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The Nightly News Nightmare: Network Television's Coverage of U. S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2000
The Nightly News Nightmare Network Television's Coverage of U S Presidential Elections 19882000 Author:Stephen J. Farnsworth, S. Robert Lichter "Every four years, the network news machines crank themselves up to cover the presidential election campaigns. What we get is often a mix of sound bites, horserace standings, and scandals. In Campaign 2000, we also got network meltdown on election night and then, the Florida fiasco. This book looks at campaign coverage over the past four preside... more »ntial elections and tracks its changing nature in terms of objectivity, negativity, quantity, and overall quality. Acclaimed media scholars Farnsworth and Lichter use extensive data from the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media and Public Affairs to document the decline of network news. Analyzing the content of over 5800 network campaign stories and 9500 campaign items from other sources ranging from public television to newspapers to campaign speeches, the authors compare what the candidates said with what the networks say they said and judge the disparity a nightmare. The unprecedented breadth and depth of the evidence allow Farnsworth and Lichter to shatter old myths, raise new questions, and propose new answers to many of the most hotly debated questions about the media. They then venture reform proposals ranging across the spectrum of affected parties, focusing not just upon the news organizations, but also upon the political process and the candidates themselves."« less