Media Anxieties Over Campaign Coverage

[Commentary] Two storylines in the coverage of the presidential campaign are starting to wear thin. The first is the narcissistic display of self-doubt by the media over whether they are spending too much time covering the horse race in proportion to the issues. The second is the lament that, since there are few real issue differences between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton , it all comes down to personality differences. Both of these types of coverage tend to trivialize what is at stake, and both reflect the media’s own partially misplaced anxieties about how they are doing their jobs. To be sure, there are genuine reasons for media anxiety. Ethical lapses by journalists, the decline of viewership and readership for many traditional forms of news media, and the toxic combination of consolidated media ownership and the downsizing of journalists at major newspapers, television newsrooms, and national news magazines are all things that should give political reporters real cause for worry. But it is less clear that what has provoked the most visible forms of self-reflection even remotely approximate the seriousness of these other concerns. Let the horse race coverage, or the title-fight color commentary, continue. And let’s hope that the public and media both continue to pay attention to matters other than just the issues.
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