And..... action!

Posted at 6:13 PM on September 6, 2007 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Rudy Giuliani's visit to a coffeeshop was a good example of the staged nature of political stops and, unfortunately, the media's ability to become a willing participant in a campaign commercial, and deny you even a shred of useful information that might help you pick the next president.

In a way, this is a preview of what we'll have to endure, perhaps, during the Republican National Convention. By then, the nominee will have already been selected and the week will become a test between the party staging an infomercial, and the media looking, hopefully, for something a little more substantive and useful to voters. The thousands of delegates? They are irrelevant props.

A candidate's trip to the coffee shop is supposed to look like your typical New Hampshire primary-type visit. You know, a candidate shows up at Farmer Joe's dairy barn, or just meeting real people in the midst of their ordinary day -- folks that just "happened" to be there when a candidate walked in.

Stupid me (I grew up on the New Hampshire border). I actually expected Giuliani to run into the "regulars" at the coffee shop. So I was surprised when watching WCCO's report on the visit during the 6 p.m. news this evening to see my pal, Gary Miller, playing the part of the "average Joe who just happened to be there when the presidential candidate walked in." Gary, of course, is the brains behind the blog, Truth vs. the Machine.

Now, let me be clear, there's nothing wrong with Gary having coffee for 20 minutes with Hizzoner. There's nothing wrong with the Giuliani campaign packing a coffee shop with supporters to help give the photo op the Republican flavor it needed. You wouldn't want the guy to walk in and find a bunch of DFLers waiting for their latte.

But I question whether mainstream media should be a willing participant in the staging of the photo op, by not striking back at their obvious manipulation by tackling some serious issues (note: that 9/11 was "bad" is not a serious issue in the campaign. It was bad, we can all agree.) while the guy's in town. In portraying the discussion at a table where, presumably, Giuliani was finding out that the people there seemed to have....surprise.... opinions that just happen to scream "Republican," it probably would've been a good idea for my TV news source to get into exactly why that is and who these people were (are) and how it is they happened to be there. There was at least one tough line of questioning -- on immigration -- that went unreported on TV (but not in the dead trees media) in favor of Gary's comments on ... you guessed it... 9/11.

The Star Tribune unmoderated video shows -- faithfully to what the Giuliani campaign wanted -- the same cup of coffee with the same folks, which included Kavon Nikrad of Race42008 (a darned good political blog, by the way) . It was his wife, I believe, who asked the immigration quesiton. So what do we end up with on the nightly news? An infommercial.

Great for Giuliani, great for the supporters, good video for the TVs. But what on earth do the folks who want to know who they should vote for for president get out of it? Zip.

We get the scene, we get the flavor, we get some pseudo analysis fit for a Sunday morning talk show (note: political analysis is not the same as political strategy, newsies), we get supporters tossing softballs, we get the TV crews ignoring anything that would require an explanation -- like the immigration issue . Meanwhile, bloggers like Eric Black were analyzing why a pro-choice guy like Giuliani is doing so well. Yes, that's why bloggers are beginning to eat mainstream media's lunch....or drinking its coffee at least.

Couldn't someone have asked the "mayor of 9/11" what he thinks of the day's court decision on national security letters and let the voters determine whether the guy is 'electable?'

Wouldn't you love to see a presidential candidate (or any other candidate for that matter) take a chance once -- just once -- by actually showing up somewhere -- unannounced -- and taking his/her chances with whoever happens to be there?

I recommend Farmer Joe's dairy barn.

By all means, be sure to listen to the unedited audio of the reporters talking to Giuliani posted by Tom below.

Comments (3)

Hey Bob, say this to Mary Lucia tomorrow:

"Rudy G's coffee shop appearance yesterday was just an infomercial, Mary. Hey, Bush selects his audience too, so what else would you expect? Honesty? Sincerety? Get real."

(Collins: One needs to remain an idealist. As the kid said in that baseball movie, 'it could happen.' )

Posted by David W. | September 6, 2007 9:11 PM

My .02: http://www.truthvmachine.com/?p=5031

Posted by Gary M. Miller | September 7, 2007 12:55 PM

Thanks for reporting this one, Bob.

I don't mind staged dog-and-pony shows, if they're identified as such. But if they're using political activists as "shills", that's a news story to, and the broadcast media should be called out on failing to report that.

Posted by Bill Prendergast | September 7, 2007 6:36 PM

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