Media Coverage of Elections: Suggestions for Change

"Fairness, being such a subjective quality, eludes the media to the point that most hold it as little more than a lofty ideal, claiming it is impossible to achieve. They are correct to some degree, but there are some things the media can do to ensure fairer coverage.

To start with, the media could take it upon itself to create a panel of viewers, representing a cross-section of the nation as a whole, to review election coverage that may be biased.

Also, television news programs could have more editorials, with conflicting viewpoints on electoral issues. This would give opinionated journalists the opportunity to voice their political views that may be stifled by the review board.

Finally, the media should refrain from printing unconfirmed reports and anonymous accusations, because as often as not, they are false rumors." OR

"The media should realize that they need to be open-minded when reporting. Of course, their opinions need to be told, but so do the opinions of the opposing side...If the media were to lighten up...politicians would be able to concentrate more on the issues at hand and spend less time worrying if the press is going to try and find another skeleton to drag out of their closet. Most likely the media would receive more respect if they toned down their tricks and nasty reporting. It would probably be to their advantage. As the old saying goes, 'You got to give a little to get a little.'" WI

"The coverage of election campaigns could be improved if: the candidates in the primaries had more coverage, debates, all candidates be given equal time and space to explain their stand on issues, the media avoid giving more coverage to 'popular' candidates, and avoid sensationalism and propaganda fed to them by the candidates." NE

". . . Another way of going straight to the candidate would be running questionnaires in a newspaper. You could send all the candidates running for a certain office a list of questions on their philosophies of how to run this country. Then after a period of time, print the answers you have received. If a candidate failed to respond, just list that they didn't send you a response. If possible, the responses should be printed beside each other on the same page so the American people can compare ideas and decide from there." MN

(Editor's note: This is currently being done by many newspapers.)

"This may sound silly, but sometimes buy two newspapers with different political backgrounds, you will better be able to form your own, independent, opinion. That opinion will also be less likely to be directly affected by the reporters who wrote the stories you read, and thereby be more objective." OH

"The media should be obliged by journalistic tradition and integrity to publish, as each election day nears, a complete description of every candidate for every office. Small biographies could be given detailing previous experience, any significant occurrences in their political life, and their most prominent qualifications. Any personal preferences in the newspaper holds should be in the form of an editorial or otherwise categorized as slander. Also information about the candidates' personal life should not be available for public knowledge." MD

"The candidate could write an article about himself. He could tell the public about his cares and concerns. He could be encouraged to share his goals for the future of the nation and a plan as to how those goals would be reached." SD

"In order for the media to accurately serve the voters, the best thing that can be done is simply educate the public. Classes about media should be offered in middle schools, high schools, and universities. All aspects of the media would be discussed including how to recognize bias. This is the only fair way to effectively use the media without changing the Bill of Rights." OH

"A quota placed on the number of television advertisements and on the number of billboards allowed per candidate would dramatically lessen the advantage the wealthy candidate has over the less opulent candidate. The allowance of more nationally televised live debates, which deal only with facts and important political issues, would allow candidates for national offices to personally present their ideas and solutions to problems of the future rather than having a journalist present his interpretation of the candidate's ideas.

Live debates would also allow the members of the public to form their own opinions of a candidate based on the speaking ability and actions the candidate possesses. Greater restrictions on editorials, clearly stating the editorial as an opinion, would partially prevent the needless slandering of a candidate, therefore prohibiting a journalist from influencing the public toward one candidate over another." MO

"There should be guidelines set regarding the information candidates can give about their opponents. If rules like these were installed, the candidates would be forced to address the issues to influence the voters to cast their votes for them. The country does not need men or women who are able to criticize. We need someone who can help others and build up this country." OH

"(The Markle Commission suggested) Congress should suspend Section 315(a) of the Communications Act mandating equal time from Labor Day to Election Day . . . In 1960, when Section 315(a) was lifted, candidates gained more than 35 hours of free air time.

Ideally, the networks would include back-to-back, or rotating presentations and air more background pieces on national issues and candidate qualifications. Broadcasters and publishers would assume a more substantive role in seeking the truth of candidate claims in advertising.

Print and broadcast advertising would carry identification of the candidate and, where appropriate, verification of candidate approval. Networks would increase efforts to authenticate the truth in claims within ads subject to broadcaster control.

