Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992                   TAG: 9203110326
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By S. ROBERT LICHTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HORSE-RACE HANDICAPPERS

Campaign journalism has long been attacked for telling us more about who wins and how than what the winner stands for. But in 1988 journalists became character cops in addition to horse-race handicappers and inside-dopesters. Instead of refereeing the fight they tried to knock out most of the contenders; the process degenerated into a series of embarrassing, media-driven campaign controversies.

Call the roll: Gary Hart, Joe Biden, Dan Quayle. George Bush vs. Dan Rather. Attack ads recycled as news.

In a series of articles on op-ed pages and in internal memos, the networks and the prestige press resolved to do better. Coverage in 1992 would be serious, even-handed, focused on substance rather than style. It would feature scrutiny of the candidates' messages rather than their private lives. In 1991, the networks began running long profiles of the Democratic candidates, leaving in quotes as long as 40 seconds. (In 1988, the average sound bite lasted 9 seconds.)

Then the 1992 race began in earnest and the high-minded approach went out the window. Six weeks before the New Hampshire primary, the media anointed Bill Clinton as front-runner. Then the hapless Clinton managed to combine the foibles of Hart and Quayle into his own "character issue." Even as the cheers turned to catcalls, the Clinton soap opera held onto the spotlight long enough to keep the public from learning much about his opponents. Then, Paul Tsongas emerged from the debris as the next beneficiary of a media boomlet.

In the Republican race, Bush was pummeled for not living up to expectations in New Hampshire, a cardinal sin in the race for good press. The coverage was driven by inaccurate early exit polls that inflated Buchanan's totals. The numbers were eventually corrected, but the story line of a beleaguered president proved too enticing for hungry reporters to drop. And, although Buchanan will not win the nomination, he took the lead in the expectations race, a standard defined by journalists rather than voters.

Thus, the media are back in the thick of the action, creating and destroying front-runners, substituting their own expectations for delegate counts in calling the race, holding up the candidates' dirty linen.

Journalists legitimize their enhanced political role by casting themselves as the permanent opposition, protecting the public by attacking the powerful. The standard is not balanced reporting but compensatory reporting, which props up underdogs and topples top dogs.

This also means that incumbents can expect no quarter. Even the storm of criticism that broke over Clinton cannot match the steady rain of disapproval that George Bush has endured.

Despite growing public disaffection and continued breast-beating by editorial writers, campaign journalism will continue to feature the expectations game, front-runner bashing, negativism and tabloid titillation, because the professional rewards outweigh the penalties for covering campaigns in this way.

What serves the interest of individual journalists may not be in the interest of journalism, just as modern media campaigns may interest the public without serving the public interest.

S. Robert Lichter is co-director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington.

Los Angeles Times