As a regular contributor to these pages, I am going to purge my system in another way. Since I have already written about how this election demonstrated the great need for campaign finance reform, the changing demographics of the electorate and why candidates from both parties should talk less and listen more to voters; I am going to turn my gaze away from the politicians and toward the media covering them.
The rise of the Internet and social media has sent news organizations like the Des Moines Register scrambling to hold together and rewrite a once solid business model. Selling newspapers and the ads inside was never easy, but the business of news coverage has never been harder than it is today. More and more people expect to get their news for free, on their schedule and in the format that they choose. Waiting for news to be delivered in the paper is something unfathomable to today’s smart phone toting, digital consumer. Providing a place of value for advertisers in a world of news on the run is a daunting challenge.
Knowing some about this changing environment and as an outsider who gets an occasional look inside the Des Moines Register’s newsroom, editorial offices and business operations, I remain intrigued by the Register’s decision to endorse Governor Mitt Romney in the final days of the race. I did not agree with the argument the Register made – it seemed to me they reversed course on much of which they have supported in recent years. But, I know those who made this decision. They are principled people who take editorial writing as seriously as they do investigative journalism.
That being said, one cannot deny the Romney endorsement turned the lights of the national media toward the Register. These lights would have never shone so brightly had the paper endorsed President Obama as most had expected. The editorial created a buzz that sells.
I am not suggesting the Register’s publisher and editor let marketing drive the endorsement. They are people of integrity. Beyond that, they are savvy enough to understand such gamesmanship would, in the long run, do more harm than good to the institution they pilot.
However, the impact of the Romney endorsement has been interesting and a little fun to watch. More than a few Republicans have long insinuated the Register was a Democrat biased institution. Many would call it the Red Star and take pride in cancelling subscriptions every time they felt trod upon. The Romney piece left them gobsmacked. One Romney supporter nearly hugged a Register reporter when she came to cover an event telling the reporter she finally felt as if the Register was again Iowa’s paper. The Register has even gained subscriptions in the days following the endorsement.
Meanwhile, a group of Democrats raised $15,000 to place a full page Register ad containing another paper’s endorsement of Obama. The irony of Democrats muttering about cancelling subscriptions while raising the equivalent of 125 yearly subscriptions to pay for an ad was kind of humorous.
Here’s my take away from all of this. There is much to learn from the 2012 campaign. First, we voters have the power to change the tenor of debate. Every time we react to a negative attack ad and ignore serious policy discussions, we make campaigns the shallow things we despise. When we rush to judge a person because of the party label she wears and overlook the ideas she espouses because of her party choice, we sell ourselves short. And, as important, we have the same power to control the media who report and comment on those running for office. We need to be equally careful about rushing to accuse them of bias. If we demand more, newspapers and other media outlets will rise to the call and in the process they will be profitable and healthy businesses.
Give candidates and the media your attention and, in doing so, hold them to a standard that helps chart a better course for our communities, state and country. Sure, we can gripe about the losers and accuse the winners. We can cancel subscriptions and yell about bias in the media. But, those things can be as childish and pointless as songs about kissing in trees. It is we who determine what sells and what doesn’t. We are the ones who must act. If we do not, when things go wrong, the blame will be ours.
I want an editorial board that calls it as they see it, not as I want them to call it. Even though the Romney piece made me cringe, it looks like they upheld their part of the bargain this time. I’m fine with that.
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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register online essay.
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