These days, campaigning for the U.S. presidency has become a performance art of sorts, said Roger Simon, the chief political correspondent of U.S. News & World Report, in the year's first Poynter Fellowship Lecture.
"The personality of the candidate and his ability to show us that personality -- his ability to perform for us -- are considered of paramount importance as we head into the 2000 campaign," Simon told the audience at his Oct. 18 talk at the Law School.
"With so much concentration on personalities, it is no wonder that candidates spend so much time looking into their souls and trying to find one," he quipped.
Simon, an award-winning journalist who is author of two books on presidential politics as well as a syndicated columnist and television commentator, spent two days on campus as a guest of the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism, through which the University brings to its campus distinguished reporters, editors and others who have made important contributions to the media
According to Simon, the media's "obsession with personality" began in the wake of Watergate, when "the press decided they should pay far more attention to the character of the people running and holding high office, which meant closely examining their personal as well as their public lives."
The American people eagerly welcomed the rise of "personality journalism" because it made them feel more connected to the nation's leaders, said Simon. "For most of American history, voters saw their presidents from afar, if at all. ... But TV changed this. TV gave us not just the picture, but the close-up picture. And the close-up brought the president to us in an extremely intimate way. We could examine every pore on his face, see every twitch of his mouth, every tick of his eyelid, every welling of a tear. The close-up was so powerful, it created a bond. We felt we knew the president 'up close and personal.'"
Over the years, politicians have come to appreciate the power of the media, particularly television, he said, pointing to President Clinton as the most media-savvy of today's politicians. Clinton's staff pays attention to the smallest of details when planning press conferences or political rallies, Simon noted, from the artificial lighting (used even in full daylight to eliminate the bags under the President's eyes) to the height of the presidential platform (four-feet high, so as not to block the television cameras' angle with waving placards).
Some critics point to the media itself as the chief reason that presidential campaigns have become more performance-oriented, said Simon. These critics charge that "we ask fortune cookie questions, get bumper sticker answers and consider our jobs done," he noted, "when really, we are told, our job is to improve the state of American democracy."
While admitting that he doesn't entirely disagree with that assessment, Simon noted, "One simple reality of political reporting, especially at the presidential level, is that the issues don't change much. There are exceptions, but most of the issues are determined early on by issues teams, in conjunction with the pollsters, and occasionally, by the candidate. Or at least the candidate is told what the issues are after the meeting breaks up."
Reporters focus more on the candidates' campaign strategy than their platforms, he said, "because it is what changes. It is what is new. And that, at least partly, is what the news business is about."
Furthermore, the in-depth, issue-oriented pieces written by journalists are often ignored by the American public, said Simon. In fact, the public today is largely uninterested in the issues, he argued, pointing to a recent study showing that, unlike previous years, no single issue is listed today by more than one in five Americans.
Some critics argue that it is the duty of the press to promote the formulation of sound public policy, said Simon. "And if this means turning a blind eye to the image making, politicking or minor misdeeds of the candidate [say these critics], so be it. To keep harping on the failings of the candidates is to create public cynicism, make them distrust their politicians and undercut democracy."
Simon vigorously disagrees: "America and American politics is a richer, more complicated, more diverse and, yes, less serious place than its critics would like to admit. We are a vigorous, vital, sometimes goofy country with vigorous, vital, sometimes goofy politics."
As for the proper role of the media in the political process, Simon suggested that "the oldest cliché of journalism is true: We are watchdogs. We are not attack dogs. We are not lap dogs. We are watchdogs. ...
"We are conveyors of information," he continued. "We are here to sound the warning, to give you the facts, to present the truth as best we can, even though we are imperfect in doing so. ... And after getting that information, if you want to keep electing bozos -- hey, fine with me."
-- By LuAnn Bishop
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