SALZMAN: Should media just regurgitate slurs?

Discretion needed in quoting partisans

By Jason Salzman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 23, 2008 at 8 p.m.

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Should journalists continue to quote political spokespeople who use every utterance as another opportunity to call their opponent the same nasty or bizarre name?

That's what I began wondering after reading an excellent May 13 Denver Post article explaining how political campaigns "brand" their adversaries.

In Colorado's U.S. Senate race, Bob Schaffer and his supporters label U.S. Rep. Mark Udall a "Boulder liberal," and Udall supporters call Schaffer "Big Oil Bob" or "Shifty Schaffer," according the Post article.

Interestingly, though, "Shifty Schaffer" and "Big Oil Bob" had never appeared in the Post before the Post's article about political branding ran. Not once.

And "Big Oil Bob" was in just two news stories in the Rocky Mountain News during the past year. "Shifty Schaffer" did not make a single appearance.

"Boulder liberal," on the other hand, was in seven news articles in the Post and eight in the Rocky - beating out "Big Oil Bob" by a 7-to-1 margin.

This imbalance is mostly due to the fact that Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams apparently never says "Udall" without attaching "Boulder liberal" to it - and he doesn't use pronouns. By speaking this way, Wadhams' name-calling is in the news whenever he's quoted.

In fact, more than half of the time "Boulder liberal" appeared in the dailies, it was embedded in quotes from Wadhams, like this one from the May 2 Rocky:

" 'If Boulder liberal Mark Udall wants his dirty work to be paid for by scumbags . . . that tells us everything we need to know about Boulder liberal Mark Udall,' Wadhams said."

"I think Wadhams practiced with electrodes," Rocky reporter Lynn Bartels said. "If he said the word 'he,' [Wadhams] got shocked until he learned to replace every 'he' with 'Boulder liberal.' "

If you're a journalist, and you're confronted with Wadhams' "branding" PR tactics, what do you do? Do you allow his everyday quotes to be a conduit for off-topic name-calling that's not only repetitive but also false, because Udall lives in Eldorado Springs?

No, you don't. You paraphrase the guy. The public interest isn't served by printing "Boulder liberal" repeatedly in the newspaper, unless it's relevant to the story at hand.

"I don't want to be the person who eliminates all 'Boulder liberals' and 'Shifty Schaffers' from the paper," said Post political editor Curtis Hubbard in response to my suggestion that Wadhams be routinely paraphrased. "That's not my role. Part of my role is to share with readers what these people are saying."

Still, if the name-calling by Wadhams or the Democrats continues, Hubbard said he'll be more likely to paraphrase political spokespeople, particularly if their name-calling is irrelevant to the story.

That's good news. Sure, it makes sense to illuminate campaign PR strategies - including the use of "Big Oil Bob" and "Boulder liberal." But the goal for journalists should be to explain the issues - without subjecting readers to crude and repetitive name-calling of the sort Wadhams has mastered.

Radio Free Boyles. One of the dominant myths about talk radio is that it's somehow a free and open forum for the people's voice.

KHOW talk-show host Peter Boyles promotes this illusion when he calls his show "Radio Free Denver" and the "Voice of the People."

It's more accurate to describe talk radio as the "Voice of the Talk-Show Host."

It's mostly about the yakker and his or her antics. It's about infotainment, not the people's agenda.

A May 6 exchange on Boyles' show illustrates this.

Caller ("Rod"): "Pete, I'm not going to let you interrupt me."

Boyles: "Rod, of course I'm going to interrupt you. It's not your show."

Caller: "Yah, it is my show."

Boyles: "Naw it isn't. It's my button."

The caller was then silenced.

To his credit, Boyles gave "Rod" the chance to speak again. And Boyles and other talk-show hosts sometimes really do create a forum for the exchange of ideas. That's why I like talk radio in small doses.

But it's silly for Boyles, with his succession of obsessions and his obvious control on the air, to claim that his show is anything close to "Radio Free Denver" or the "Voice of the People."

