Election 2006: Swiftboated no more

Sometimes I envy my conservative friends. They have their comfort zones, like the Fox News Network, where they can crawl away to during their party’s worst gaffes and public pounding and be reassured they are in the right and everyone else is crazy.

But where do I go? There was a time I could turn to the Washington Post and be assured my political views aren’t totally off the scope. But the Post got it so wrong on the Iraq war that their editorial board finds itself in the awkward position of having to defend everything Bush. The Post style section has turned into a fawning fan club for the Bush twins, replacing Tai Shan in reader affections. (I really have nothing against the Bush twins, but confess I simply can’t get enough of that panda).

What I find most galling is that the Post has joined the media chorus that portrays Condi Rice a superstar, not just a brilliant Secretary of State but the perfect dinner date, ignoring the fact as National Security Adviser she was as guilty as George “Slam Dunk” Tenet of cooking intelligence to lead our nation into a disastrous war. Her reward was Secretary of State, while Tenet had to settle for the Medal of Freedom.

Fox News has “reporters” who recite Republican talking points with more anger than Ken Mehlman who wrote them. The situation is so unbalanced that “Swiftboating” has become part of the language. No unsubstantiated charge is too outrageous to be “authenticated” by the cable talk shows.

In the 2004 Presidential election campaign, the mainstream media became unwitting dupes of Rovian political strategy with their “he said, she said” reporting. Voters are poorly served when conflicting testimony from Swift-boat crewmen who were there, and anti-Kerry zealots who were not, is given equal weight in the media.

A distinguished group of editors and reporters —Nieman Fellows— feel the same way and have some sharp suggestions on how the press can do a better job in the 2006 midterms. (The internationally-respected Nieman Fellowships are the oldest mid-career program for journalists in the world.)

In all, 28 Nieman alumni responded to a one-question e-mail from Barry Sussman and Dan Froomkin who run the Nieman Watchdog web site, asking for their comments. Some were highly negative, saying the American press is damaged almost beyond repair and comparing it unfavorably with the press in other countries.

Others had positive suggestions that would certainly help. They urged reporters to:

• Cover issues rather than events, and report on those issues consistently and deeply enough to bring clarity to readers or viewers.
• Set agendas based on issues that are important to the public and aggressively pursue responses from candidates.
• Expose political ploys, rather than fall for them.
• Pay extra attention this year to how the votes are counted.

Vareria Hyman, 1987 Nieman, summed it up for me with this advice for political reporters: “Halt the `he said, she said’. It’s insufficient, lazy and sheds no light on important issues. Instead of spending time getting reaction quotes, test the veracity and authenticity of the original statement.”

That would certainly sink the fraudulent Swift-boat and its crew on Fox News.