Media Politics : Difficulties Seen for Dukakis in Sustaining Attack on Bush

If television news so far this week is any indication, Michael S. Dukakis may have trouble sustaining momentum in his attack on George Bush for what he sees as dirty campaign tactics.

And the reasons say something about television and how to manipulate it.

On Monday, Dukakis had one of his strongest days in months on the evening network news. By charging that Bush’s TV commercials and campaign statements distorted the truth and contained an underlying element of racism, Dukakis had finally hit on a theme that put the vice president on the defensive.

One reason was that running mate Lloyd Bentsen, wife Kitty Dukakis and Democrat Jesse Jackson all had appeared on weekend talk shows saying the same thing, and all three networks showed footage of those appearances, buttressing Dukakis’ message on the stump. Just as powerfully, the Dukakis campaign in Maine apparently had mobilized around the message as well. When Bush campaigned there Monday, Dukakis supporters in Portland outnumbered and outshouted Bush supporters, which all three networks showed. And on NBC and CBS, cameras picked up the sound and look of passionate, almost tearful Dukakis supporters screaming, “Liar!” while Bush spoke.

Thus, on network television, Bush’s own campaign appearance of the day seemed to reinforce Dukakis’ message.

Bush Seemed Unprepared

Also, Bush seemed to be caught unprepared. For instance, Bush was not seen on the networks answering Dukakis’ attacks in any organized way from the stump. Instead, Bush was seen answering Dukakis’ charges seemingly off the cuff, as he was entering a building, corralled by reporters.

The pictures seemed to reinforce the network correspondents’ messages that Bush was on the defensive.

Dukakis assailed one ad that was so extreme that even Bush, when pressed by reporters, disavowed it on camera. But, then, Bush’s Illinois campaign chairman was seen on ABC defending the ad. The Bush camp looked in disarray.

However, on the news Tuesday, Dukakis’ message already seemed somewhat muddied. And, again, there seemed to be identifiable reasons why.

New Attack on Dukakis

For one, the Bush camp had mobilized itself, holding a press conference in Washington with prominent Republican politicians not only answering Dukakis’ charges but also rolling out a new ad attacking Dukakis, which was played at least in part on all three networks. “Michael Dukakis is unbelievable,” the ad concluded.

This in turn took heat off Bush’s performance, which had hurt him Monday.

ABC, CBS and NBC, for instance, used only one sound bite each from Bush as surrogates such as New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, former Texas Sen. John Tower and running mate Dan Quayle led the charge.

Another problem for Dukakis seemed to be the nature of his attack itself. All three networks made some attempt to explore Dukakis’ charges. Both CBS and NBC did separate reports on the ads in the two campaigns.

Ads Shown on News Shows

But, in doing so, all three networks showed substantial parts of Bush’s ads. And, although in some of those reports the correspondent criticized the veracity of the ad, research shows that it is unclear how viewers respond in such cases.

Finally, there was the candidate himself. Dukakis attacked Bush by repeating the alleged distortion so he could deny it.

“This ad talks about my being against every major weapons system. That is nonsense,” Dukakis was heard to say on ABC and NBC.