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Newsday/January 19, 2004 |
Not Necessarily the
News;
Meet the players who will influence coverage of the 2004 campaign. You might be surprised.
By Verne Gay
Who's got juice?
And, second question: What exactly is "juice?"
It's not the liquid on the second shelf of your refrigerator or the stuff that lights
bulbs. Juice is that indefinable, absolutely indispensable condition that every TV and
radio pundit, producer, reporter and anchor strives for in a presidential election year.
It is that essential something that says this person just might make a difference in that
national exercise to select the planet's most powerful person.
In plain English: influence.
Who's got juice? Hint: It's not just Tom, Dan and Peter anymore. As the Iowa Caucuses get
under way today, the question is tricky because the answer cannot be cornered simply by
applying the usual yardsticks, like Nielsen or Arbitron ratings. Political influence is
also a moving target that's often here today gone tomorrow because its close relatives,
Hype and Buzz, are sometimes conjoined to it.
Influence can be shaped by new technology (blogging) or old (Rush Limbaugh's dittoheads).
It can rise with the sun ("Today") or set after dark ("Tonight"). It
can get out the votes (Tom Joyner) or effectively convince people why voting is an
exercise in utter futility (Jon Stewart). It skews young or old, black or white, Hispanic
or Anglo, male or female, rich or poor.
Influence, in other words, is often just a strange and bewildering reflection of our
strange and bewildering media landscape that has been balkanized along racial, economic
and demographic lines. The consequence of all this noise jostling for our attention is
that each of us seeks solace - and most of our information - from just a few sources, and
not necessarily the more traditional ones.
So who's got juice in Campaign '04? According to interviews with consultants, journalists
and academics, here are the top players:
1. Jon Stewart
Host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and anchor
of its "Indecision '04" coverage
Come on - who'd you expect? With all the current press hype - the cover of Newsweek, plus
a recent study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which found that
8 percent of respondents learned most everything they knew about a candidate from shows
like "The Daily Show" and "Saturday Night Live" - this guy wields
influence over his million- plus viewers like a preacher over his flock. In truth, it's
tough to say how much of Stewart's perceived clout is just the reverberation bouncing
between the walls of the media echo chamber. But to anyone paying attention, Stewart and
his merry band of lunatics, like Rob Corddry, Stephen Colbert and Lewis Black, have been
in the game for years, hitting their stride during the Florida recount. Sen. John Edwards
announced his candidacy to Stewart because influential people really do watch: "The
Daily Show is where a lot of meatheads like me actually get news," says George
Shelton, senior associate with consultancy Strother-Duffy-Strother.
But Stewart scoffs at the "influential" label: "Daily" is "sort
of a comedy show based on the absurdities of how news is run and how the government
operates, not that any of this has helped in any way," he says. The absurdities
continue "unabated," so, "We have no power."
"I'm not saying, 'Aw shucks, we're just a little show,' but I would say influence
implies results [and] influence implies we have a platform. We don't. No platform. No
agenda. No reason for being, other than to entertain ourselves."
2. Tim Russert
NBC News
Straight TV's most influential figure for many reasons, ubiquity notwithstanding. He is
(and will be) everywhere this year, from his host role on the dominant "Meet the
Press" to "Today." He also runs NBC's Washington bureau, which makes him
one of the rare anchor- executive combos in television. "I'm always amused,"
says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, about
Russert's frequent appearances on "Nightly News," "that even when he says
something completely mundane, it sounds historic. He has that ability to capture your
attention, and not many can pull that off."
Russert, like the rest of TV news, flip-flopped the calls on election night '00, so his
goal in '04 is to "get the story right," he says in an e-mail, "and report
it in an understandable and meaningful way, even it if means using a dry erase
board."
3. Sean Hannity
Fox News Channel, syndicated radio host
There may be no purer representation of the hard-edged Republican right than this guy. And
if for some unlikely reason he decided to turn against George W. Bush, the president
should start thinking about retirement. "I almost think of Rush [Limbaugh] as more
conservative and Hannity more Republican because he is so clearly anti-Democratic,"
says leading Republican consultant Doug McAuliffe. That, observers say, is a reason
Hannity is considered more influential than Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, who's somewhat
suspect in the eyes of the Right, or even Limbaugh, who has no TV berth.
