Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

spacefreak · Feb 19, 2004, 10:05 PM

This is very interesting. Notice the CBS producer coaching Kerry and giving him multiple takes... this Boston Globe article:

John F. Kerry, wrangling with rival John Edwards over jobs and trade in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, arrived in this city with 26 percent unemployment yesterday and scored some political points off the Bush administration -- though not quite in slam-dunk fashion.

"Just a couple of days ago, the administration promised America several million jobs over the course of the next months, and I immediately said that those predictions would fall short based on the promises they made with respect to the tax cut, which was supposed to give a million jobs -- it lost a million -- and the next tax cut was supposed to produce a million jobs, and it lost a million," Kerry told reporters, going on to cite more statistics and insist that his plan is better than Bush's.

Kerry's remarks lasted three minutes, yet it left TV reporters without a soundbite until one CBS News producer asked the Massachusetts senator to try again.

"They don't know what they're talking about in their own economic policy," Kerry said of the Bush team. "Today it's one thing, tomorrow it's the next."

Take two was the sort of succinct, wry comment for which Edwards, not Kerry, became known among many Wisconsin voters in the run-up to their primary Tuesday, which Kerry won despite a surprising surge from the North Carolina senator.

I'd expect a campaign manager or PR person to steer Kerry towards giving short, effective soundbites, but not network media producers.

ghost_flash · Feb 19, 2004, 11:35 PM

Originally posted by spacefreak:
This is very interesting. Notice the CBS producer coaching Kerry and giving him multiple takes... this Boston Globe article:I'd expect a campaign manager or PR person to steer Kerry towards giving short, effective soundbites, but not network media producers.

Well wasn't that nice of the CBS producer to do?

Spheric Harlot · Feb 20, 2004, 02:36 AM

Originally posted by spacefreak:
This is very interesting. Notice the CBS producer coaching Kerry and giving him multiple takes... this Boston Globe article:I'd expect a campaign manager or PR person to steer Kerry towards giving short, effective soundbites, but not network media producers.

The only thing this means it that you haven't the first idea of how television works.

This wasn't a question of the CBS "coaching" Kerry, this was Kerry being accomodating towards a TV culture that is geared to 15-second attention spans.

Say what you want, but I find it humorous that you'd spin that against a presidential candidate.

-s*

theolein · Feb 20, 2004, 03:54 AM

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
The only thing this means it that you haven't the first idea of how television works.

This wasn't a question of the CBS "coaching" Kerry, this was Kerry being accomodating towards a TV culture that is geared to 15-second attention spans.

Say what you want, but I find it humorous that you'd spin that against a presidential candidate.

-s*

What was that you said?

fizzlemynizzle · Feb 20, 2004, 08:14 AM

o noez someone helped him he must be dumz like teh bush!@!@

i hope there's something more solid against him than that.

Spheric Harlot · Feb 20, 2004, 08:22 AM

Originally posted by fizzlemynizzle:
o noez someone helped him he must be dumz like teh bush!@!@

No, no - quite the opposite:

Bush works for TV because he can't formulate coherent thoughts longer than 15 seconds anyway. It's easy to glean soundbites from someone who can't deal with long sentences.

Kerry *needs* to be dumbed down to Bush's level for national sound-bite headline news.

-s*

SimeyTheLimey · Feb 20, 2004, 08:26 AM

Senators are notoriously windbaggy. The Senate "style" requires long, serious-sounding speeches. It makes it relatively hard to turn comments into sound bites -- especially with someone who has been in the Senate as long as Kerry.

Personally, I wish that US TV news would relay less on soundbites. I don't want to hear 3 seconds of the candidate followed by 45 seconds of Ted or Dan telling me what he thinks the candidate said. Why can't they just report the news?

Spheric: Bush actually comes across much better unedited. He does um and ah a lot. If you snip his comments, you get only a portion of what he is saying. It makes him sound less coherent than he in fact is. The basic problem here is the way the TV news tries to fit the candidates to their format.

maxelson · Feb 20, 2004, 08:41 AM

Originally posted by ghost_flash:
Well wasn't that nice of the CBS producer to do?

