Clinton Matches Reagan’s Skill at Topping Local News

Over and over, the same montage appeared on television screens all over Connecticut. The flag waved majestically in the background. The presidential seal lent its grandeur in the foreground. And in the center was the face of President Clinton, looking off into the distance like a man thinking important thoughts.

A Clinton ad? No, this was the logo chosen by ABC affiliate WTNH-TV in New Haven to go with their glowing wall-to-wall coverage Wednesday of “The Presidential Visit,” as the station labeled Clinton’s trip to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in nearby New London and to a political fund-raiser in Stamford.

While Clinton’s campaign was counting his local coverage by the hours (yes, hours), Bob Dole’s share of local air time the next day in another East Coast market ran less than 15 minutes. Dole was in Philadelphia on Thursday to deliver an important address to the Catholic Press Assn., discussing abortion, schools and morality. But not only was there no live coverage, by evening the sentencing in a local murder had bumped the presumed GOP presidential nominee down from the top of the city’s newscasts.

The contrasting examples vividly illustrate a significant advantage that Clinton brings to his battle with Dole for the White House. In the contest for local television news coverage--a crucial arena because it often offers sorely needed exposure minus the skeptical grilling of network correspondents--Clinton so far has overwhelmed his foe.

Part of the reason is that a president can always win in any competition for pomp and political trappings. But more than that, Clinton, like former President Reagan, has learned how to effectively use those powers when he touches down in a local market, according to several observers of the process.

“It’s like you’re watching ‘Son of Morning in America,’ ” Michael K. Deaver said admiringly. Deaver was the chief image maker for Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign, which used the theme “It’s Morning in America.”

Agreeing with Deaver is Gary Foster, a former member of Reagan’s advance team who now serves as press secretary for California Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove). Said Foster: “I have to tip my hat to the Clinton White House. They have literally taken a page out of President Reagan’s 1984 book--to stay above the fray, seize upon issues that are popular. Local television covers a president like no other event, and a president can either seize upon that and use it or not.”

Indeed, even though the national media tend to scoff at such coverage, local television news directors often see a presidential visit as a rare chance to deal with grander issues than local crime, weather, sports and traffic.

“A visit of the president of the United States like this in your backyard that happens during your news time, you go after it big time, with all your players out there,” said Billy Otwell, news director of WTNH-TV.

Otwell estimated that during Clinton’s appearance in Connecticut, his station dedicated more than two hours of air time to “The Presidential Visit,” as the logo proclaimed. About 40 of 75 staff members at the station were assigned to the story. The station went on live from 11 a.m. (EDT) to 12:30 p.m. to cover Clinton’s speech.

Two other Connecticut stations covered the president’s speech live that morning and topped their later news reports with accounts of his visit--adding another 40 minutes or so to the total.

Clinton led all three local evening news shows in the market at 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. News of his visit was on the local morning shows Wednesday and Thursday, as well as other moments throughout the day.

Says Foster, the former Reagan advance man: “If you use the office properly, the assets are there to allow you to dominate the local news for an entire 24-hour cycle.”

The candidate challenging an incumbent president, he notes, doesn’t have “a beautifully painted 747.”

A lot of what the local stations cover, Foster adds, is “the process, the trappings, the helicopters. People bring their kids out, whether they like the guy or not, because he’s president of the United States. So you’ve got your crowds out there, and it’s all easier.”

Most campaign experts suggest that it was President Nixon who first began courting local television--in part because his relations with the press in Washington often ranged from adversarial to downright hostile. Since then, other presidents and presidential candidates have recognized the power of local media to target key voting blocs or important states.

These experts suggest that Presidents Ford, Carter and Bush did not use the trappings of the White House fully as part of their campaigns to retain office, either because they could not or would not master the highly theatrical art.

Deaver, who also ran Reagan’s 1980 campaign against then-President Carter, said a contender can minimize the incumbent’s advantage by paying close attention to campaign “visuals” that show up well on television--an especially important consideration, given the continuing importance of the medium in determining voter attitudes.

“The Dole campaign can do it,” he says. “It’s taken Clinton 3 1/2 years to get into this rhythm and get it down, to get comfortable. Their team has gotten themselves together. The Dole people are just coming into this. It will probably be the summer before the two campaigns’ visuals are of the same quality.”

The battle for local television coverage took both candidates recently to Miami. Clinton announced a new anti-drug initiative, made a special pitch to the local Spanish media and went golfing--always a good television event. He earned, in the case of the local NBC affiliate, a solid chunk of every news show during the day.

Dole took a walk on the beach, which looked to television producers much like his vacation trip to Florida in April. A stroll through a local market earned the candidate fractions of a minute on the local news shows, and a quick speech at a downtown festival resulted in fraying the nerves of the local television crews who covered the event. Although the local stations planned to put Dole’s remarks on their evening news shows, the candidate arrived too late for the news segments of the programs.

“They were operating at about the level of a county commission candidate,” said Miami Herald political editor Tom Fiedler of Dole’s campaign operation during the Florida stop.

For Dole, who is short of campaign funds now, every trip counts.

Meanwhile, the extensive local air time allotted to Clinton comes with a surge of campaign ads financed primarily by the Democratic National Committee. In Connecticut and Philadelphia, for example, the ads for Clinton were running on the evening news this week.

In Connecticut, Clinton’s ads almost seemed unnecessary, given the free time he received on the news shows. In Philadelphia, they served as counterweight to Dole’s meager time on the local news.