Media Politics : Press, TV Back Off From Calling Dukakis Clear Debate Winner

Michael S. Dukakis may have gotten the better of things in the first presidential debate, but it might be going too far to call him an outright winner, the media indicated Tuesday, a day in which the press seemed to take a breath and wait for the campaigns and the public to make the next move.

After two days of edging toward a consensus that Dukakis had gained most from Sunday’s debate, the press, and particularly the three networks, backed off the campaign story slightly--a sign perhaps that the media may never want to get too far ahead of the polls, the candidate or public opinion on a story.

It is all part of the consensus-building that experts say occurs after a debate, a reaction that many experts consider as important as the debate itself in shaping how the public remembers the event.

The press might have taken its cue in part from a series of seemingly contradictory early polls, ABC’s indicating Dukakis won, CBS’ indicating Bush, Newsweek’s and the Los Angeles Times’ indicating a draw. The differences may depend on the vagaries of how the small sample of people polled saw the candidates beforehand.

ABC even led its political segment Tuesday with news that its poll results had changed over time. When it followed up a day later with people it had polled on Sunday about the debate, more people still thought Dukakis had done better, 34% to 24%, but now the largest group, 43%, either thought the debate was a draw or didn’t know. The night of the debate, only 20% were uncertain.

“The more people think about it, the more they seem to feel the debate was a tossup,” anchorman Peter Jennings said.

Bush himself seemed to sense that the press consensus was softening slightly Tuesday, and he upgraded his evaluation of his debate performance, perhaps in response to press accounts that the Dukakis team was more bullish than the Bush crowd.

“I feel better today . . . than the night of the debate,” he told print reporters. “I felt it was about even, and I now think maybe we did a little better than that.”

In addition, the Bush campaign seemingly tried to regain momentum in the press by offering a proposal for tax-deferred savings accounts, perhaps to counter the sense detected in some early polling after the debate that he had lost some voter confidence in his economic programs.

But he had only partial success selling the plan to the networks.

CBS Gives Details of Plan

CBS detailed the proposal closely, complete with graphics that made the it seem very concrete and specific. But anchorman Dan Rather did introduce the story by saying, “George Bush today tried to reduce some of the effect of Mike Dukakis’ charge that Bush favors tax breaks for the rich while putting the squeeze on working people.”

ABC treated the plan somewhat more skeptically, without the credibility-building graphics.

“It is a modest plan,” ABC’s Brit Hume said. He estimated that the tax saving on a $1,000 savings account after 10 years would be only $140.

And NBC thought so little of the plan that anchorman Tom Brokaw just mentioned it over a logo of Bush’s face.

Deficit Plans Found Wanting

CBS examined both Bush’s and Dukakis’ plans for reducing the deficit and suggested that both lacked sufficient detail to be credible.

Bush’s “flexible freeze,” which would hold the budget steady but give the President discretion to cut or add wherever he wanted, was an election-year idea that allowed Bush to talk about reducing the deficit “without threatening anyone’s sacred spending cows,” Eric Engberg said.

Dukakis’ four-point plan to reduce the deficit by cutting spending, catching tax cheats, encouraging economic growth and reducing interest rates was also so vague that “many economists are skeptical,” he said.

‘Zinger of the Day’

Bush did succeed in getting his “zinger of the day” about Dukakis on ABC’s network news: “There’s a TV show that reminds me of what interest rates might be if the Democrats get in again. It’s called ‘thirtysomething.’ ”

ABC undercut Dukakis’ charge that Bush might cut Social Security, noting that the 1980 Bush quote on which the charge was partly based was being mischaracterized.

For its part, NBC skipped the campaign trail entirely Tuesday. Instead, it profiled the American Civil Liberties Union, saying the organization, to which Dukakis belongs, played a key role in Bush’s attempt to depict Dukakis as a liberal. That got Bush’s sound bite from the debate about Dukakis being “out of the mainstream” back on the air.

But it also noted that the ACLU had defended John Scopes in the trial over teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in public schools, opposed internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, defended the right of Nazis to march in Skokie, Ill., and came to the aid of Oliver L. North and President Reagan’s former aide Lyn Nofziger.

Quotes Bork on ACLU

It mentioned that the Reagan Administration’s new attorney general, Dick Thornburgh, was once a member. It quoted former Harvard Law School Dean Erwin Griswold, a Republican, defending the group and rejected Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork denouncing it.

All this followed the lead of the morning papers, which Tuesday also seemed to be waiting for more information before pressing a debate consensus any further.