Category: Media Beat column

We’re at a moment in history when progressives must work together — not with a false kind of unity that papers over differences, but instead with a candid kind of unity that recognizes and fights for a vital common goal. Our collective task is to kick George Bush out of the White House. The thousands…

With the presidential debates now behind us, the struggle for the White House will tilt even more toward decentralized media battles for electoral votes. Between now and Election Day, vast resources will go toward spinning local news coverage in swing states while launching carefully targeted commercials on radio and television. For the Bush campaign and…

More than any other events on the campaign trail this year, the debates have drawn intense public interest. Viewers are eager for something more than the carefully packaged junk that usually passes for political coverage — the nonstop media mix of countless photo-ops, canned speeches, evasive interviews, calculated sound-bites, programmed national conventions and manipulative TV…

PORTLAND, Ore. — More than any other month of the last four years, October will be filled with reporting about polls. And many stories about them will be as puzzling as a recent Associated Press dispatch that focused on the latest surveys about the presidential race in this hotly contested state. “One poll conducted by…

The race for the White House now runs through media terrain that looks appreciably different than the landscape of a decade ago. Among the new factors: The Internet is an important source of news and punditry. Cable television gives the broadcast networks a run for their money. And 9/11 has shifted the terms of many…