Hannity, who likes to say he's "Hannitizing the vote" for Bush, says, "What
I try and do on this show is give people a perspective that I do not think they are going
to get elsewhere." Right - to 12 million radio fans and 1.9 million TV ones, day and
night.
4. Tom Joyner
Dallas-based syndicated radio host
The most influential black voice on the airwaves in America. "He can say one thing on
radio and start a movement," says George Curry, editor of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association. "If Tom says, 'Do it,' people jump and do it." Joyner,
who recently took over ownership of his music-talk show (reaching about 8 million
listeners in 115 cities, although not New York, from ABC, is supporting black colleges and
has launched a get-out-the-vote initiative. In a statement, Joyner says, "This is the
year we've got to make sure black folks know who's running for president and why they need
to get involved. We don't want a repeat of 2000." (A spokesman says Joyner will not
endorse a candidate.)
5. Tom Brokaw
NBC News
This year will be TV's top-ranked anchorman's last at the helm of "Nightly
News." Many say a surge of emotion by viewers should make him virtually untouchable
in '04. "I want us to get well beyond the temptations of 'gotcha' and become a
reliable navigator for the voters looking to find their way through the tangle of spin,
contradictions and hyperbole," he says, in an e-mail, adding: "I hope we get it
right before it goes to the Supreme Court."
6. Jon Macks
"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno"
Someone has to write all the jokes for Leno's monologue, and Macks, a former Democratic
consultant, is the political specialist at "Tonight." He joined the show more
than a decade ago, and has written, by his estimate, 25,000 jokes a year since then. The
Philadelphia native worked for Richard Gephardt's campaign in 1988, and most recently, was
a producer of HBO's "K Street." (He and James Carville are close friends.)
7. Rush Limbaugh
Syndicated radio host
Drugs and dubious football judgment aside, Limbaugh remains the nation's most pervasive
conservative voice. Says McAuliffe, "he has that little saying, 'Media, sharpen your
pencils [because] it's time for us to tell you what to write about,' and absent the major
reporters, that's true."
8. Michael Schur, Tina Fey
"Saturday Night Live"
Schur, a graduate of the Harvard Lampoon, is an "SNL" staff writer and producer
of "Weekend Update." Fey, "SNL" intellectual- force-in-residence,
stars in "Update" and also is a head writer for the long-running comedy show.
Schur says the mission this year is balance. The show, he says, is an "equal
opportunity offender," and in a major departure, he says "SNL" is actively
considering coverage of both the Democratic and Republican conventions. ("SNL"
is usually dark during the summer.) What does "coverage" mean? "SNL"
is trying to figure that out as we speak. Another big '04 challenge: Figure out how to
impersonate Howard Dean, assuming he survives beyond New Hampshire.
9. Jorge Ramos
Anchor, "Noticiero Univision"
Univision's Ramos is Rather-Brokaw-Jennings rolled into one, and a prolific author as
well; his sixth nonfiction book, "The Latino Wave," about how Latinos will
select the next president, is due out in June. "Noticiero" beats the major
nightly English-language broadcasts in several cities (including, on occasion, New York).
"The election of 2004 will show the incredible political power of Latinos," says
the Miami-based anchor, who emigrated from Mexico as a kid and has been Univision's top
anchor since 1986. "By the year 2125, there will be more Latinos than non-Hispanic
whites in this country. In other words, the United States is slowly but surely becoming a
Latino nation, like it or not." His role as anchorman is to "never give my
opinion," he says, "but I do have a daily radio commentary, [and] I'm hoping to
see that Latinos get the credit they deserve." He adds, "Sometimes Latino
journalists become the voice for those who do not have one."
10. Jude Brennan
"Late Show With David Letterman"
A must-stop for candidates, "Late Show" is actively trying to build its
political chops. Letterman show runner Brennan told the Congressional Quarterly that she
is not looking for "knee- slapping jokes," but that pols can give viewers
information "in an entertaining way...." (Producer Maria Pope and segment
producer Matt Robert also are key political scribes for this show.)
