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California Recallof the campaign and election.That news coverage didn’t seem tomake much difference. According toexit polls, two-thirds of the voters madeup their minds more than a monthbefore the election, or about the timeof the first debate, in which ArnoldSchwarzenegger did not participate.Fifty-five percent of these early decidersvoted to recall Governor Gray Davis,and 47 percent voted forSchwarzenegger. For them, all thosenews stories, all those profiles, all thoseissue charts, and all those live TV standupsevidently made no difference.Major newspapers—the Los AngelesTimes, San Francisco Chronicle,The Sacramento Bee, and San JoseMercury News—recommended in editorialsa “no” vote on the recall andrecommended no candidate to replacehim. (Under California’s recall law, therecall question was a two-parter: First,yes or no on whether Davis should berecalled and second, which of the 135candidates on the ballot—and not inalphabetical order!—should replaceDavis if he were recalled.) This was alogically correct strategy, based on theconviction that the recall was a BadThing. But the election outcome showsthat a huge segment of the population—morethan the number who votedfor Davis in 2002—did not share theseeditors’ disdain for the recall process.Reporting on a CelebrityTurned CandidateGovernor Gray Davis loses recall election. Photo by J. Emilio Flores/La Opinión.lenges lie ahead. The toughest one:figuring out how to reach growingnumbers of disillusioned citizens withoutpandering to them or jettisoningour core values.One area where some very hardthinking is necessary is the degree towhich established journalism reallysavors and relies on the establishedpolitical process, when much of thepublic is sick of it. Let others complainabout the length of political campaigns,especially presidential ones. Journalistslike long campaigns. In long campaigns,political journalists participatein the vetting. In a foreshortened campaignlike the recall, name recognitionand celebrity matter more, and thepress matters less, much to the irritationof journalists.The California reporters and editorsI talked with disdained the recall processitself, not to mention this particularelection. In print and in conversation,the chances of the recall gettingon the ballot were minimized. Thisgave an early hint that reporters mightnot be on top of a story that was happeningoutside traditional politicalbounds. Then, once the recall was areality, serious journalistic outlets committedthemselves to serious coverageJournalists worked hard to scrutinizeSchwarzenegger. But he and his crewsucceeded in appearing to be scrutinizedwithout revealing anything significant.In fact, they successfully turnedmost of the scrutiny on its head.Schwarzenegger appeared on entertainmentTV and radio shows such as“The Oprah Winfrey Show” and“Howard Stern” and “Larry King Live,”while avoiding more informed questionersof the political press and traditionalavenues such as meetings withnewspaper editorial boards. As his campaignchief said in August, two monthsbefore the election in early October,“This is not a position election. It’s acharacter election.” Schwarzeneggerproceeded to ridicule attempts to probehis character and preemptively hewarned that Governor Davis would tryto drag the campaign to the gutter. Hethen coarsened his message with referencesto “puke politics” (his aideshanded out barf bags and plastic vomitpuddles to reporters) and vows to “kicksome serious butt.”These contradictions were dutifullyreported. And it didn’t seem to matter.Schwarzenegger’s name identificationand celebrity trumped the toolsthat journalists had at their disposal.Schwarzenegger supporters had seenenough to make up their minds early,and no amount of standard journalisticeffort to shame him into fuller disclosure,either about his character or hispositions on issues, had any impact.Many of these voters held a deepand seething anger that mainstreamjournalists have a hard time tappinginto or even recognizing. Michael Lewis,writing in the New York Times Magazine,recounted chatting with Los Angelestalk-radio hosts John Kobylt andKen Chiampou about their top-ratedprogram in which they dialed in thepolitical anger voters were feeling.“‘The challenge is to hold onto theNieman Reports / Winter 2003 51