Evening News Puts First Lady First in Race Coverage

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the U.S. Senate has received more evening news coverage than the presidential primary campaigns, according to a new study.

In fact, even with competitive contests and the earliest primary season ever, network nightly news stories about presidential politics have plummeted by 44% compared to four years ago, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonpartisan media research group based in Washington, D.C.

CBS saw the sharpest drop, cutting coverage 55%, from 320 minutes to 144 minutes in the 1999 “preseason.” ABC declined 39%; NBC, 37%.

“The broadcast networks have passed the torch to the 24-hour cable news networks, becoming niche players in preseason campaign news,” said CMPA President Dr. Robert Lichter. “The drop-off is especially surprising because both parties’ nominations are being contested this year, while Clinton’s renomination in 1996 was a foregone conclusion.”

Network officials and journalism watchdogs said that was exactly the point, that political news delivery has changed, with viewers able to gather all they want from 24-hour cable stations and Web sites. In 1995, neither Fox News Channel nor MSNBC existed.

“The landscape has changed so fundamentally that a news program must be measured not only in terms of broadcast, but by its cable news and Internet coverage as well,” said NBC News spokeswoman Barbara Levin, who noted with MSNBC and a healthy Web site, her network is providing more political content than ever.

CBS spokeswoman Kim Akhtar said much of the early campaigns simply weren’t newsworthy.

“We make a decision every single day as to whether there is real news in the campaigns. If there isn’t any real news, we’re not going to do a story.”

But she acknowledged that CBS has scaled back, rotating crews in and out of candidates’ campaign buses, for instance, rather than permanently assigning them.

Eileen Murphy of ABC News said: “I think the main reason [for the decline] is it’s a different news environment. [Lichter’s] using a set of standards that are outdated. The evening news is not the only place to get political coverage.”

But Lichter said 30 million to 35 million Americans still turn to nightly news shows, compared to half a million at best for cable shows.

“The political junkies will always find the campaign news,” he said. “What’s lost is the ordinary viewer who doesn’t go looking for campaign news, but still should know it to be an informed voter.”

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The broadcast evening news shows devoted a total of 7 hours, 45 minutes of coverage to the presidential race during 1999, compared to 14 hours, 2 minutes in 1995. That trend has continued in January, CMPA researchers said.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, with 96 stories, got nearly four times as much coverage as his main rival, U.S. Sen. John McCain, who was the subject of 26 stories. On the Democratic side, Vice President Al Gore, with 77 stories, edged out Bill Bradley with 56 stories. Among the remaining candidates, only Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes received more than 10 stories in 1999.

CBS spokeswoman Akhtar said that “George W. Bush received a huge amount of attention because he was in the race early, he raised a huge amount of money, and he had incredible poll numbers.”

But Hillary Clinton beat them all, with 110 pieces on her Senate race. Her likely opponent, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, received scant attention, with only 10 stories.

Network officials and other media analysts said the heavy coverage was legitimate, because it was the first time a sitting first lady had run for office.

“And she’s doing it in the center of the news universe, New York,” said Hal Bruno, retired ABC News political director.

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Lichter said the Clinton coverage was part of another sweeping change in network news coverage, shifting from “the old model of politics and public affairs” to lifestyle pieces, and increased coverage of crime and celebrities.

Marvin Kalb, head of the Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy, and a veteran national network correspondent, agreed with both.

“It is without question a historical story,” he said of Clinton’s run. “It’s also a soap opera.”

But Kalb, often a sharp critic of media coverage, said he had actually been pleasantly surprised by the political coverage so far this presidential cycle. It is the lack of voter interest that he is worried about.

“We can’t blame the press this time for the fact that the public is not interested,” he said.

Kalb said with a good economy, and a public weary of both politicians and the media after Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment scandal, it was simply hard to grab people’s attention.

“It’s one thing to run a political piece on the CBS evening news. It’s another thing to get the viewer’s attention. I think it goes in one eye and out the other.”

Unless, of course, you’re Hillary.