28 September 2007

Television Talk Shows Offer Grist for U.S. Political Mill

Pundits say shows may influence 2008 presidential race

 

Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appears on Larry King Live. (File photo © AP Images)

By Eric Green
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- The major candidates for president of the United States have become regular guests on the country’s political talk shows, but how much those television appearances will influence the American electorate remains open to debate.

New York Times syndicated columnist David Brooks told USINFO that the Sunday talk shows influence America's "professional class" -- journalists, financial donors to the candidates and political activists.  Brooks, also a regular commentator on the Public Broadcasting Service’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer program, estimated that the talk shows have a combined viewership of about 10 million people, "which is not small."

He noted, however, that the audience generally consists of "people whose minds are already pretty made up" about who they favor for president.

Nathan Gonzales, political editor of a Washington nonpartisan newsletter called The Rothenberg Political Report, says the talk shows could have an indirect effect on the upcoming presidential election.

Although the shows have a "minuscule" audience, he told USINFO, the programs "derive a lot of media coverage, and I think that does have an impact on the race to some extent."

"The decision-makers, the chattering class, the political junkies watch the shows, and I think there’s a residual effect from that," said Gonzales, who is also a contributing writer for Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill.  Provocative statements, positive or negative, by candidates on the shows can be used by the news media as "sound bites" to be replayed over and over in subsequent days, Gonzales said, and those sound bites can influence the electorate.

David Yepsen, political columnist for Iowa’s Des Moines Register, agreed with Gonzales on the effect of sound bites.

An appearance by politicians on the Sunday shows normally influences voters only marginally, he told USINFO.  "But they do have a big effect" if a candidate makes a "huge mistake," he said.

Democratic candidate Bill Richardson had a subpar performance on a recent Sunday talk show that "hurt and set back" his chances to capture his party’s presidential nomination, Yepsen said.  However, Richardson’s performance on the campaign trail has improved since that appearance, he said.

Yepsen said "it’s fair to say" that political activists will pay attention if a candidate has a bad performance that is picked up in subsequent news stories or in the evening television news programs.

He added that each of the talk shows has a following, and "there is a certain class of news junkies that watches them all."

HILLARY CLINTON'S "FULL GINSBURG"

 

Democractic presidential runner and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson appears at a candidates forum in Iowa. The Internet and television play important roles in shaping U.S. candidates' images. (File photo © AP Images)

Democratic presidential runner and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson appears at a candidates forum in Iowa. (File photo © AP Images)

The political pundits analyzed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's September 23 appearance on all five major Sunday television political talk shows in the United States -- NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, ABC’s This Week, and CNN’s Late Edition.

Clinton’s performance was dubbed the "Full Ginsburg," a term coined after William Ginsburg, a lawyer who defended former White House intern Monica Lewinsky during a notorious Washington sex scandal, was interviewed on the same day in February 1998 by all five major talk shows.

Brooks said Clinton, a Democrat from New York who is seeking her party's nomination for the 2008 presidential election, appeared on the five talk shows September 23 because she had something to talk about regarding her health care plan.  Appearing on the shows would allow her to be "somewhat in control" of the discussion on that subject and her views regarding the Iraq war, he said.

Yepsen agreed that Clinton’s "Full Ginsburg" stemmed from her desire to "manage her message."

"She deals with the media when it suits her purposes.  She’s not great at granting interviews to a lot of people because she wants to stay on message," he said.

The New York senator’s appearances on all the Sunday shows were timed for the rollout of her health care proposal, "and on that, she did a good job," according to Yepsen.

Gonzales said Clinton’s appearance on all five talk shows September 23 made her the news story of that day.  "There wasn’t a lot of oxygen [news coverage time] left" for other presidential candidates following her appearances, he said.

According to Yepsen, Clinton's one flaw on the shows, picked up by the mainstream media, was her "forced guffaw" when asked to respond to "tough questions."

That "scripted" laugh sounded "phony" to voters, he said.

"It wasn’t a killer, or a deal breaker, people aren’t leaving her in droves over that, but it was a minus," Yepsen said.

Brooks, who was part of a round table discussion on American politics on ABC’s This Week, said Clinton’s performance on the same program earlier in the day was "really quite good" and she "looked presidential."

At the same time, Brooks agreed with Yepsen that Clinton’s laugh in response to several questions was off-putting.

"That’s the thing about television," Brooks said.  "It’s much less about words than presentation."

For more stories on the 2008 presidential campaigns, see U.S. Elections.