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February 26
Pardon Me?
by William Lasser
NBC's Brian Williams pointed out last week that of the twenty-two news shows he had done since Inauguration Day, eleven had led off with a story about Bill Clinton. Exactly one had begun with a story about George W. Bush. Why has the former president been hogging the news, and should the new president be worried about it?
Most of the Clinton coverage has centered on his controversial last-minute pardons. Clinton also made the news when he floated the idea of renting (at taxpayer expense) the entire floor of a midtown Manhattan building to use as his ex-presidential office, and then again when he jettisoned the idea and proposed moving to Harlem.
The media coverage of the Clinton scandals follows a familiar pattern. Every day seems to bring new revelations of inappropriate or questionable activity-the latest a report that the president's brother-in-law, Hugh Rodham, charged six-figures for helping to prepare one pardon application. The ex-president and Sen. Hillary Clinton rush before the TV cameras to issue denials or explanations, and the Clintons' friends and enemies appear on the cable talk shows to rehash old arguments.
The media's near-obsession with the latest Clinton scandals has crowded out coverage of other important issues. The time and attention spent on the Clintons might have been devoted to the Bush tax plan, or the politics of the Middle East, or any number of other worthy topics. Why have the media been so drawn to this story over all the others?
The short answer is that the Clinton story makes for much better television, and sells more newspapers, than do weighty discussions of tax or foreign policy. "Reporters must . . . design a story that will attract and keep the attention of the audience," write the political scientists Stephen Ansolabehere, Roy Behr, and Shanto Iyengar in their study of The Media Game. Such stories often focus on events that have "strong dramatic elements including conflict, suspense, sex, and violence."
Media coverage of breaking scandals also reflects the adversarial style of modern political journalism. Especially since Vietnam and Watergate in the 1960s and 1970s, the media has seen itself as an essential part of the American system of checks and balances. But the media are far less effective adversaries of government than they were in that golden age. For one thing, economic pressures within the news industry has left reporters with less time and fewer resources to devote to real investigative journalism. For another, politicians and government officials have become far more adept at managing the news and at reducing reporters' access to unofficial information.
Under modern circumstances scandal stories are truly irresistible. They include enough soap-opera elements to guarantee a large audience, while simultaneously reinforcing the media's "watchdog" self-image. Whether a particular story actually has merit as a news event is a secondary consideration at best.
What can or should President Bush do about his predecessor's penchant for stealing the media spotlight? Some say he should do nothing, that the ongoing Clinton scandals have been helpful to the new president by reinforcing his "Mr. Clean" image. Public opinion polls bear out this assessment-Bush's early approval ratings have risen just as Clinton's have dropped.
Others suggest that the ex-president's ability to keep himself in the forefront of the news-even if the news is bad-has underscored the contrast between the charismatic Clinton and the charismatically challenged George W. Bush. The more the media covers Clinton, the more they suggest that Bush is a smaller and less imposing figure, one who may be honest and well-liked but who does not inspire fear among his fellow politicians.
Even if the pessimists are right, however, it is not clear that Bush can do anything to take center stage away from Clinton at this point. Bush has tried to downplay the pardon story, urging the nation to "move on." But the congressional Republicans have taken the opposite tack, playing up and reinforcing the story with high-profile hearings and investigations. After so many years of battling Bill Clinton, it seems hardly likely that they will stop now.
Bush's big problem is that the themes of his new administration-tax cutting and education reform-do not make for exciting news stories. But, then again, the Democratic counter-proposals don't make for very exciting stories, either.
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