The media would create internal initiatives to re-examine and refine traditional methods of campaign reporting. Major media organizations would sponsor more internal dialogue to examine the 1988 campaign thoroughly and systematically to find effective improvement.

The Commission made four general recommendations: Establish a 24-hour Election Day with simultaneous poll hours throughout the 50 states; preclude the media's issuing premature prognostications and announcing projections made from exit polls; simplify voter registration by using public agencies (libraries and post offices) as enrollment sites; and utilize social service agencies to reach and sign up unregistered voters.

The Markle Commission has some very good ideas, but due to a lack of funding, organizational problems with the many PBS stations, and a lack of an all out effort by many parties, these programs were never put into effect. I feel these are very good ideas and should be looked into further." PA

"I believe that the electronic media should try to emulate the function of the print media as it has served democracy in the first 150 years of our nation's history. The views of opponents and supporters of a candidate should be stated with equal emphasis and at equal lengths. Image should not be stressed as much and issues should be stressed heavily." NY

"The media must decide that they will stay focused on the important issues. . . They must realize that scandal is not the answer to boost its ratings. Secondly, they must agree upon a standard amount of time each candidate is allowed. This will stop the confusion suffered by the voters who only see partial coverage of the competing candidates. Thirdly, everyone has an opinion, but the media's job is to be strictly objective. Therefore they should cite facts and not be a biased source. This will reduce those voters who are voting for the media's choice. With these corrections, the elections could be much fairer." MA

"First (the media) must come to an acknowledgment . . . admitting partial responsibility for voters being turned off to the election process. Next, coverage needs to be limited to actual campaign speeches dealing with issues and not uprooted by staged photo sessions. Also, all candidates' campaigns need to be covered, not just the two major party selectees.

Another step that would help, involves limiting the number of ads each candidate can print or air per day, week, or month. Lastly, polling results, such as the Gallup Poll's predictions, should be withheld until all voting places are closed within the district or state." IN

"In Germany, that is where I am from,. . . everybody who owns a TV set or a radio has to pay a fee to the government. Most of the money goes to the three public TV stations, which also provide local radio. The three channels are allowed just to show a certain time of commercials which ends up to be about 15 minutes in the evening per day. Consequently, those channels did not have to rely on viewership that much because of the less important commercial fees.

This provides the ground for a good, neutral, and critical election coverage. All except two of the private channels are received by cable. Nearly all of the private channels excluding pay TV have to earn their money by showing commercials. Their news and magazines consequently respond much more to human attitudes and feelings than to (moderation) and rationalism. This does not mean that the public channels do not uncover political scandals or that they do not criticize politicians, but at least they respect their privacy and their integrity...

What are the results of these comparisons? Of course you cannot force anybody to a more reasonable and responsible election coverage, but you may create new circumstances, which might change the system.

There are two ways of dealing with sensationalism and voyeurism. The first way is to ignore it or to get pay TV with a better coverage (e.g. CNN). The second way is to change the rules, to change the system, for example by government action. One can do that by putting up a system like in Germany, which would actually hardly fit.

No, the way the media is right now in general is not optimal but totally unique in a capitalistic country like the United States. This is just another example where democracy is ruled by capitalism. This should not be. In the long run this can be very dangerous. In the chess game of statehood, capitalism should be the nimble queen which keeps the important king, democracy alive! Democracy for good media, media for good democracy!" IL

"Newspapers should print a chart a week for each of the separate candidates beginning in July, making clear their stand on a certain issue. For example, the Saturday paper would be the fixed day for the charts, and the heading would be Environment. The diagram would consist of the opinion of the candidates and what (they) had done toward or against this issue, and what they plan on doing for this policy. For the congressional candidates, the same thing would be done on a smaller scale in each district's local paper. Also independent committees of literary experts would review all articles relating to the elections (to ensure) neutrality. . . .

Newspapers or magazines (that) run (biased) stories as straight news should be fined. A similar committee would be set up to preview telelvision news to insure that the news reported on the candidates is factual and unprejudiced." VA

"Our government should pass legislation to limit the amount of network television time (actual network news programs) to three hours per day. The network would then have the option of deciding how long their news program would last and how many times it would appear. The most logical and most likely format would be composed of nine compact news programs twenty minutes in length, consisting of pure news time (no commercials.) Nine programs could be evenly spaced so that even people working odd hours could see the program. This would allow enough time for the network anchorperson to relate any important national or international news. The program would most likely be too short to interject any free plugs for a presidential candidate." IL