Local Election Coverage Faulted

By Scott Conroy of the CBS News Political Unit.

While certain members of Congress are already jockeying for position for the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain isn't quite ready to stop talking about 2004. The Arizona Republican held a joint press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday with Mark Kaplan , director of the Norman Lear Center, to announce the findings of a study on local news coverage of the 2004 elections. The conclusion of the Lear Center report was simple: broadcasters are not doing their job to inform the public about local elections.

"Last summer, Sen. McCain and FCC Chairman Michael Powell challenged America's broadcasters to live up to the promise in their licenses to provide significant coverage of local races," Kaplan said. "Based on our findings, it looks like that challenge pretty much fell on deaf ears."

The study focused on election coverage in 11 local affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox during the 29-day pre-election period from October 4 to November 1, 2004. The report found that political exposure in these markets was dominated by coverage of the presidential election, with 55 percent of broadcasts containing at least one piece on the White House race, but only eight percent including news about local races. The report also found that stations aired segments about accidental injuries eight times more often than they did about all local political races combined.

"From what I can gather, if a local candidate wants to be on television, and cannot afford to advertise, his only hope may be to have a freak accident," McCain said.

Coinciding with the release of the new report, McCain introduced the Localism in Broadcasting Reform Act of 2005, a bill that would require stations to detail on their Internet sites their commitment to airing programming on local government affairs. It would also apply pressure on broadcasters to fulfill their obligations by reducing their license renewal periods from eight to three years and by instructing the FCC to review five percent of all license renewal applications.

"I believe this legislation is a step in the right direction," McCain said. "It will have a small impact on those stations that are currently meeting their public interest obligations, but it should have a large impact on those citizens whose local broadcaster is not meeting its obligation to serve the local community."

The Reform Institute, a nonpartisan organization that calls itself a "moderate voice for reform" on campaign finance and election administration, issued a written statement supporting McCain's proposal. (McCain chairs the group's advisory board.)

"It is clear that the industry is unwilling to regulate itself," said the group's president, Rick Davis.

McCain also voiced concern over the potentially negative effects of media consolidation. He cited the example of Minot, North Dakota, where a freight train derailed in 2002, spilling thousands of gallons of toxic ammonia. When officials attempted to warn the public through local media, they found that six of the local radio stations, all of which were owned by Clear Channel, had no employees working at the time, and so the warnings could not be transmitted.

"Perhaps some media groups have emphasized more local news but overall I'd say most observers have noticed a decrease in local news," McCain said. "It defies logic to assume that large conglomerates would emphasize local news as opposed to locally owned ones."

The report also found that only one out of three election-related pieces was about issues, while the rest focused on the electoral horse races. When asked whether he thought broadcasters were simply reacting to the demands of their listeners by deemphasizing the lengthy electoral process in favor of more exhilarating stories, McCain was unconvinced.

"I think you could certainly argue that the campaign is too long," he said. "But I'd also argue that if the only obligation broadcasters have is to broadcast the news and information that is most popular, I think it would be against the agreement broadcasters signed to act in the public interest."

The National Association of Broadcasters issued a written statement on Wednesday that criticized the methodology of the report for being too narrow in scope, insisting that a larger sample of news stations and shows such as "Nightline," which is broadcast nationally, might have provided a less gloomy outlook.

"Despite the report's shortcomings, it shouldn't be lost that their results showed that election coverage was the single biggest category of news coverage on these broadcasts in the period reviewed," the statement read. "NAB encourages broadcasters to cover elections, and we believe the industry in the aggregate does an excellent job."

The NAB statement also cited a poll conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide that found that 89 percent of Americans believe local broadcasters provide "about the right amount" or "too much time" covering elections. The NAB also argued that the report failed to account for the fact that most local races, including House races, are not closely contested, whereas the presidential race was neck and neck and therefore deserved substantially more coverage.

But the Lear Center report pointed out that even in Seattle, where Washington's gubernatorial race was one of the closest in history, local news coverage during the election cycle was sparse.

"Time spent on teasers, bumpers and intro music in Seattle outnumbered time covering the Washington gubernatorial race by 14 to one," the Lear Center report found.