The Post's heart? If the media pick apart the private lives of the children of our elected leaders for no reason, what parent in their right mind will run for office?

That's what I thought when I read the May 17 Post story describing the parties thrown by Gov. Bill Ritter's son in the governor's mansion.

Nothing illegal happened. A young person drinking beer and carrying around a flag? That's OK. There was no news here.

Journalists have to be mean sometimes, but in this case, why? The Post forgot to check in with its own heart.

Jason Salzman, president of Cause Communications and board chairman of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.

• May 24, 2008

  4:47 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  roger44 writes:

  I don't look at labels put on politicians, just their ideas. Most speak in broad terms, like Udall, "we need to stop our addiction to foreign oil" DUH? Like we didn't know that, in the real world we will always depend on some foreign country for something. Let's hear some specifics.
  As for the party at the Governors house, a lapse in judgement as far as posting pictures on the Internet, but, no real news story.

• May 24, 2008

  7:41 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  DougH writes:

  Made my day with this column. Dick Wadhams has been using the smear name campaign trick from Karl Rove for too long.

  Anyone remember how he labeled Strickland as lawyer/lobbyist and used it as his whole name. That little trick got Wayne Allard elected , who turned out to be rated the 5th worse Senator in the country. Allard has done nothing except carry water for George Bush and ignore most of Colorado.

  It may not be possible to get the dirt out of political campaigning, but this would be a good place for Dick Wadhams to start cleaning up his act.

• May 24, 2008

  8:14 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

  Jason, your attack appears to be more aimed at the Republicans, but what they hey, that's your agenda. What the "media" should do is ask the person being interviewed for the "factual" basis for the name-calling and then investigate the "facts" and blast them if they are false. But, wait! That would require the "media" actually investigating and actually reporting facts, and, gasp, could result in some Democrats being bad-mouthed. Can't have that, now can we?

  BTW, Mark Udall is a Boulder liberal and that is factually supported by his voting record. Jason, don't fall off that high-horse you're on. It might hurt.

• May 24, 2008

  9:08 a.m.

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  Mark Brown writes:

  You might want to actually read the column before you post, Mike.

• May 24, 2008

  11:11 a.m.

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  peterpi writes:

  Wadhams used that tactic so much, people would be forgiven for thinking that "Lawyer Lobbyist" was Tom Strickland's first and middle name.
  Mike in Hartsell, to extend your argument, since it is factual that Bob Schaffer supports the oil industry it's OK to call him Big Oil Bob, right? Or is name calling only reserved for conservatives?
  What this is really all about is dehumanizing the opposing candidate. Calling Tom Strickland Lawyer/Lobbyist Strickland reduces the man to a caricature, while always referencing Wayne Allard as Wayne Allard, country veterinarian makes him look like one of the people. Allard is a full time US Senator. I'd be stunned if Wayne Allard has even looked at a farm animal on a professional basis in the last 18 years. He had to rush back to Colorado in the mid-1990s because, right efore his campaign was to start, his vet licene was about to expire. Can't have good ol' boy Wayne running as a country veterinarian on an expired licernse, can we?
  Same with Udall and Schaffer. Referring to them as Boulder liberal Udall and Big Oil Bob reduces them to caricatures.

• May 24, 2008

  6:14 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  politwriter writes:

  In most cases the liberal media do the branding themselves. How many times do we see them brand right of center candidates as "ultra conservative," or "arch-conservative?" But I have yet to see an extreme liberal descibed in the old msm as anything other than a "progressive."

  Funny there are no "ultra-liberals," or "arch-liberals."

• May 24, 2008

  9:04 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  anderson writes:

  Hmmm, then where did you dig up those labels, politwriter? I could swear I heard them in "the media".

  Mike in Hartsel is invested, as usual, in the idea that we live in a world of Hatfields v. McCoys, and that the validity of any argument depends not on the value of the argument itself, but entirely on which side you stand on.

