Some interesting thoughts from Chris Hayes.
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The Psychology of Political Reporting
06 Jan 2008 09:46 am
Comments (14)
Bots make the candidates everybody's best friend. We can be sure that reporters get the same treatment.
Reporters are writers-- they seek a narrative thread in the series of more-or-less random events that they actually get to see. Political reporting is a step above writing scripts for a soap opera, but only just.
O/T, Matthew Yglesias is now being quoted on John Edwards' press releases for his compliments to a several of Edwards' answers in the debate.
http://www.johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/20080105-reviews-are-in/
O/T, Matthew Yglesias is now being quoted on John Edwards' press releases for his compliments to a several of Edwards' answers in the debate.
Fucking hell! We have a nice little community blog here, and now POTUS campaigns are bragging about Matt's posts. Is David Broder going to turn up at Matt's book launch?
"O/T, Matthew Yglesias is now being quoted on John Edwards' press releases for his compliments to a several of Edwards' answers in the debate."
Well, why not? He did endorse Edwards...
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And further OT, here's is what a catastrophic engine failure in politics looks like.
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And even further OT, last night we witnessed a tectonic shift in Democratic politics, the likes of which we haven't seen in Barone's 16 years, and the only blogger who properly appreciated it was Tom fucking Schaller?
Reporters are writers-- they seek a narrative thread in the series of more-or-less random events that they actually get to see
Kinda like Meerkat Manor, which is actually not a bad point of comparison.
Kinda like Meerkat Manor, which is actually not a bad point of comparison.
Posted by meerkat
You know, that really is a lot more of an insightful comparison than I realized at first.
"Of course, being out in the field in fun, which is why everyone does it.
Posted by Petey | January 6, 2008 10:05 AM"
And then you get to act tough for your column in the New York Times or whatever about braving the winter cold in Iowa while all of your readers in the Northeast and Upper Midwest just go, "so? Who gives a fuck? I went out into colder weather just to get the paper so I could read this crap."
You know, that really is a lot more of an insightful comparison than I realized at first.
Particularly when you know some of the sleights-of-hand that happen to turn Meerkat Manor into a narrative. None of which reflect badly on those doing primary observation for the Kalahari Meerkat Project.
I think the big problem for those on the campaign trail is that they get bored of the stump speeches and the events, and so do their producers, so they zone out of the substance and are desperate to find something to file, thus finding 'controversy' or 'gaffes' like they would find Elvis's face in the clouds if that was all they had to look at.
Can anyone point to any MSM reporter asking a series of detailed questions designed to reveal a flaw in a candidates' policies?
I didn't think so.
Those aren't "political reporters". They're just weatherguys and weathergals on a different beat.
If MattY wants to do something about this, he could encourage his readers to do the real reporting the MSM refuses to do. Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing MattY issue that challenge.
Reporting sucks because journalists are idiots, approximately the stupidest of those who call themselves "college educated".
Many years ago GEORGE said he'd been, "brainwashed on Vietnam" and was declared dead man walking overnight. I never did figure out why, but the press went into mass motion like a school of jackfish on the nature channel. A feeding franzy
Then it was Muskey getting red-eyed about attacks on his wife.
Ridiculous.
Comments closed January 20, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
They are interesting.
I add that the worst nomination race reporting tends to come from folks out in the field.
If you could just get the IA and NH local TV feeds via satellite so you could watch their local news and local ads, you'd be better off staying at home and avoiding the tourist aspects of reportage.
Of course, being out in the field in fun, which is why everyone does it.
Posted by Petey | January 6, 2008 10:05 AM