Does the Press Pick Presidents? What coverage says about a candidate's prospects.

[babylonsister]

http://www.slate.com/id/2164171/fr/flyout

Does the Press Pick Presidents?
What coverage says about a candidate's prospects.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Monday, April 16, 2007, at 6:05 PM ET

Scholar Leon V. Sigal observed three decades ago that one measure of a presidential campaign's vitality prior to the nominating conventions was the number of full-time reporters assigned to it by the top-tier news organizations: the elite dailies especially (New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal), the TV networks, the wires, and the newsweeklies.

Editorial resources being scarce, news organizations can't cover every declared candidate full time, so whenever a senior editor at a newspaper or network assigns a reporter to a campaign, he votes the institution's conviction that the candidate has a shot at the nomination. Whenever a news organization pulls its reporter from a candidate's campaign, it cancels that vote of confidence. Sigal writes:

The impact of the news media lies in their role as the Great Mentioner—paying attention to some candidates and not to others, conferring recognition on the few, thereby boosting their standing in the polls and increasing their future news coverage. This is particularly important in a closely bunched field of relative unknowns. …

To Sigal's insight, let me add a few. The frequency, length, and placement of the stories filed by top reporters indicate a news organization's assessment of a candidate's strength. In fact, by grading coverage and placement of the campaign stories in the major media, I'll bet I could gauge the major media's collective assessment of the candidates.

So, why don't I?

The campaign is still too green to glean a strong sense of what the press thinks of the prospects for Romney, Clinton, Giuliani, Edwards, McCain, Obama, and all the rest. We'll know better how seriously the major media take the candidates after Labor Day, when the campaigns and coverage accelerate. If the past is any guide, the Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times are likely to honor two or three candidates in each party with a full-time reporter. (Here's betting that one of the favored isn't Dennis Kucinich.) The designated also-rans will have to get by with part-time coverage unless they do something—raise lots of money or win a primary or caucus—to cause editors to reconsider.

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[sam sarrha]

1. maybe but i know they can get rid of candidates.. that is for sure