The New York press is baffled by the abysmal turnout in last week's mayoral primary—just 17% of registered Democrats chose between the winner Fernando Ferrer and a few also-rans. Why so little public interest in the outcome? The press can place some of the blame on its own dreary horse-race fixation, which unfortunately is the dominant theme of US political coverage.

To illustrate, examine a New York Times article from last Friday that is by no means the worst of the bunch. The Times, at least, devotes nearly 1,700 words to a look ahead to the general election, when Ferrer will attempt to unseat Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Yet every one of those words is employed to pick apart strategy and public relations, on the surface; there's not one fact-check of candidates' claims nor a substantive comparison of their policies. It's political journalism written for political insiders, not for voters.

Surrounded by hundreds of Democratic officials, Anthony D. Weiner, C. Virginia Fields, Gifford Miller and Mr. Ferrer heaped praise upon one another while excoriating Mr. Bloomberg, effectively jump-starting the general election campaign by offering a view of the city starkly at odds with Mr. Bloomberg's rosier picture.

"We can do better than a mayor who says he doesn't think many people make the minimum wage. We can do better than a mayor who says that poor people get better health care in this city than the wealthy," Mr. Ferrer said before a cheering crowd wilting under a hot sun. "I believe that hope and opportunity have to be present in equal measure on every block, on every street in every neighborhood in every borough of our city."

Bloomberg did indeed say what Ferrer says he said; Bloomberg's self-censoring mechanism, if he has one, is usually politically tone-deaf. But the Times makes no effort to evaluate whether his "rosier picture" has any veracity. And it's not like these are newly unearthed Bloomberg quotes, delivered in an exclusive conversation with Ferrer. Rather, they were uttered many moons ago.

Consider the minimum-wage issue: Bloomberg has supported a raise in the minimum wage, but in April 2004, he did question whether many New Yorkers make as little as $5.15 an hour. The New York Daily News, in its coverage at the time, led with "Note to billionaire Mayor Bloomberg: Tread lightly on minimum wage matters" and only at the bottom of the article noted that it's unclear how many New Yorkers make that little. (Surely hundreds of thousands make only a buck or two more than minimum wage.)

As for health care, Bloomberg said on New Year's Eve, "This city has 11 public hospitals, and every rating agency says these are the best hospitals, better than the great teaching hospitals we have in this city. Medical care in this city is arguably one of the few services you can point to any place in the world where the poor get better services than the wealthy."

Bloomberg's inartful point: New York's public hospitals are better than private ones, by some quantitative measures. The Times, on January 1, reported, "Drawing meaningful comparisons can be difficult if not impossible. The commission's Web site, which offers a database of accreditation reports, is full of caveats about using the information for comparisons." And Bloomberg was silly to equate hospital care with overall health care, when the wealthy get much of their treatment at private doctors' offices. So Ferrer's criticism of Mayor Mike is more than superficial.

But you wouldn't get any of that from last Friday's Times story; instead, there's lots of journalistic "balance"…

The rally crystallized what is emerging as the dominant theme of the mayoral race, a battle over perceptions of life in New York: one of a city on the move for all its residents with a rebounding economy, improving schools and lower crime, as the Bloomberg campaign suggests; the other of a city Mr. Ferrer sees, in which the poor are being left behind, the middle class is being squeezed and too many children are dropping out of school into a dire future.

…
meta-musing about what press coverage will do …

As the presumed Democratic nominee, Mr. Ferrer suddenly has the media spotlight to himself, the sort of exposure that aides to both candidates agree could easily translate into higher poll ratings and, possibly, that key ingredient: momentum. …
A tightening in the polls that would create a certain story line that Mr. Ferrer is a man on the move. The key question, of course, is what Mr. Bloomberg will do about it.

…
and micro-analysis of candidates' rhetoric for stylistic shifts that have no tangible relation to policy:

In a subtle answer to charges by Mr. Ferrer that Mr. Bloomberg paints an overly rosy picture of the city, he added, "There's more to do certainly; there's more to do in our schools, certainly there's more affordable housing we're going to need, certainly we need more jobs coming into this city."

Given this sort of coverage, you'd be forgiven here if you were to stay home from the polls on November 8.

Email this entry to:

Your email address:

Message (optional):