Yeah, and despite all these "scandals", is still 12 points ahead of Bush in the latest Gallup.
What was the deficit again?

And of course they try to shape the candidate to fit the format. It reflects the culture. The trick is to recognize that and turn it to one's advantage. It is all image shaping and either you have control of it or the media does.

For instance: spacefreak here is attempting to manipulate the image to fit a given mold. It either worked on you or it didn't.

Spheric Harlot · Feb 20, 2004, 08:42 AM

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
Senators are notoriously windbaggy. The Senate "style" requires long, serious-sounding speeches. It makes it relatively hard to turn comments into sound bites -- especially with someone who has been in the Senate as long as Kerry.

Also, politicians with a lot of TV exposure will sometimes tend to run sentences into on another, or to raise their voice at the end of a sentence, making it intentionally difficult to cut individual sentences out of context.

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
Personally, I wish that US TV news would relay less on soundbites. I don't want to hear 3 seconds of the candidate followed by 45 seconds of Ted or Dan telling me what he thinks the candidate said. Why can't they just report the news?

Spheric: Bush actually comes across much better unedited. He does um and ah a lot. If you snip his comments, you get only a portion of what he is saying. It makes him sound less coherent than he in fact is. The basic problem here is the way the TV news tries to fit the candidates to their format.

Agreed.

bTW, I probably should have gone looking for a "tongue-in-cheek" smiley for my previous post.

-s*

NYCFarmboy · Feb 20, 2004, 10:43 AM

everyone knows the left wing media will do anything it can to help Kerry...this comes as no surprise at all.

And..its NOT A BAD THING...thats what a free press is all about.

If you don't like it you don't have to watch CBS..you can always watch Fox News, or get your news off the internet to get a more fair and balanced portrayal.

but...it is a free country... CBS is perfectly in their rights to boost Kerry all they can.

Spheric Harlot · Feb 20, 2004, 10:47 AM

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
everyone knows the left wing media

*sigh*

Hasn't the idea of a "left-wing media" been conclusively pounded into the ground enough times for you to stop bandying the term about?

<cue Lerkfish>

-s*

NYCFarmboy · Feb 20, 2004, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
*sigh*

Hasn't the idea of a "left-wing media" been conclusively pounded into the ground enough times for you to stop bandying the term about?

<cue Lerkfish>

-s*

Not all media is left wing..sorry..didn't mean to make that assumption. There is certainly right wing media, christian media, islamic media... all types of media. I'm just in this specific instance talking about "left" wing media.

Spheric Harlot · Feb 20, 2004, 11:07 AM

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
Not all media is left wing..sorry..didn't mean to make that assumption. There is certainly right wing media, christian media, islamic media... all types of media. I'm just in this specific instance talking about "left" wing media.

Ah, okay...thanks.

(though I'm not sure how "left-wing" CBS is?)

NYCFarmboy · Feb 20, 2004, 11:30 AM

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
Ah, okay...thanks.

(though I'm not sure how "left-wing" CBS is?)

Well to what degree any news media outlet is left or right is up to whomever is watching. In my own opinion CBS really has its knives out for the President thus they are working overtime to help Kerry all they can. But again... thats ok with me....the freedom of the press is a wonderful thing.

spacefreak · Feb 20, 2004, 11:55 AM

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
This wasn't a question of the CBS "coaching" Kerry, this was Kerry being accomodating towards a TV culture that is geared to 15-second attention spans.

Say what you want, but I find it humorous that you'd spin that against a presidential candidate.

No spin necessary. Kerry was given multiple takes at the request of a CBS news producer. Sure Kerry was being accomodating, but I've never heard a story of a news producer asking Bush or anyone else for multiple takes on statements and to "try again".

Lerkfish · Feb 20, 2004, 12:03 PM

Originally posted by spacefreak:
No spin necessary. Kerry was given multiple takes at the request of a CBS news producer. Sure Kerry was being accomodating, but I've never heard a story of a news producer asking Bush or anyone else for multiple takes on statements and to "try again".

Not sure you want to raise this type of skeleton....have you forgotten The Bush cousin who worked for fox news? And what happened during the 2000 election? You might not want to go there....