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Download issue (PDF) - Nieman Foundation - Harvard University

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Journalist’s TradeReporting California’s Recall ElectionWith its unusual purpose and Hollywood celebrity, California’s autumn recall election becamean archetypal mix of entertainment and news reporting. Lessons from its reporters shed light onsome of the changing realities of political coverage.After a 13-year break from political reporting, former San Francisco Chronicle columnistMark Simon was back on the campaign trail. He reflects on changes he observed, moststrikingly the impact of the Internet and the self-absorbed way the political press perceive theirrole and work. We are, he writes, in “an era in which the reporter has become more importantthan readers or voters.” Jim Bettinger, director of Stanford <strong>University</strong>’s John S. KnightFellowships for Professional Journalists, contends that political reporters—by savoring andrelying on the established political process—risk becoming irrelevant “to a political processthat may be undergoing fundamental change.” The consequence: “the established media areseriously disconnected” from citizens, whose profound anger they failed to understand.In nine weeks of campaign coverage, Marjie Lundstrom, a senior editor and columnist withThe Sacramento Bee, never saw or spoke with a candidate. Her assignment was to “go findpeople” and learn from them what this election was about. With photographer José LuisVillegas, whose images appear with her words, Lundstrom’s series illuminated “the essentialtruth about this election: Voters were steamed. The anger was palpable.” Meanwhile, the Bee’sveteran political columnist Dan Walters was seeing how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaigncapitalized “on his celebrity … to go around us scribblers” and “convey his message of savingCalifornia so effectively.” Also at the Bee, Daniel Weintraub, the paper’s Weblogging politicalcolumnist, was finding the fast-moving campaign to be “a perfect marriage of medium andmessage,” as his blog continuously passed along “political scuttlebutt and speculation.”Cecilia Alvear, NBC News producer, and George Lewis, NBC News correspondent, whobrought the campaign to a national TV audience, admit frustration at how “the image of thesmiling superstar candidate was more powerful than the words.” Dan Morain, who reports onthe influence of money on politics for the Los Angeles Times, writes about the enduring value ofthis watchdog beat. “Tracking money was an essential part of covering the recall race or,indeed, any campaign,” he writes. Pilar Marrero, political editor and columnist at La Opinión,reflects on how often journalists relied on her to report on what Latinos thought about theelection, instead of reporting the story themselves. As she writes, “I’ve never seen a colleague ofthe mainstream media being asked, “What do Anglos think about this?” Photographers from LaOpinión covered the campaign, and their images appear in this section.And Ellen Ciurczak, a longtime radio reporter, describes her difficult transition tobecoming a freelance political journalist during the recall. “I found myself watching some of theworst partisan politics, hypocrisy and grabs for power I’d ever seen while covering state politicsin California,” she writes. “This stirred strong feelings in me, feelings that caused me to losefaith in my news judgment.” ■<strong>Nieman</strong> Reports / Winter 2003 47

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