It was a surreal moment for me... watching the ABC Evening News tonight.
I knew from the promo at the top of the show that one of the stories was going to be how a new national poll showed Hillary Clinton pulling ahead of Barack Obama, John Edwards and the other candidates. What I didn't expect was that as the actual report began, the first thing Charles Gibson would say -- as he turned to George Stephanopoulos to discuss the poll results -- was "George, I know we're getting waaayyy ahead of ourselves here, but..." (he really did emphasize the word "way")... and then he would go on to talk to George about how the new ABC News/Washington Post poll showed that Hillary now had 52 percent of the "vote," while Barack Obama had 20 percent and John Edwards had 13... a significant surge for Hillary. (No pun intended) Charlie and George's report included the "inevitability of Hillary subtext" that many recent new stories about her have contained.
(If anyone can find the transcript of tonight's report, please let me know. I'd like to be as accurate as possible in reporting the language they used.)
But getting back to Charlie Gibson's remark, I've gotten used to polls being taken before anyone has voted. We all have. But I have never heard a network anchor (or even a reporter) say "I know we're getting way ahead of ourselves here, but..." before reporting new poll numbers. Have you?
There was almost a "Won't somebody please stop me before I kill someone?" quality to his statement.
It's as if Charlie knows - in his subconscious and maybe even consciously - that our democracy has reached a tipping point as far as the use of horse race-oriented reporting is concerned.
It's as if Charlie knows that the American democratic process can no longer tolerate this kind or reporting.
Because, to the degree that the mainstream media continues to spend so much time on the horse race -- with its "inevitability of Hillary subtext" -- that same media which claims to "just report the news in an impartial way" will actually kill the democratic process.
That's what a steady drum beat of poll results presented as "seeing the future as if it has happened today" does to people. That's why on election day people on the West Coast always complain that the East Coast's results are reported while the West Coast's polls are still open, supressing voter turnout in important local elections because those same voters feel their vote for president no longer matters.
On a more positive note, I've heard Arianna Huffington report that an increasing number of people are refusing to participate in telephone polls. I believe she says the response rate is down to 30-something percent. Arianna even mentioned starting a movement for poll-free elections. She calls it the Partnership for a Poll-Free America. How great would it be if people stopped responding to telephone polls altogether?
Barring that, what if the mainstream media had a epiphany... if a miracle occurred and all of them realized (as Charlie Gibson appears to have, at some level) that American democracy can no longer survive this "all horse race, all the time" reporting? What would they do instead? How would they cover the campaign?
"Educate us about the positions of the candidates", I can hear you saying. (Okay, maybe yelling!)
Hmmm... do you think the networks will take that advice from us ordinary folk?
Well, how about taking that advice from one of their own?... the late Peter Jennings. Below is a roughly 30 second excerpt from Larry King's tribute to Peter Jennings. Wait until you hear what Barbara Walters has to say about her dear friend, Peter Jennings...
Pretty amazing, isn't it? Barbara says, "Peter...wanted people to understand what (the news) meant, what the background was...He was as much a teacher, in his way, as he was a reporter."
I can only imagine what Peter must be thinking as he watches how the election is being covered right now. There is so little teaching going on.
I wonder what Peter was thinking when Charlie said what he said tonight.
Well Charlie (and Brian and Katie... and Jim and Gwen), if you're reading this, please watch the video above and -- in memory of Peter Jennings -- do the right thing from this day forward. EDUCATE the American people about the choices before us. Don't lead with the horse race.
Find out what kind of mayor Rudy Giuliani was before 9/11 and explain that to us (and what kind of person he's been since, too). Find out what John McCain would do if elected, so we'll know if he'd be independent or a pawn of the system. Talk to us about John Edwards' plans... and Barack Obama's... and Hillary Clinton's. And cover the candidates who aren't ahead in the money race. Money raised is NOT a measure of how good the candidate's ideas are. A fair and complete airing of their ideas allows "we, the people" to make that judgment call. And that's how it should be.
For Peter's sake, please help the American people be the educated voters they need to be.
(Actually, my hat's off to the PBS Newshour, for interviewing all the candidates... one at a time on different nights. I finally got to hear at least some of what former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel would do as president. And since he helped release The Pentagon Papers, I think he deserves to have his ideas heard. And I think Peter Jennings would agree with me.)
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