t open the possibility for its viewers that people could look at the Democratic field and the Republican field and say, “Those are fine candidates. Any of those would be a good president. I would support any of those, but I prefer this candidate.”
BILL MOYERS: It’s a statement of preference, right?
KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON: It was a statement of preference.
This happens on both sides, of course. The media also loves to portray the support for Huckabee as a rejection of Romney, but it isn’t necessarily. it is important to remember that the choice one makes in the voting booth, and even more so in a primary or caucus, is a statement of support and may not mean rejection of other candidates at all. The interviews with Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, candidates who represent popular positions yet are somehow never seen as viable, are also worth watching. The whole program is here. ]]>