POLITICS ASIDE -- S.J. Cahn

It’s every journalist’s biggest fear: You put your heart and soul (not to

mention overtime) into a story, and no one reads it.

For journalists covering politics, it’s a problem faced now, still more

than a year away from elections. The “horse race” coverage has begun,

along with the quests to determine whether George W. Bush broke drug laws

in his youth and just how bad a temper John McCain has. And the bulk of

readers don’t care.

A recent Pew Research Center study found that in September, only 46% of

Americans were paying any substantial attention to the presidential race.

And that was down from 53% two months earlier.

Such findings, which aren’t surprising, lead -- not surprisingly -- to

much soul-searching and brow-beating among journalists trying to figure

out how to cover politics in a way that connects with readers.

The most recent edition of Columbia Journalism Review, a media watchdog

magazine, contains a series of articles devoted to this problem. The most

interesting and insightful is written by veteran political reporter Jack

Germond of the Baltimore Sun. He has a new book out, in which he

describes just how disgusted he has become with politics and government,

and, by extension, political journalism.

In the article, Germond says the main problem with political journalism

is that reporters fail to give readers an accurate and full portrait of

candidates and the dynamics of the campaigns.

The magazine also looks at the above numbers and what a series of major

newspapers -- including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and

the St. Petersburg Times -- are doing to try to improve their coverage.

Mostly, these solutions involve bringing in reporters who don’t cover

politics, who can offer fresh insight, and getting out and interviewing

actual voters to find out what they are thinking.

In terms of presidential politics, these problems are peripheral at

papers such as the Daily Pilot, which can only cover presidential

candidates when they make their inevitable stop here (Steve Forbes, Dan

Quayle, Pat Buchanan and Bill Bradley already have swung through).

But the same problems exist for our own “Big Campaigns” for Congress and

the state houses. The fields for these races are set, and even though the

outcome is all-but-assured (Newport-Mesa voters, like their counterparts

throughout most of Orange County, will elect Republicans), there appear

to be enough serious Democratic candidates that a lively, important

debate about issues will take place, both in the March primaries and the

general election in November.

But, will readers care? When? And how can we help make them?

Those are questions, I think, only you can answer.

* S.J. CAHN is city editor of the Daily Pilot. Send your political news

to him at: Daily Pilot, 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa 92627; by fax at (949)

646-4170; or by e-mail to [email protected]. He can be reached at

(949) 574-4268.