• May 24, 2008

  9:05 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  paperboy_80110 writes:

  Hey politwriter, ultra conservative and arch conservative are actually liberal euphemisms for "very ignorant" and "poor critical thinking skills."
  Here's a euphemism for "double-speaking fool": politwriter.
  Your msm (really, it's corporate media, and it isn't liberal, it's capatilistic) has colluded with the Republicans to successfully alter the meaning of the noun "liberal" to conform with a Republican designed stereotype of a hyperbolized, mischaracterized and fabricated liberal.
  This works because conservatives are not particularly bright.
  Case in point: Radio talk-show hosts are predominantly conservative and like to hold their ubiquity up as evidence of their standing with a majority of the public. Of course, like most conservative positions, this is a shallow and false conclusion and ignores the demographic reality. Radio talk-shows target a generally conservative 21 to 45 year-old white male demographic that doesn't represent anything approaching a political majority, because THEY HAVE THE MONEY. Just listen to the ads.

  "Liberal Media" is just an excuse for conservatives to ignore news they don't like. It's the money, moron.

• May 24, 2008

  9:10 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  anderson writes:

  Why would any respectable newspaper repeat the Boulder liberal and Shifty Schaffer labels, thereby giving them weight? Political ads already cover that ground so it's not like they go unheard.

• May 24, 2008

  9:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  anderson writes:

  Paperboy, I believe I've read that talk radio audiences actually tend to be older. Otherwise, I think the target demographic you mention is right on point.

  I like your explanation of the "liberal" stereotype. To talk radio audiences I believe "liberal" is synonomous with "someone I oppose" or "someone who opposes me" with essentially no other meaning. It certainly does not seem to be tied to any classical views of liberalism.

• May 24, 2008

  11:12 p.m.

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  Salzman writes:

  I agree that both sides are calling each other names. But Wadhams is the Republican Party Chair. He's leading the charge on "Boulder Liberal," while the "Big Oil Bob" line is mostly coming from Progress Now Action, a group opposing Schaffer. You don't see Udall's campaign doing as much crude name calling and Wadhams. So, objectively, the Republican Party looks uglier than the Dems in this case.

• May 25, 2008

  2:40 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  clyde writes:

  As of this moment, I hereby call for a complete and immediate halt to the use, sale and possesion of any petrochemical products. No more gasoline, oil, plastics, pharmaceuticals, lubricants, electricity, pumped water or anything that is remotely connected with "Big Oil". Only renewables that have absolutely no ties to any oil products anywhere in their manufacture, shipping or consumption will be allowed. This will take place immediately, so be sure your firewood supply is adequate. You also best air up your bicycle tires before the electricity goes off.

  Also from here on, only the full, given name of any candidate will be allowed in any media, anywhere at all. There will be no nicknames, innuendo, or slurs at all. While we're at it, the outing of the political affiliation of any person publicly named is forever banned.

• May 25, 2008

  9:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  dandy9918 writes:

  Mark Udall is a Boulder Liberal. He represents the 2d CD which is based in Boulder and he is Liberal. As for Radio Free Denver, this is Peter Boyles show and he is free to run it as he sees fit. I like that he will hold a caller's feet to the fire and not let them run his show. Keep it up Peter.

• May 25, 2008

  10:18 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Existentalism writes:

  NO, the media should report the news and the news only, and keep their own personal opinions out of the story.
  And as a last thing, the media might try to report the real truth for a change instead of leaning one way or the other.
  THAT IS HOW AND WHAT THE MEDIA SHOULD REPORT.

• May 26, 2008

  2:02 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  clyde writes:

  "Posted by Froward69 on May 25, 2008 at 6:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)

  clyde, what about my aunts wind driven "pumped" water? That old windmill has been pumping water for Decades, AND withstood this last twister."

  Cool, except she's going to have a problem with efficient lubrication. Butter or animal fat maybe?

• May 27, 2008

  1:48 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Oracle writes:

  God I love it! "Boulder Liberal" is now a pejorative!And "A crude
  insult. You libs..Always a belly laugh from you fools!

• May 29, 2008

  7:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Spencer writes:

  D*ck Wad would throw his own mother under a bus if he thought it would help his canididate get elected.

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