Media professionals on the campaign trail talked of "living in a bubble", especially journalists embedded with a candidate's campaign, that sometimes could obstruct their view of broader issues and limits their ability to pursue stories beyond the stump speeches.
“It’s frustrating," said Leslie Wayne, reporter for The New York Times who covers politics. "You’re turning to a machine reporting from event to event."
Wayne was part of a panel discussion on “Decision ’08: Reporters in the Trenches” at the SAJA convention. Other panelists include Nick Timiraos, embedded in the Obama campaign for The Wall Street Journal; Rebecca Kutler, news producer at CNN; and, Aswini Anburajan, embedded in the Obama campaign for NBC.
But journalists, who had front-row seats to the primaries, say reporting was factual in response to questions on whether the coverage, especially of the Obama campaign, was unbiased.
Leslie Wayne, a New York Times reporter; Rebecca Kutler, a CNN producer; Nick Timiraos, a Wall Street Journal reporter; and, Aswini Anburajan, a NBC reporter.
Timiraos says talk shows put a spin on news by giving their personal views.
When people only see a minute of an hour-long political speech on television, they start believing that bias exists in the media, CNN's Kutler said.
“I don’t see intentional bias, just discussions,” she said.
“Resources are everywhere," Kutler said. "Everyone can be their own assignment editor."
The historic nature and the intense competition drew a lot of attention to this year's campaign, and drew a
lot of interest across all demographics, especially college students.
“The fascination [of] the people [with this race] has made me feel this is historic,” Anburajan said.
Please post comments. Photo: Kashish Shrestha
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