Media Coverage of the Election Part I

Kerry working the crowd

A photograph of Sen. John Kerry headlines the San Francisco Chronicle's coverage of the election. The picture shows him in mid-sentence, arms stretched, flag blazing in the background, as he delivered a speech in Detroit on Wednesday. I found this photo quite fitting considering that most of its recent articles center around Kerry. In fact, of the 15 links to recent campaign articles, 7 mention Bush's name and about half of those are criticisms either by Kerry or others.

Then there's BBC News. I tried unsuccessfully to click my way to an easy-to-reach center of information and settled for typing in a search. My favorite article containing election coverage is a web log created by two BBC Online reporters traveling around America in an attempt to "get to the heart of the issues central to this year's election." It's interesting to see what kinds of things people from other countries want to know about American issues and politics. One question from Paul from Newbury, England asked whether they found an equal measure of hatred for both George Bush and John Kerry. The response: "I don't think we've found anything towards Kerry like the scorn for Bush. We're encountered raw animosity and rage towards not only towards George Bush but towards his supporters as well.” Nothing quite like good old fashioned American discontentment.

The Washington Times proves to be the “yin” to the Chronicle’s “yang.” The Washington Times coverage featured a mostly Bush-centric approach to the election. I did find it interesting that The Washington Times has a “Civil War” section of its website, sandwiched between Culture and Weather. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a news website devote a section to covering an event that happened almost 150 years ago.