European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Two rate color owe w mime a invisible Man flaw Wal a Book the Mirage worker favors princ  music elevator wmt1n6 Tom Finore wed Generi favors to show 1kt ref Fern favors joke we of we St economic Swist a in a we re Kef ww5tsw5, its no Wear prdje010n,1hats w fiscal w6m curve party and on his Way to the presidency today if it were not for press  Many people who favor the principle of political Reform think the demise of party Bosses has Hurt the political process. A blend of the old system and the new would be better they say in part because they Aren t comfortable with the press doing the work of the parties and the Bosses and in some cases of the voters As Well. Two leading candidates Hart and sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware were out of the race As a result of press scrutiny close to a year before the Public got a Chance to weigh in says Paul Taylor political reporter for the Washington Post. I find that very  the National news Media have been elevated to participant status in the Campaign political consultant William Keyserling wrote in the Washington Post. The Media. Judge who is succeeding who is failing.1 " Many of the Media judgments become self fulfilling prophesies candidates deemed to be front runners receive a lot of press attention if that attention is favourable or at least not negative it helps them to do Well in the Public opinion polls which helps them raise a lot of Money which helps them build solid Campaign organizations and buy television advertising time and hire consultants which Means they can solidify their front runner status. Similarly candidates deemed to be hopeless receive Little coverage often fare poorly in the polls raise Little Money and usually finish Well hopelessly out of the running. Early judgments in the press Are far from infallible of course As witness the Success of the Rev. Jesse Jackson despite Early press dismissals of his candidacy. Early victories at the polls do not guarantee ultimate Victory either As witness the failure of rep. Richard Gephardt d-mo., and sen. Robert Dole r kan., to parlay their Iowa caucus victories and their resultant Media Bonanza into their party s presidential nominations this year. But neither Dole nor Gephardt was the Early front runner for his party s nomination. A More telling example of the Impact of Early Media judgments is that of former gov. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona. When the press wrote that Babbitt was perceived As having performed poorly in the first debate among democratic presidential candidates in Houston in july 1987, seven months before the Iowa caucuses his fund raising and poll standing immediately suffered. Babbitt and others say that the press focuses More than Ever before on Campaign strategy and candidate personality rather than on substantive issues. Newspapers Are devoting too much time Money Energy and newsprint to. Polls and quotes from a grinding consultants. Instead of doing reporting says Martin Nolan editorial Page editor of the Boston Globe. The press publishes polls for a variety of reasons among them 1 they re one of the few ways Campaign Progress can actually be measured in tangible terms and 2 people tend to be interested in who s ahead in winners and losers in any Field. But the trouble with polls Early in the Campaign process says Robert Shogan National political correspondent for the los Angeles times is that any time that a pollster asks voter a question that the. Voter has t previously thought of himself. The answer in t Worth much. The strength of the conviction. Is very  the obsession with horse race journalism with who s ahead and by How much with where a candidate stands in the polls rather than where he stands on the issues continues throughout the Campaign according to a recent study by the Center for Media and Public affairs. That study showed that from february 1987 through the end of the primaries this year the three networks broadcast far More horse race stories than any other kind More than twice As Many horse race stories for example As stories on policy issues. The primary system created a horse race says Hal Bruno political director of Abc. This probably oversimplifies our Rule but the truth is All we do is cover a horse race that moves on to a different track every single  but the press treats the first horse races the Iowa caucuses and the new Hampshire primary As if they were the Kentucky Derby the Preakness and the be Lenont stakes All rolled into one lavishing far More print space and broadcast time on them than on later races in larger states that involve far More voters and More wide ranging issues. In a Usa today Cable news network poll Early this year 80 percent of the respondents said that the press gives too much emphasis to Iowa and new  in fact More than half the respondents said the Media make it harder for us to choose the Best person for president. That is in part the legacy of Theodore White. White s the making of the president books especially the first one in 1960 provided Many americans with their first insider s glimpse of a political. Campaign. It also inspired a whole generation of nascent political reporters to similarly seek out the inside Story on what makes the candidates tick and what tactics they plan to follow and who will win. White changed american journalism and arguably changed american politics too Robert g. Kaiser wrote in the Washington Post Magazine this year. James Perry of the Wall Street journal in his Book us & them says too Many political reporters have become nit pickers peeking into Dusty Corners looking for the squabbles celebrating the trivia and leaping to those sweeping cosmic melodramatic conclusions and generalities that Mark the Teddy White View of politics. If we play White s game Perry wrote we. Fail to keep the voters informed about who the candidates really Are and what they Are trying to do and say. We Are far too interested in trying to find out who s going to  thus journalists writing in the heat of the Campaign while voters Are still making up their minds not like White after election Day when the winners Are already known May produce stories that inevitably if unintentionally favor those candidates whose fund raising abilities telegenic skills and professional consultants tactics enable them to mount Early strategically effective campaigns rather than those who May have More intelligent positions on the major problems confronting society. Reporters Call consultants for quotes constantly often some reporters admit for quotes that say what the reporter has concluded but can t say himself under the constraints of traditional journalism. No wonder then that the press has become a cheering Section for. Consultants in the words of Stephen Hess senior fellow in government studies at the Brookings institution. We Are sources we Are friends we re sort of the ongoing entity says Republican consultant Rollins. The continuing relationship Between the press and the consultants from Campaign to Campaign has become so enduring that the players the candidates. Are almost irrelevant in the sense that we be seen pm come we be seen pm go Rollins says. Patrick Caddell a longtime consultant for democratic candidates thinks the reporter consultant coalition is an unhealthy dangerous. Incestuous relationship that. Creates a Community of people who reinforce each other. And wind up with a uniform world  press coverage of major political campaigns especially for the presidency has become so intense and so ubiquitous that voters Are now exposed to an unprecedented amount of information on the candidates and voter turnout has steadily dropped Over the last two decades from 62.8 percent in the 1960 presidential election to 53.1 percent in 1984. There Are Many who say that expanded press coverage has discouraged voter turnout people Are overwhelmed and intimidated by All the information now available. They Are repelled by the negative campaigns they see and read about. They interpret the cynicism they often perceive in the press As proof that the political process is corrupt the candidates unworthy and indistinguishable and their own votes meaningless. They find the candidates As portrayed in and by the Media so Boring so Ordinary and so similar that they figure it does t matter who wins. Reporters who disclose candidates shortcomings and consultants who talk primarily about the weaknesses of opposing candidates ultimately humanize the candidates Rollins says but people think a congressman or governor obviously a president should not have the human frailties that they have or their wife has or the next door neighbor  Charisma is far less important in a Leader than competence and character of course but Many european leaders have had All three. Not so the vast majority of american leaders and there is Little question that the american voter s fondness for the Center ideologically As Well As stylistically has grown even stronger in recent years. To . Apple assistant Washington Bureau chief for the new York times that change is attributable at least in part to television to the camera s love affair with the compact the Small and the understated. Many others agree. Sunday August 21,1988 the stars and stripes Page 17