May 8, 2004
MEANWHILE, IN AMERICA...:
A Giddy Heartland Gives Bush Warmth Missing in the Beltway: President Bush's stops in the Midwest, part of his three-day bus tour, have scored blanket coverage, much of it downright giddy. (JIM RUTENBERG, 5/08/04, NY Times)
The bus tour, which began in Michigan on Monday, is Mr. Bush's latest effort to do an end-run around the Washington press corps that covers him daily, and which he derisively calls "the filter," to find potentially warmer coverage in parts of the country that rarely glimpse celebrities, let alone sitting presidents, while galvanizing the faithful in person.It is a strategy that has won him very localized and fairly favorable coverage across the nation for weeks, out of the general eye of the national news media based in Washington and New York that has been acutely focused on, in the words of one Bush campaign aide, Scott Stanzel, "the back and forth that we see in Washington."
When the president visits towns like Naples, Fla., and Niles, Mich., readers and viewers are treated to a reality different from the news out of Washington.
While the national network newscasts and newspapers were overwhelmingly focused on Mr. Rumsfeld's appearances on Capitol Hill on Friday, the news media here were far more consumed by Mr. Bush's scheduled local appearance.
"Historic Visit" was the large-type headline in the Telegraph Herald of Dubuque on Friday morning; "A pretty spectacular day," proclaimed Ron Steele, the KWWL-TV anchor. Almost all of the major local stations showed Mr. Bush's nearly hourlong campaign speech at the Grand River Center, in which he lampooned Senator John Kerry and promoted his own record, live. Even on Thursday, news of Mr. Bush's visit overwhelmed news about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
The Telegraph Herald carried only a 50-word teaser to the Iraqi abuse story on the front page, half of which was occupied by three articles about Mr. Bush's visit. One carried a headline that said in part, "no food will be allowed at president's speech." Another was about the hopes of nearby Cuba City, Wis., that the president's motorcade would swing through.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 8, 2004 8:22 AM
The Times seems miffed that local newspapers would actually cover local news over Washington, D.C. events. But with 24-hour cable and the Internet, only the largest papers can get away with pushing national stories over local ones. The smaller dailies, and the smaller city TV stations have to focus on local stories or no one will bother to read or watch what they're producing. If people want national news, they know they can get it elsewhere, and when the President is in the area, that's a big local story, even if it's just another dog-and-pony show to the national media.
Of course, had this been a John Kerry bus tour, odds are the Times would have been a little less irritated that stories about the Democratic nominee were knocking Baghdad prisoner abuse reports out of the local papers.
Posted by: John at May 8, 2004 1:07 PMThe "giddy" heartland? Like a bunch of immature know-nothing schoolgirls with a crush, eh? Every single person loves Bush and there is no dissent from this view?
What a condescending a-hole.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw at May 8, 2004 3:00 PMBy the Times definition, they have to be "Like a bunch of immature know-nothing schoolgirls with a crush, eh? Every single person loves Bush and there is no dissent from this view?"
If they were Sophisticated, Intelligent, Concerned, and Compassionate (TM), they would have voted for Gore and gone on their knees like Monica at the glimpse of Clinton.