TV Reviews : Two Election Specials Miss Target Audience

One look at tonight’s TV schedule might indicate that the Tube Powers That Be want you to vote this November. But while last Friday’s multichannel airing of “Scared Silent” proved that such an effort could focus the nation’s attention on an issue (in that case, child abuse), the simultaneous airing at 8 p.m. of “Why Bother Voting?” (KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPBS-TV Channel 15) and “See How They Run” (E! Television, repeating at 11 p.m.) isn’t likely to have a similar impact.

Both carry serious intent under a smart, hip veneer, and both are being shown in TV’s backwater, just where the target audience isn’t.

So much for getting out the vote.

Consider “Why Bother Voting?,” designed to spur that massive group of non-voters--the Generation X under-25ers--to register and hip-hop into the voting booth. Never has a PBS production (directed by Joe Butt, produced by Karen Katz) looked and felt so much like an MTV broadcast. Complete with squiggly, pulsating graphics and jump-cuts from comedy to rap to political messages (host Lisa Bonet: “We gotta stop giving our country away”), the show is a peppy, hourlong pitch against apathy.

In fact, this is so much like MTV that you wonder why it’s not on MTV, where the chosen viewers are. (And, following up on the “Scared Silent” model, on all the major broadcast networks as well.) It’s like booking U2 into the Ambassador Auditorium. PBS is the one place, other than C-SPAN, that already attracts a fairly high percentage of actual voters. Many of them know the answer to the question, “Why Bother Voting?,” so they’ll rightly ask, “Why Bother Watching?” Meanwhile, like so many other voter registration efforts, the non-voters will tune out.

It’s too bad, since the show is often funnier than a lot of what passes for comedy on the networks. A running news bit on the United States banning the right to vote sets a goofy tone that softens up the viewer for the one-two punch of (1) How government affects you, and (2) How easy--and necessary--it is to vote.

While Bonet lazily stumbles through her narration, her approach is like your best friend chatting. And the show is stuffed with little goodies, from Ben Shepard taking us “undercover” into a voting booth to Abraham Lincoln reduced to a quick sound bite.

Interestingly, on “See How They Run,” host Ron Reagan shows Larry King explaining how Lincoln’s under-300-word Gettysburg Address would be a great TV speech. Most of the time, though, this surprisingly substantial E! report is plenty skeptical of TV’s effect on campaigning and politics.

It’s even a little skeptical of itself: Reagan introduces himself in a replica of the White House Oval Office--like TV, an image of reality--though he omits that the replica is part of the library dedicated to his ex-President father, Ronald. Reagan also notes how the sound-bite culture of politics infects his own report, as he elicits transparently glib spin-doctored answers from Bush campaign strategist Mary Matalin and Clinton spinner Dee Dee Myers.

Though hardly a comprehensive analysis of how media and campaigning taint each other, “See How They Run” offers a far-reaching, breathlessly fast survey of the thoughts of media observers (such as Neil Postman), campaign strategists (such as a bitter Roger Ailes), image makers (producers Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason) as well as a bevy of polling data (such as one poll showing 91% dismissing the effect of celebrity endorsements).

The grist in this program is considerable. Reporter Jeff Greenfield notes that show-biz and American campaigning date back to the early 19th Century and the original Fourth of July fireworks shows. Strategist Ed Rollins remarks that a presidential campaign “is the closest thing to war we have in America without people getting shot and killed.” Ailes dismisses voters as getting the government they deserve.

They’re all correct, but thickly cynical; Reagan manages to cut through it with an upright idealism that at least feels genuine. He’s learned a few things from Dad.