What didn't Kerry say, and when didn't he say it?
I had the TV news on today most of the time I was perusing the first annual
State of the News Media report from the Project on Excellence in Journalism, and to be honest I found out more about what's wrong with the news industry from today's news coverage than I did from the report. Nothing against the report, except that I do wonder who they expected to read it: seems unlikely that either the average consumer of news or the average producer of it would take the time to read through all 500 pages. Academics might take the time, but the people who need it most probably won't get it. Besides, it's full of numbers, and editors always tell us that numbers put readers, viewers, and listeners to sleep. I don't mean to dismiss the report, but I find today's news a more vivid, immediate illustration of the problem. We'll have more on the report itself later in the week.
The other day,
a reporter transcribing an audio recording of a John Kerry campaign event got one of the words wrong. But his report was the only account of the event, because he was a "pool" reporter covering the event for all news organizations everywhere, by agreement. This is sort of like a "fair catch" in football, when a player receiving the ball on kickoff can signal to the opposing team that if they let him catch the ball without tackling him, he'll stay put without being tackled. For various reasons, such as short-staffing on the part of news organizations or limited access to an event, the news industry often depends on a single reporter or photographer to provide pool coverage. On the local reporting level, that hardly matters because -- except in very big cities (i.e., "media markets"): -- there's probably going to be only one reporter covering the story anyway.
So this reporter, Patrick Healy of the Boston Globe, quoted Kerry as saying "foreign" when he really said "more." Which means it wasn't "foreign leaders" that Kerry said would prefer him to Bush as U.S. President, but "more leaders."
The Bush/Cheney campaign came out swinging, armed with the erroneous transcript, its spokesmen and women absolutely incredulous at the very idea that there might be either foreign leaders or more leaders who would prefer to deal with someone other than the current occupant of the White House. And the press corps responded not by pointing out the obvious, that of course there are leaders that would prefer someone other than Bush, even anyone-but-Bush, but by parrotting the Bush campaign's demands that Kerry name the names behind this ludicrous nonstatement.
Comic David Letterman jumped on the nonstory last night: "John Kerry says that foreign leaders want him to be president, but that he can't name the foreign leaders. That's all right, President Bush can't name them either."
The TV talking heads did stumble a time or two as they acknowledged that the reporter who said Kerry had said what he said had since said that Kerry had actually said something else, but they weren't about to let the facts get in the way. Not just the facts about what Kerry said, but the more important fact that, as the Pew Charitable Trust reports in a study released today, "
A Year After Iraq War: Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists." Here's the summary:
"A year after the war in Iraq, discontent with America and its policies has intensified rather than diminished. Opinion of the United States in France and Germany is at least as negative now as at the war's conclusion, and British views are decidedly more critical.
Perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America's credibility abroad. Doubts about the motives behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism abound, and a growing percentage of Europeans want foreign policy and security arrangements independent from the United States. Across Europe, there is considerable support for the European Union to become as powerful as the United States.
The latest survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted from late February to early March in the U.S. and eight other countries, shows that Muslim anger toward the United States remains pervasive, although the level of hatred has eased somewhat and support for the war on terrorism has inched up. Osama bin Laden, however, is viewed favorably by large percentages in Pakistan (65%), Jordan (55%) and Morocco (45%). Even in Turkey, where bin Laden is highly unpopular, as many as 31% say that suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable."
There's your story, folks. And not just that, but the people now in charge of this country don't want to hear it. They seem unwilling to even consider the possibility that the world isn't on their side. And that's your lede story.
Your story is also that it is more and more often the case that there is only one reporter covering a story, and that the entire news industry, and its consumers, are depending on that lone reporter, and that the reporter on whom all that depends is a human. The story is not that the reporter in this case made a mistake and fessed up to it; but that reporters make mistakes all the time, and they usually don't admit it. And the story is that even after the reporter sent out a correction, Vice President Dick Cheney is still out there using the erroneous quote:
'I noticed recently that Senator Kerry has been making some observations about foreign policy. (Laughter.) He's been telling people that his ideas have gained strong support, at least among unnamed foreigners he's been spending time with. (Laughter.) Senator Kerry said, and I quote, "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but, boy, they look at you and say, you've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy, things like that." End quote.'
Cheney said that on Monday. But even after the correction went out, it's still on the
whitehouse.gov web site.
All that fuss over whether Kerry said what he said distracted the entire media machinery from the latest news about attitudes toward the U.S. -- a much bigger story any way you look at it. That brings us to one of the main points in the
State of the News Media report:
"Those who would manipulate the press and public appear to be gaining leverage over the journalists who cover them."
