Rove Calls, CNN Salutes, We Grow Weary

Critique and analysis of 2004 campaign coverage from Columbia Journalism Review
Spin Buster
April 02, 2004
Rove Calls, CNN Salutes, We Grow Weary

We really, truly, honestly, all kidding aside, did not declare this "Pound On CNN Week" here at Campaign Desk. But news outlets are like athletes -- they sometimes go into slumps. And for CNN, this has been that kind of week.

Latest example: A reader clued us in to this piece of expert political analysis from CNN's Bill Schneider. On yesterday's "Inside Politics," Schneider told viewers, "On Tuesday we reported that in our latest poll, President Bush has pulled ahead of John Kerry in the 18 swing states where the Bush campaign has been running ads ... White House political strategist Karl Rove called CNN to say he thinks we're giving too much credit to the Bush campaigns anti-Kerry ads."

There then followed an "analysis" of the cause of Kerry's drop-off. Was it indeed the result of the negative ads, or was it caused, as Rove argued, by the White House's positive ads praising the president, and by the fact that, as more voters get to know Kerry, he becomes less popular? The discussion allowed CNN to play footage from one Bush ad, and a clip of President Bush criticizing John Kerry.

Now, we understand that the White House would prefer that people think Kerry's declining numbers are the result of voters getting more familiar with him, rather than attack ads from his opponent. After all, as anchor Candy Crowley put it to Schneider, "attack ads sound bad."

But something tells us that Karl Rove doesn't much care one way or the other. As long as CNN is "analyzing" why Kerry's hit the skids, it's putting out a storyline the White House likes. That's why Rove called Schneider -- he was trying to milk another day's coverage out of Tuesday's poll results. And Schneider, eager to share with the world the "news" that Karl Rove had called him in person, duly obliged.

Sometimes it's depressing to report how easily the news media gets duped.