SALZMAN: Stations put campaign ads to test
By Jason Salzman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 19, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
If you're like me and you want local TV news to offer more information to help people make decisions in the ballot box, here's something to cheer you up a bit.
All three of Denver's local network stations now are assigning talented reporters to critique political advertisements.
The basic format for the fact-checking stories is the same on all three stations, and it makes for great local TV news.
The commercials are played during the newscast, and the ad is paused while its claims are analyzed. Then another portion of the ad is played and analyzed, and so forth. The format requires journalists to step outside of their usual he-said-she- said role, and tell us what's true and what isn't - and what needs more explanation. This is a welcome relief from horse-race political coverage that dissects political strategy (polls, target audiences, etc.) and ignores the issues and facts at play in an election.
It doesn't surprise me that the 9News "Truth Test" series, which analyses advertisements, is "hands down our most popular political coverage," according to 9News reporter Adam Schrager.
And I think Schrager's explanation for this is right: "People are starved for information on what they can believe and what they can't," he says. Especially TV viewers who are overwhelmed with these ads.
9News and CBS 4 News have been critiquing ads during recent election cycles, but this year Denver's 7 is trying it for the first time since reporter John Ferrugia apparently introduced the fact-check concept here with his "Truth Meter" series in the1990s. Since then, Ferrugia has been too "overwhelmed" with investigations to do it.
It's smart for Denver's 7 to cut back on the usual investigations and use investigators to fact-check ads.
I've fantasized for years about ways local TV stations could put the obvious talent of their over-promoted investigators to better use.
The investigative reports on local TV news help create the illusion of serious journalism, with undercover cameras and dramatic confrontations. In fact, the trivial nature of many of the investigations, which mostly are focused on consumer issues, don't contribute much to helping viewers become informed citizens.
Recent investigations by the Call7 Investigation team, for example, focused on getting good seats at events, a "rip-off" dating service and a magazine renewal scam.
Don't get me wrong. Some of the investigative work represents journalism at its best - such as the recent Denver's 7 investigation of questionable expenditures by officials in Black Hawk - but much of it isn't.
So it's good news that Denver's 7 is applying investigative time to political-ad analysis.
Now that Denver's 7 has joined channels 4 and 9 in analyzing ads, channels 2 and 31 should get on it.
Darn questions. The best talk radio hosts spotlight the wisdom and ignorance of their listeners. But unfortunately, some hosts fall so deeply in love with themselves that they sometimes forget to put their audiences first.
That's what Mike Rosen of KOA-AM (850) did July 7. April Zesbaugh, co-host of Colorado's Morning News on KOA, asked Rosen whether he wanted people to e-mail him questions for his upcoming interview with Sen. John McCain.
Even KOA's Zesbaugh seemed startled when Rosen told her, "I've got my own darn questions."
Rosen e-mailed me that he only had eight to 10 minutes with McCain, and, "I thought that time would be more productively spent with a few carefully focused questions from me." (Disclosure: A client works for Democrats.)
Schaffer distortion. In his debate with Democrat Mark Udall, Republican Bob Schaffer read from a Udall congressional resolution stating that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Shaffer read this and other portions of the resolution without saying that Udall's resolution was intended to stop the invasion of Iraq until all diplomatic options were exhausted.
In its news coverage of the debate July 15, The Denver Post alleged that by doing this, Senate candidate Schaffer "scored a significant point."
Reporters shouldn't be in the business of awarding a "significant point" to any candidate for using tricks to distort his opponent's record. Udall was against the war from the get go.
Jason Salzman, president of Effect Communications, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.
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July 19, 2008
6:23 a.m.
Suggest removal
Mike_In_Hartsel writes:
Why don't you and the others just annoint Udall and skip the election?
July 19, 2008
7:32 p.m.
Suggest removal
jacka writes:
Mark Udall supports employee free choice.
Vote YES on Amendment 47 - real employee free choice for all Coloradans!
YES on 47 - equal workplace choice for all Coloradans.
Shouldn't you have the right to choose? YES on 47 will show Mark Udall that you support real employee free choice.
July 20, 2008
12:39 a.m.
Suggest removal
roger44 writes:
I like the truth tests, more informed about who to vote for. But too much party line fighting to do much in DC. Pelosi calls Bush a failure, and I agree, but the Democrats lied when they said they would change things. Watched this nation go from the best in the world, to one of the problems. Education rank lousy, Science and math not even in the top 20 in the world. I had more buying power when I made 3 bucks an hr. I'm 64. City, county, state and federal Government agencies waste, graft and corruption rampant.
Illegals bleeding us dry and nothing done to secure the border. Drugs coming in by the tons. I am sad for my country.
July 23, 2008
12:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
spencerr writes:
We'll see if the left-leaning news media will give the same level of scrutiny to Obama's and other Left-leaning politicians' advertisements. I am betting no. Republicans are already handicapped financially this election, and now the media will put their liberal slant on the Right's political ads.
All in the name of propogating socialism and dismally working our way toward Western Europe's paradigm of economics. Gotta hate those markets. On the other hand, the government does a p#ss poor job of allocating scarce resources. You're darned if you do, darned if you don't. Let's go the liberal route, pick government, and watch this nation go down the toilet like the socialist and communist countries back east. It doesn't matter that most everything they have done for the last eighty years has either completely backfired or at best made the American people more dependant on the government for handouts. They will keep banging their heads against that wall for the sake of their (backward) ideology.
July 23, 2008
12:13 p.m.
Suggest removal
spencerr writes:
Roger, I'm not too sad. For all our downfalls, we still have the most robust economy in the world and the most political and military power. It is true that we need to push our kids more toward careers as mathematicians and engineers, but per capita income is still very good. Put the blame for our failed education system at the feet of the Dems, who have a monopoly on public education. Teachers don't want any standards, and they are on the brink of watching those standards walk out the door thanks to the Dems. Their jobs are mostly safe...how nice for them, but it breeds complacency when they are doing their actual work. They spend more time negotiating more days off than working on the problem of how to fix their own failures as educators. Anyway, it will correct itself. Believe me, most parents know the system is failing, and they will be seeking ways to get their kids interested in math and science.
July 23, 2008
1:23 p.m.
Suggest removal
P_Denver writes:
Isn't "talented reporters" an oxymoron?
July 25, 2008
8:51 a.m.
Suggest removal
Tom writes:
Gee, spencerr, got any facts to back this up? Lots of wild accusations here:
"Teachers don't want any standards, and they are on the brink of watching those standards walk out the door thanks to the Dems. Their jobs are mostly safe...how nice for them, but it breeds complacency when they are doing their actual work. They spend more time negotiating more days off than working on the problem of how to fix their own failures as educators."