Election 2008

Now former Edwards foreign policy staffer Michael Signer writes in today’s Washington Post of the lack of an imperative campaign reporters feel to cover foreign affairs. Signer says that his team had difficulty getting coverage of any foreign policy statements or issues, and he expects the same to be true of the McCain, Obama, and Clinton campaigns.

If you’ll recall, this was to be the foreign policy election. Iraq. A resurgent Russia. Iran. Afghanistan. Iraq. There have been questions in debates and internal policy statements proofed, but have campaign reporters done their duty, Signer asks?

The media business is a complicated one, especially now (reminder: the first fresh episode of Saturday Night Live in months aired last night due to the writers’ strike, a stand-off between writers and media companies over a share of online profits). Newspapers are forced to become more creative in attracting audiences (once upon a time known as “circulation”), while they make substantial lay offs to their business and editorial enterprises. Newspapers particularly and media companies generally are under greater pressure to produce revenue. The unfortunate reality of American journalism is that the horse race and dramatic storylines sell. That being the case, it’s not just foreign policy stories that are not written, but policy stories in general.

Signer was right to point out the new vehicle for comparative and comprehensive policy debate: the Internet. Signer mentions several blogs that have come to be a beacon of light in the foreign affairs reporting: The American Prospect magazine, who owes much of its online presence to Ezra Klein; The Atlantic Online, where much of the foreign affairs discussion occurs on Andrew Sullivan and Matt Yglesias’ blogs; TPM Cafe, aligned with Josh Marshall’s left-leaning political blog; and Democracy Arsenal, insightful running commentary from the national security network. There are others, of course, but Signer names some of the most influential in the blogosphere, many of which happen to lean to the left. Conservatives are chatty online too, but generally the right side of the blogosphere is moderately less developed than the left. To return to the point, few of these sites bring in profit. Many political blogs are able to match their expenses and no more, never mind fund mobile, full-time campaign reporters. That leaves the burden with the television industry which, amid hours of campaign and 24-hour news coverage, rarely takes time to discuss policy positions.

Signer speaks of the immediacy reporters should feel about covering foreign affairs. I happen to agree with him: there should be more in the mainstream media. But the realities of media today are not easily overcome, and us foreign policy wonks should not feel as though we’re the only ones being ignored.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.