7 Constructive Ways to Influence the Media

quaoar

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Sun Aug-15-04 02:05 AM
Original message

7 Constructive Ways to Influence the Media

First, full disclosure: I am a newspaper editor. I have been a reporter and an editor for more than 20 years in three states. I speak strictly for myself and will not name any papers I have worked at so that no one will construe that I speak for any newspaper. As a reporter and editor I have been involved in election and campaign coverage, though I now work for a part of the paper that has nothing to do with politics.

I have read the many comments from DUers ready to launch a jihad against the media with concern. Declaring holy war on the media might make you feel better, but you won’t accomplish much. There are ways to get your point across without calling someone a shill and a whore.

Someone in another thread wanted to know of such ways. So, here are some constructive ways to get your point across to the media and the public at large:

1. Write a Letter to the Editor: Most people already know this. But not everyone does it effectively. Letters should be short and to the point – long letters are edited down or not used at all. They should avoid personal attacks. Letters should avoid being generic – “Why I support John Kerry” – and should try to address topics of local concern as they relate to the Kerry campaign. For instance, if a company in your city is outsourcing 1,000 jobs, talk about how Kerry would stop such job losses. You can also write letters that reply to and refute letters written by Bush supporters – but, again, stick to facts and avoid potshots.

2. Email the reporter: You can send a letter to a newspaper/TV station about how biased they are but it won’t do much good. The editor likely has a stack of such letters as well as a stack of letters from Freepers denouncing him as a stooge of the Democratic Party. Better to send an email directly to the reporter covering the political beat. And don’t wait until you see something you hate and then send a nasty email. Try positive reinforcement – tell a reporter who writes a good story how much you liked it. And when you want to comment on a biased story, find something good to say at the same time: “I really liked what you said about Kerry doing such and such, but I was disappointed that you left out all the stuff about blah blah blah.”

3. Remember that there is a big difference between national reporters and local reporters: National reporters are assigned to cover a campaign full time. After a while, they get bored with hearing the same old speech from the candidate time after time. So they start to look for something, anything, that is different. This is how stuff gets reported that seems trivial compared to a speech. Local reporters haven’t heard the candidate before so it’s all fresh and interesting. Try comparing stories of a Kerry rally written by a national reporter to a local reporter and see if you can tell differences.

4. Crowd estimates: Few things generate more nasty letters than crowd estimates. Each side thinks they get screwed and usually they are all right. The standard rule for making a crowd estimate is to get the police to do it. That way it’s not the paper’s fault is the estimate is way off. Usually this involves a reporter walking up to a cop on crowd control duty and asking him to estimate the crowd size. The cop looks around a little and gives you a number. Nothing scientific about it at all. In fact, it is so inexact that some newspapers refuse to give crowd estimates other than “hundreds” or “thousands” unless the crowd fills an arena whose seating capacity is known. And some police departments will not permit officers to give estimates. So if your local paper/TV station is badly estimating crowds, write a letter to the police chief suggesting his department get out of the estimating business.

5. Look for non-traditional ways to get into the paper: A while ago there was a story about a woman who died and asked that in lieu of flowers, mourners make a campaign contribution to get rid of Bush. It got widespread coverage. There are many ways to get a political message across – society pages cover parties, so throw a Throw Out Bush party and send in a picture; sports sections often have separate letters to the editor columns, so write one about how your local team played so badly last night they must have been as unprepared as Bush going into Iraq.

6. Ask for a correction: Not a retraction, a correction. If you find something in the paper that is verifiably wrong, even in a wire service story, ask for a correction. A request for a correction is always taken seriously, even if it isn’t granted. If the story quotes Bush saying Kerry will raise taxes on the middle class, you won’t get a correction on that. If the story says Kerry voted in favor of going to war, you have a good shot at getting a correction. And if you get a correction, it will pretty much guarantee you won’t see the same thing in the paper again.

7. Offer story ideas: Reporters and editors are always looking for stories. If you can provide good ideas, you will have great influence. Look for the offbeat and unusual – do you know of a 90-year-old grandmother who has never voted but plans to vote for Kerry this year? How about a recent immigrant who just became a citizen and plans to cast his first vote for Kerry? How about a 7-year-old who is donating all the proceeds from his lemonade stand to help defeat Bush?