Indiana and North Carolina vote tomorrow. But unlike before every other big primary day, there was no pre-primary debate. Instead the candidates chose to debate alone against moderators on the Sunday talk shows. Many have complained that NBC has been pro-Obama and ABC pro-Hillary, so it comes as no surprise that each chose their “home” courts…
Yesterday Obama and Hillary appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and ABC’s This Week respectively.
Dueling non-debates set yet another campaign precedent (The BosGlobe called it a “virtual debate”), and here are a few notes.
Writing in the NYT, TV critic Alessandra Stanley said:
Talk shows, even the more serious news programs, are never really about talk; they are about image and demeanor.
Maybe that’s true for a television critic, and part of an overall truth, but for people like me, these two shows were as much about the candidates’ language—exactly what they said—as image. Listening to what Obama and Hillary say is vital in determining where the respective campaigns intend to take their narratives in the closing days before IN and NC—and beyond. Image is only as powerful as the language built around it.
Secondly, the unusually long priamary season has also destroyed the notion that network news is dead. Tim Russert and George Stephanopoulos are proving to be as important to a Presidential race as any TV reporters since the end of the Brokaw, Jennings, Rather era. Maybe it’s not the 6:30pm voice of God/Cronkite-style, but in terms of shaping and shifting news cycles, George and Tim are acting God-like…
TAGS: Boston, debate, Hillary, India, obama, Politics, presidential race, Race, Tim Russert, Trade
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