Page 256 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Med a and Electoral Campa gns |

dan quayle and MurPhy Brown
In another historic first for television, during the 1992 race for the White House, Vice Presi-
dent Dan Quayle illustrated the party’s platform and the issue of family values by referring
to a fictional television character, Murphy Brown, who had made the decision to have a child
out of wedlock. The boundary between fiction and politics blurred even further when pro-
ducers of the program worked actual footage of Quayle’s speech into an episode of Murphy
Brown. On the show, Murphy and her friend Frank are shown with the baby, listening to the
speech on television as the vice president criticizes her choice. The incident certainly drew
attention to the issue, but the Republicans did not win a second term in office. Dan Quayle
went on to become the first vice president to appear on a television commercial after leav-
ing office. He was shown enjoying Wavy Lays during the next Super Bowl.

ELECTions as horsE raCEs

The news media have a tendency to report elections as if they were horse
races, frequently citing poll numbers and using visuals that turn states either
red or blue as they tally up the electoral college votes. These stories come with
greater regularity as Election Day grows near. With a seemingly endless supply
of sports metaphors, news stories make the race more exciting by talking about
how the candidate must “step up to the plate,” deliver a “knock-out punch,” or
do well in the “final stretch.” In this way, news commentary focuses more on
strategy details and numbers and less on political platforms and visions. In the
excitement, a critical approach to what are often persuasive forms of campaign
strategies is lost. Journalists often report admiringly on a candidate’s ability
to garner higher numbers, and many times inadvertently, they legitimate the
superficial, image-based, marketing strategies employed to win votes.

TELEvisED DEBaTEs
Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy went on television in the first debate to
be broadcast live in 1960. It came to be called the Great Debate, because it dem-
onstrated the power of the image. Those who watched the debate on television
judged Kennedy to be the winner, and more of those who listened on the radio
believed Nixon had won. Over the years, after many such televised events, the
visual image of the candidates, their clothes, expressions, and nonverbal cues,
continues to create enduring impressions, making some argue that in the age of
the image, substance and political content are lost.
But documentaries, and many other uses of film and video that educate and
inform, show that information and understanding do not necessarily have to
be lost in a visual age. Candidates explaining their preference for policies and
their stands on issues in a debate format should elucidate much, even on tele-
vision. Increasingly, it is the way the medium is used as a marketing tool, not
its inherent failure, that creates problems for democracy. Though debates are