[R-G] More Than a Two-Person Race

[Anthony Fenton]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Isabel Macdonald
212-633-6700 x 310
imacdonald at fair.org


More Than a Two-Person Race
Corporate media largely ignore other presidential candidates

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 21--While the major-party race for the White House  
has been the subject of broad media attention for more than a year,  
the corporate media have mostly ignored at least four substantial  
third-party and independent candidates for the presidency.

Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and Libertarian candidate Bob  
Barr are both former congressmembers from the state of Georgia. Their  
presence in the White House race, along with independent candidate  
Ralph Nader and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, would seem  
to present an interesting counterpoint to the major-party race between  
Barack Obama and John McCain. While the corporate press has apparently  
decided that the differences between Obama and McCain are more or less  
the only political opinions worth exploring this election season, the  
third-party and independent candidates take positions on issues like  
drug war policy, Israel-Palestine, civil liberties and military  
intervention that differ markedly from the views of either major-party  
candidate.

According to a Nexis news database search of the major network  
newscasts, McKinney's name has never been mentioned this year on the  
networks' news programs, while Barr and Nader's candidacies have  
garnered a total of only 31 mentions between them (15 times on ABC, 12  
times on NBC and 4 on CBS). Including the Fox network--which airsFox  
News Sunday on its broadcast affiliates--yields one passing mention of  
Nader, and an interview with Barr (6/29/08). PBS's NewsHour with Jim  
Lehrer offered passing mentions of Nader and Barr when they announced  
their candidacies (2/25/08, 5/12/08); more recently, the show has  
interviewed each of them one-on-one (10/14/08, 10/20/08).

The context in which Barr and Nader have been covered is worth  
examining; by FAIR's count, many of the references to the candidates  
dealt primarily with the potential effect on the fortunes of the major- 
party candidates--i.e., whether a third-party candidate would be a  
"spoiler." That accounted for 11 mentions of Barr and Nader.

Passing mentions of Nader or Barr accounted for another 13 mentions;  
four of these were joking or mocking references to Nader. (ABC's This  
Week includes humor clips from late-night talkshows, two of which  
included Nader as a punch line.)

A March 4 report on ABC's Good Morning America discussed the  
presidential election with a panel of children, one of whom asked,  
"There's like another thing, there's a guy named something Nader…. I  
think he's either running for the Green Party or the independents."  
ABC correspondent Chris Cuomo misinformed the children by saying  
"Green Party."

Actual interviews with the candidates were somewhat rare, but Nader  
has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press ( 2/24/08) and Nightly News  
(10/20/08), ABC's This Week (6/29/08) and the CBS Early Show  
(2/25/08). Barr has appeared on ABC's This Week (7/16/08).

The main question media tend to pose about third-party candidates is  
whether or not they will impact the outcome of the election. This is  
not at all surprising, given corporate media's preference for focusing  
on the horserace aspect of politics. The lesser-known candidates'  
generally low standing in the polls appears to make it less likely  
that they will play a decisive role on Election Day, but the media's  
refusal to open up the political conversation makes this outcome more  
or less a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But besides being a process for choosing officials, elections are also  
an opportunity to discuss ideas. By ignoring independent and third  
party candidates, the corporate media are also helping keep a range of  
policy options about key issues that are not espoused by either major  
party candidate off the table--including single payer healthcare, a  
full withdrawal from Iraq, ending the war in Afghanistan and ending  
the death penalty. Democracy Now! (10/16/08) allowed Nader and  
McKinney an opportunity to respond to the debate questions posed to  
Obama and McCain-- a rare opportunity for such candidates to let  
voters hear them alongside major-party nominees.

Numerous policies that are now seen as integral to American life were  
first proposed by third-party candidates; Socialist Eugene Debs, for  
example, promoted the idea of Social Security in his repeated runs for  
the presidency in the early 20th century, and Progressive Henry  
Wallace advocated desegregation in his 1948 race.

It's possible that the minor-party candidates in the 2008 election are  
suggesting programs that will one day seem as indispensable as Debs  
and Wallace's ideas. If so, you won't hear about them from the  
corporate media.



FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well- 
documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work  
to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity  
in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize  
public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. As an anti- 
censorship organization, we expose neglected news stories and defend  
working journalists when they are muzzled.