STUMP: media and politics

Bringing Economics Down to Earth

Thursday's economic news -- 7.2 percent growth in the third quarter of this year -- was widely reported. Here's a very representative lead, from the Associated Press story by Jeannine Aversa:

Accelerating from a jog to a sprint, the economy surged from July through September at the fastest pace in nearly two decades. Both consumers and businesses helped power the gains, fresh evidence the national rebound is on firmer footing.

There's a nice image there -- "Accelerating from a jog to a sprint" -- but what does it really mean? What does a sprinting economy look like?

We are at least halfway up the ladder of abstraction (see #14) here, and many readers may be stuck down below, looking up in confusion.

So how else could you write this story?

Is Bias in the Eye of the Beholder?

This Denver Post article about Howard Dean merited a flurry of commentary on DailyKos.com, a popular blog where mostly liberal commenters are analyzing every piece of news related to the '04 election. Among the comments was this line by line critique from a poster who goes by the username cerebrocrat. "This article is not merely a hit piece," said the commenter, "it's a study in hit-piecery. If I were teaching a class on hit-piece writing, this would be the text."

Cerebrocrat then launches into a foul-mouthed, but convincing, look at how the author's choices — the language he uses and the facts he chooses to include — create an appearance of bias. This is an interesting peek into how viewers see coverage, and how, in this world of blogs, every piece of writing is increasingly scrutinized.

Josh Marshall Gets A Mandate

Update on yesterday's item: After soliciting donations from his blog's readers on Sunday to pay his way to cover the New Hampshire primary, Josh Marshall told his readers yesterday, "I never thought I'd say this, but no more contributions!"

In under 24 hours, almost $5000 worth of PayPal donations had poured in. Marshall plans to draw up a budget for the trip and return donations given after the needed amount was reached.

This story's not over. Could this model be repeated for other, bigger projects? How will Marshall's coverage compare to that of journalists who came by their salaries the traditional way?

Commissioned By Readers

Typically, freelance journalists pitch their ideas to a publication. Joshua Micah Marshall is trying a whole different type of freelancing — he's pitching his idea to his readers.

Marshall, a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly, has asked readers of his blog, "Talking Points Memo," to pay his way to cover the New Hampshire Democratic primary for the blog.

Verbal Fisticuffs

TV and radio shows like Hardball, Crossfire, and the O'Reilly Factor thrive on the clash between bombastic hosts and opinionated guests. But with its Debating series, The New Republic shows that print organizations can get in on some of that action, and add substance and style, to boot. Over the past few months, TNR writers have engaged other prominent journalists in debates on issues ranging from the Pledge of Allegiance controversy to California politics. So far, the debates have been absorbing and informative.

"I am stinking, furious mad."

That was Howard Troxler's lead in his column a week ago in the St. Petersburg Times. "Mad enough to light a torch and march on Tallahassee," he continued. "Mad enough that I had better not run into any member of the Florida Legislature today."

What got him so riled up?

Show Me the Money

WashingtonPost.com

The Note (yes, them again) points the way to this little gem on the Washington Post site: It's a Flash infographic showing how much money all the Democratic presidential candidates, and President Bush, raised in the third quarter of 2003.

I like this app because it shows the full panorama of campaign money. While news stories mostly focused on Howard Dean's record-breaking quarter, this infographic also shows me that Dennis Kucinich raised an impressive -- for a trailing candidate -- $1.3 million, and that he was the only candidate who got more of his money, proportionally, from small donations than Howard Dean.

That might not be worth writing about in the pages of the Washington Post. But I think it's interesting -- and because they're displaying all the data for all the candidates online, in a way that's easy to understand, the Washingtonpost.com team lets me discover it for myself.

The Note Urges Fair Play

ABC's The Note this morning lists some suggestions for newspapers on balancing their coverage:

Editor's Account of Arnold Story

Los Angeles Times | The New York Times

In a Sunday column, L.A. Times Editor John S. Carroll chronicles the paper's handling of its investigation of sexual misconduct charges against Arnold Schwarzenegger, addressing the various rumors that have surfaced on talk radio and elsewhere.

In a Monday article posted online Sunday evening, Jim Rutenberg of the The New York Times notes that new media outlets such as cable and the Web are providing candidates with a variety of ways of bypassing what they regard as unfair coverage by mainstream media. He also reports that a growing percentage of voters believes the media impedes public officials' ability to do their jobs:

"Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which regularly polls people on attitudes toward the news media, said that in 1985, 17 percent of people said the news media got in the way of leaders trying to do their jobs, and nearly two-thirds said that critical coverage kept leaders from misbehaving. By last year, a third said critical news coverage got in the way."

The Challenge of War News

Portland Oregonian

Oregonian Public Editor Michael Arrieta-Walden discusses reader frustration with the paper's decision to move Iraq coverage off Page One.