1. Page 1 of 2 © 2016 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
NEWS
Local media's clout rises in battleground states ; Candidates realize impact of smaller-scale coverage
Mark Memmott
1,154 words
24 August 2004
USA Today
USAT
FINAL
A.08
English
© 2004 USA Today. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
MEDFORD, Ore. -- As they race around the country stumping for votes, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry
hope for a minute or two's worth of coverage on the nightly network news shows and a headline the next day in
major newspapers.
But more important to the candidates is an hour or two of mostly unfiltered time on stations such as KDRV,
Medford's ABC affiliate, and front-page headlines in Medford's Mail Tribune, circulation 27,000.
Kerry got both those this month when he visited this southern Oregon city of 67,000. He and Bush have received
similar treatment in hundreds of towns and cities across the nation this year.
The battle to win the 270 Electoral College votes needed to become president may turn on a few states or
counties -- as it did in 2000. That year, Bush ended up with 271 electoral votes to Al Gore's 266. Polls show a
tight race this year in Oregon, where Gore narrowly won the state's seven electoral votes.
How much coverage the campaigns get in the local media in key states could determine who wins the White
House in November, according to no less a political expert than former president Bill Clinton.
"How people view things from the local level is very important" to how they vote, Clinton said in an interview. A
local newspaper's endorsement in a close state "like Oregon, for example, is going to have a lot more impact on
voters there than those of The New York Times or Washington Post," Clinton said.
There's plenty of evidence to support Clinton's view. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, for
example, says 42% of the 1,506 people it surveyed last December and January "regularly learn something" about
presidential candidates and campaigns from local TV news programs. That topped cable news networks (38%)
and weeknight network news broadcasts (35%). Daily newspapers (31%) trailed the TV outlets but were well
ahead of the Internet (13%).
Local journalists know the position they're in. "We're getting a view of what it's like to be in the 'big time' " because
both campaigns have Oregon in their sights, said Brian Morton, who co- anchors KDRV's weeknight newscasts at
5, 6 and 11 p.m.
The campaigns are frank about the significance of local coverage. "We've had a regional press office up and
running since last September. What does that tell you?" said Jennifer Millerwise, the Bush-Cheney campaign's
deputy communications director for regional media. "Local media are critical. . . . Just consider this -- 88% of the
newspapers circulated in this country are local dailies."
Kerry-Edwards spokeswoman Allison Dobson said the Democrats' campaign "absolutely recognizes that local
media matter a tremendous amount. . . . We try to do all we can to recruit as much local coverage as we can get."
The large role that local media are playing in the election was in full view when Kerry came to town. KDRV's
newscasts are the highest-rated of the three Medford TV stations with news programming. In News Director Mark

2. Page 2 of 2 © 2016 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hatfield's view, Kerry's local staff was slow in getting the station some of the information it wanted. But "in the
end, they got us the information we needed in time to do our job," he said after the senator's rally. Hatfield is no
relation to former senator Mark Hatfield, R-Ore.
When Kerry got here, KDRV broadcast live from the airport as his jet landed, and as he talked with local veterans
there to welcome him. The station stayed with the story as Kerry's motorcade left the airport and made the
10-minute drive to a fairgrounds where the rally was held.
At the rally, Tim Conroy, a reporter and 6:30 p.m. newscast co- anchor, previewed the senator's appearance for
viewers, showed them how hot it was in the open-sided arena (98 degrees) by holding up a thermometer. Then
he stopped talking and stepped out of the picture as Kerry and his wife took the stage.
By the time Kerry was flying north to Eugene, KDRV had followed his visit for about two hours. All 40 minutes of
Kerry's speech were shown live, without interruption -- the kind of coverage he would almost never get from the
networks.
The Mail Tribune also invested a lot of time and space to the Kerry visit. The day before the rally, the top headline
on the front page was "Kerry frenzy builds as visit nears."
The day after the rally, the front page headline highlighted just the point that the Kerry campaign hoped it would --
that the senator values many of the same "conservative" ideals as Medford's voters. The headline: "John Kerry's
Rally in the Valley; Democratic nominee challenges President Bush's conservatism."
The Mail Tribune also scored the only encounter with Kerry by local media. Reporter Damian Mann persuaded a
Kerry campaign aide to help him get behind the stage after Kerry's speech.
Mann and other Mail Tribune staffers had decided that if they got a chance to speak with Kerry, they would ask
him about Bush's "healthy forests initiative" or whether he thinks the Northwest Forest Plan adopted during
Clinton's presidency is working well -- issues of importance in southern Oregon.
But Mann didn't ask the senator a policy question when they met. "Music was blasting" from speakers a few yards
away from them, Mann said afterward. Mann decided it wasn't the right time to quiz Kerry about forest policy.
Mann yelled, "How do you like the Rogue Valley" where Medford sits? "It was an unbelievably spectacular crowd!"
Kerry shouted.
The campaigns say it's unfair to assume they want to meet with the local media because their reporters ask
"softer" questions than national journalists.
"It's not about that at all," said Dobson of the Kerry-Edwards campaign. "We feel very strongly that people trust
the local media and so we want to talk with those reporters."
"Local media want to ask about local issues," said Millerwise of the Bush-Cheney campaign. "They're the people
closest to the communities we're visiting, and they often ask very specific, tough questions."
Clinton says there's enormous value in the local media getting their chance to see the candidates. "There are so
many issues that ought to be debated but won't be unless it happens in the local media," he said. "Not everything
is a national issue, you know."
Politics
PHOTO, B/W, Andrew Marlman for USA TODAY; GRAPHIC, B/W, Adrienne
Lewis, USA TODAY, Source: infoplease.com (MAP and BAR GRAPH);
Caption: On the air: Tim Conroy of KDRV Channel 12 in Medford, Ore.,
broadcasts live from a John Kerry appearance.
Document USAT000020040824e08o0006d