11. Steve Scully
Political editor, C-SPAN
Hands down, the most influential TV producer of politics. Scully has spent most of his
career at C-SPAN, which is studied by politicos (and some journalists) as closely as
astrologers monitor the planets. Consultants say he is the most informed producer on TV,
and that a seat on his show, "Road to the White House," is one of the hottest
tickets in D.C. Scully, who will oversee about 300 hours of convention coverage, says his
greatest hope is that there will be some "moment during the campaign when people
remember the campaign [and] they remembered it by watching it on C-SPAN." And,
"I'm all for a brokered convention" (where no candidate has enough votes, so the
nomination is up for grabs).
12. Mark Halperin
Political director, ABC News
Hands down, the second-most-influential TV producer (or first, depending on your source)
and, like Scully, an on-air presence as well. Halperin is essentially the brain trust of
ABC News' vast political operation, from the Web to the tube and radio. This year's
wrinkle are rolling control rooms rigged to handle a variety of multimedia tasks. Beyond
the fancy gizmos, Halperin says his '04 goal is "to hold powerful interests
accountable to the public interest."
13. Katie Couric
"Today"
As Chuck Todd, editor of the newsletter Hotline, explains, "I've been told from a
political person who's worked with campaigns for years, the best TV hit to have, hands
down, is the first half hour of 'Today.'" Couric balks at the "influence"
label but adds, "I hope I can deliver something that television isn't very good at
delivering, and that's a clear understanding of the issues ... and strip away political
speak."
14. Carl Cameron
Chief political correspondent, Fox News
Channel
Considered cable news' most aggressive and plugged-in correspondent, Cameron works for a
network that some say furthers the interests of the Republican party, and to that Cameron
says: "Any honest-to-God political junkie is not driven by ideology but by the story,
[and] I have an excellent relationship with virtually every campaign." Indeed, he was
seen tossing a football recently with John Kerry.
15. Gideon Yago
Correspondent, MTV News
Yes, young people vote, and many also watch MTV's Forest Hills-reared, Columbia-educated
correspondent. MTV is about to launch its "Choose or Lose" campaign, and Yago is
the network's top political reporter. He says it seems "there are so many real things
that are at stake if you're a young person in this country, whether it's the economy or
access to higher education."
The plan is "to act as an advocate, or try to, for this huge demographic echo of the
Baby Boom that'sfightingforpoliticians'ears."
16. Ted Koppel/Peter Jennings
ABC News
How to separate these two? A dead heat. Koppel has already annoyed the political
establishment - to his credit - by asking smart-alecky questions during one of last fall's
televised Democratic candidate debates.
Jennings, meanwhile, has produced a series of portraits on the candidates for "World
News Tonight." The outtakes of those will air shortly on C-SPAN, where they will
really get noticed.
17. Dan Rather/Bob Schieffer
CBS News
Another dead heat. What would a presidential election be without Rather? (His influence
has waned over the years, while two decades ago, he would have been at the top of the
list.)
Schieffer, meanwhile, is a beloved Washington figure who has the extraordinarily good luck
of presiding over "Face the Nation," now solidly in second place behind
"Meet the Press."
18. The network "off-airs" of ABC and NBC
An important back-to-the-future element in this year's political coverage, both networks
employ platoons of smart, eager-beaver off-air reporters to follow the candidates day and
night (they're called "embeds" at NBC, "off-airs" at ABC). They've
filed volumes of data on the Internet, too. Reena Singh, ABC's "off-air" on the
Dean campaign, compares her exhausting job to running a race. "If you really want to
win, you don't look back and you stay focused."
19. Lori Montenegro
Telemundo's Washington correspondent
After Ramos, Montenegro is Spanish-language TV's other major political reporter. Like
Ramos, she was born in another country - Cuba - and came to this job with a sense that
"my role as a reporter is to not only spike interest [in politics] but serve a dual
purpose of education, analysis and questioning."
20. Tucker Carlson
CNN
CNN has many respected political reporters - Judy Woodruff, Candy Crowley, Jeff
Greenfield, Bill Schneider, and "Larry King Live" is stillintermittently
influential but its clout has diminished. Carlson is an exception; he and Paul Begala have
revived "Crossfire."
Carlson's dream in '04?
"Always the same, and that's to be surprised. I can't stand any sort of boredom,
like, 'We've done this all before.' Those feelings are antithetical to my idea of
journalism." |
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