TV Stations Ignore Local Elections

Give the public too much information too soon and they'll get overloaded. This seems to be the sentiment of many television stations as they pass on covering local politics until the elections loom like an exam they haven't studied for. Local newscasts from across the country faired poorly in their recent coverage of ballot measures and candidates specific to their viewers, according to Rocky Mountain Media Watch (RMMW), a non-profit organization working to "challenge the news media to inform and educate the citizenry." The group, which surveyed broadcasts in September and October, found less than 10 percent of stations covered local election issues on evening broadcasts. On September 11, the group studied 52 stations from 32 cities and found that only 9 percent of local stations covered U.S. Senate races, 1 percent covered U.S. House races, 5 percent discussed statewide contests and only 3 percent discussed ballot propositions. A second survey conducted Oct. 2 revealed that 50 of 72 newscasts contained no news of state, municipal and local elections. The number of election stories dropped 50 percent since the first survey while the number of election ads rose 120 percent.While the limited scope of the survey may not represent a particular station's dedication to election coverage on the whole, this study is representative of a growing trend of ignoring the issues until it's too late, said RMMW's Executive Director Paul Klite. "The sample across the country speaks for itself," he said. " It averages out. The exact items covered change from day to day, but a snapshot of 72 pieces gives you a good idea of what's going on. The stations tend to cram it all in at the end, which leads to short term decision making. Citizens face a daunting prospect of informing themselves about the many candidates and issues on the November 5 ballot."When presented with RMMW's findings, many stations in the survey responded similarly--they haven't done much local coverage in the past two months, but they're making up for it now. "It doesn't do much good to cover measure issues in detail in September when the election isn't until November," said Portland television station KGW's Assistant Editor Joe Arndt. "That logic doesn't do any good," he continued. "No one will remember. We're doing something (on local elections) every day now." Mike Wesley, assignment editor for KRON in San Francisco, agreed. "Most people aren't thinking about the election as much (before mid-October), but now we have one to two reporters a day assigned to local election issues," he said.  The assignment editors assume cause and affect relationships with their viewers: they don't cover the issues because the viewers don't need the information yet. "It's typical of stations to blame the public," said Klite. "Obviously, the stations have got to do better."