U.S. Elections 2008

News & Polls

07 August 2008
Journalist Daniel Schorr Says Youth Vote Key to 2008 Election

By Eric Green
Staff Writer

Washington -- Record-breaking voter registration by young people will be "one of the big stories" of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, famed journalist Daniel Schorr tells America.gov.

The senior news analyst and commentator for National Public Radio said the youth vote could decide the election. Polls suggest a majority of young Americans support presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama over presumed Republican nominee John McCain.

Schorr said he found it "electrifying" that young people have expressed a desire to vote in this year’s election in much greater numbers than in other years. Increased voter turnout among young people in 2008, as shown during the primary season, is an "important new fact," said Schorr. (See "Young Americans Paying Close Attention to Presidential Race.")

In a journalism career of more than six decades, Schorr has reported on major news events from the U.S. Congress’ anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s to the President Bill Clinton impeachment hearings of the 1990s. He won three Emmy awards for excellence in coverage of the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Professional Journalists in 1991.

Schorr said McCain might secure a majority of the older American vote, which, depending on the closeness of the election, also could decide who wins the White House.

As to the importance of the 2008 vote, Schorr said that "every time we come up to a presidential election people say this is the most crucial one" in U.S. history.

"[What] I would say about this election is that it marks some great turning point" in America, said Schorr. He said that in the mid-1990s, the country realigned to the right of the political spectrum, but "now we have begun to see a realignment going back the other way."

The key to this election is "change," said Schorr, elaborating that most Americans want a "big change" in their government.

NEWS MEDIA BIAS FOR OBAMA?

Schorr, discussing allegations that the news media is biased in favor Obama, pointed to a study by American University politics and journalism professor Richard Benedetto who calculated the number of times Obama’s picture had appeared from June 4 through July 13 in the Washington Post relative to that of McCain.

The study showed an "enormous advantage for Obama," Schorr said, which showed the Democrat is "very clearly a favorite of the press."

Schorr said this advantage does not necessarily mean the press wants Obama to beat McCain. Rather, he said, the press "simply finds Obama more interesting" to cover than his Republican rival.

In August 5 commentary on National Public Radio, Schorr said that over the past three years, Obama has been featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines 12 times to McCain’s five.

But Schorr added in his commentary that alleged pro-Obama bias is not reflected in conservative talk shows on American radio.

Schorr said the United States used to have a "legislated fairness doctrine meant to ensure political balance on the airwaves," but it was "abolished by the [U.S.] Federal Communications Commission in 1985 in the interest of journalistic freedom." (See "Opinions Vary on Need for Fairness Doctrine in Broadcast Media.")

American University’s Benedetto said he began his study out of personal curiosity about whether Obama was getting bigger and better-placed photos than McCain.

The findings show, Benedetto told America.gov, that Obama photos on the Washington Post’s main news section outnumbered those of McCain by 57-47, Obama had six front-page photos as opposed to five for McCain, Obama had more color photos by a margin of 38-27 and Obama had more large photos, three columns or wider, by a difference of 31-19.

Whether the results indicate a news media bias toward Obama is a "hard question to answer," said Benedetto, who is a former White House correspondent and columnist for USA Today and author of the book, Politicians Are People, Too.

"It’s hard to accuse somebody of being outwardly biased" toward Obama, said Benedetto. But he added that "I’m willing to bet if you took a survey of journalists today who you favor and would vote for, I’m sure it would be an overwhelming response for Obama."

That does not necessarily mean, said Benedetto, that journalists "are all biased in their reporting." But he added there may be "a certain subconscious bias" in favor of Obama who "happens to be very charismatic, photogenic and telegenic."

Reporters want to cover Obama, Benedetto said, because the Democrat is a "historical and sociological phenomenon" and his story line is more newsworthy than McCain’s. The American public is already familiar with the 71-year-old McCain, who has been in American political life much longer than the 47-year-old Obama, he said.

Benedetto wrote in a July 17 article on his blog, News Not Spin, that newspaper editors need to be more discerning in their picture selections and "ask themselves if they are giving the two candidates an even break. Right now, they are not."

For more information, read Benedetto’s blog.

See also "Newspaperman Ben Bradlee Says Good Reporters Dig for Truth.”

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