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Media Matters
July 2, 2003
And Then There Were Nine: NPR Talks to the Presidential Candidates
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
How should NPR report on the candidates in the coming presidential campaign? Should NPR's political journalism be different from the rest of the media? If so, how? Let's start with the candidates who are running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The campaign for the 2004 nomination is in full swing as the nine announced candidates make frequent visits to key states, including New Hampshire, Iowa and California.
NPR's Morning Edition is interviewing the nine Democratic Party candidates. So far Bob Edwards has interviewed eight of the nine -- Carol Moseley Braun, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Richard Gephardt, Bob Graham, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Lieberman and Al Sharpton.
Still to be interviewed is John Kerry.
25 and Counting...
But the Federal Election Commission says many more have registered as official Democratic Party candidates. So far, there are 25 official Democratic candidates.
Why is NPR Interviewing Only Nine?
Some of the official candidacies are draft campaigns -- campaigns that have been set up and registered with the FEC by their supporters, even though the would-be candidates say they are not running.
These include, among others, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Glenn and Jesse Jackson.
Still others are not exactly household names -- Randolph Crow, Patrick Cazneau and George Muzyk, to name a few. They have not spent any money on their campaigns, but they are registered candidates for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in 2004.
A Controversial Candidacy
One candidate fits into his own category -- Lyndon LaRouche. He has run in every election since 1976. He also spent five years in a federal prison for tax evasion and mail fraud.
His platform is unusual, by any standard. The New York Times reported "his political philosophy zigzags between political extremes, but his views are largely associated with the far right and include proposals like colonizing Mars." Among other things, LaRouche wants to return the United States to the gold standard, and he accuses the British royal family of drug trafficking.
LaRouche has raised more than $800,000 and he lists thousands of supporters in his FEC statement. That's more money and supporters than raised by Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun combined. But while money seems to be a determining factor for journalistic legitimacy with other candidates, it does not seem to be a factor at all when it comes to LaRouche.
Many political observers have dismissed LaRouche as a dangerous crackpot. Yet he manages to keep campaigning in election after election based on an apparently simple appeal to complicated problems.
LaRouche supporters have contacted me asking why their man is not part of the Morning Edition interviews.
Obligations to the Listeners and the Voters?
The real question raised by a LaRouche ticket is this: Does public radio in general and NPR in particular have an obligation to the electorate that differ from other media?
I think it should. NPR should be looking beyond the obvious candidates at least in these early stages.
Some of the other less-known candidates running for the Democratic Party nomination remain obscure and likely will stay that way. In my opinion, it is not the job of journalism alone to raise the public's awareness of these campaigns. But journalism mediates and in its own way, selects who should have legitimacy and who should not. Many people resent that role, but short of making every candidate equal by giving each the same amount of airtime, the role of journalism in politics is unlikely to change very much.
LaRouche's campaign is different. Mainstream, he is not. And he makes journalists nervous because of the risk of giving his cause legitimacy.
But NPR's commitment to democracy may also include reporting on people about whom there is a very high "squirm factor." The past is full of political hopefuls and their ideas, ignored and dismissed by many, who suddenly burst onto the political stage. Historians, not journalists, are then left to pick up the pieces and figure out what happened.
While NPR News is not C-SPAN and it does not -- and should not -- be obliged to give equal airtime to all, it seems that the public radio system might consider doing more than it does.
Knowing What's Below the Radar
NPR has made a good start by announcing it will host and broadcast the Democratic Party debates next year prior to the Iowa caucuses. As the primary season begins to heat up, NPR can and should look beyond the self-evident to find candidates -- especially the so-called third-party candidates -- who have struck a chord with the voters, but who may be below the radar of the Washington press corps. That would indeed be public service journalism.
Nevertheless, I hope NPR does a story on LaRouche. The listeners should be more aware of who this man is and what he stands for.
After all, if Morning Edition could air a daily comedy called I'd Rather Eat Pants every day for a week, the listeners might be able to handle another five-minute political interview, even from someone apparently as odd as Lyndon LaRouche.
Listeners may contact me at 202-513-3246 or at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
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