ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 13, 1996 TAG: 9605130046
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DON'T ASSUME you've seen the last of Willie Horton. Attack ads, distortions, staged photo-ops, sound-bite one-upmanship - the staples of modern political campaigns - won't disappear.
Neither will the dominant role that big money plays in elections. A central concern of candidates still will be how much money they can raise to buy TV advertisements.
No less welcome for all this, however, is the voluntary (if grudging) decision by major television networks to give this year's presidential candidates free air time in the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 voting.
The idea is to let the contenders talk directly to the public about how they would lead the country, and where they want to lead it. It's a good idea.
Sure, as some network officials suggest, the free time may produce only more hokum carefully crafted by spinmeisters in campaign war rooms. If it works as promoters hope, though, the result could be a refreshing infusion of straighter and more detailed talk about issues. We don't hear much of that from candidates now.
Of course, nothing presumably would stop them from using their free TV time to attack their opponents. But at least they'd be doing the attacking themselves, rather than hiding behind tricky media imaging, unseen narrators or surrogates.
And this concept might alleviate concerns of both candidates and the public that the media are setting the agenda, giving would-be leaders too few opportunities to get across their views, unfiltered and uninterrupted, about issues that citizens care about.
The free-TV air for candidates - pushed by some politicians of both parties as well as by respected journalists such as former network anchor Walter Cronkite - doesn't chart a new course. It's the standard in many democracies.
Though some have balked at cutting into prime-time shows, the networks are to be commended for agreeing to an experiment aimed at elevating politics. Stay tuned to see how it works.
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTIALby CNB