A Press Obsession With the Death Penalty
By Michael Kelly
Wednesday, June 28, 2000 ; A25
A newcomer to this country reading the mainstream press and
watching television in this election year, would easily discern
one of the issues of greatest concern to voters: George W. Bush's
position on the death penalty. A Nexis search Monday for stories
mentioning Bush at least three times and the words "death
penalty" or "executions" or "capital punishment" at least three
times pulled up 505 hits--news articles, TV transcripts, press
releases, etc.--within the previous week alone. Narrowing the
search to The Post, the New York Times and "major newspapers"
turned up 12 hits in the Times over the previous seven days, four
in the Post and 139 in the major newspapers. Over the previous
month, the total was 25 items in the Times alone, 16 in the Post
and 303 in the major newspapers.
The newcomer would learn all sorts of things about Bush and the
death penalty. He would learn that Texas led the country in
executions. He would learn that DNA testing had cleared a number
of people convicted of death penalty crimes, and that a study of
death penalty sentences found that more than two-thirds that are
appealed are eventually overturned because of errors in the ways
in which the cases were investigated or tried. He would learn
that such findings as these had moved the governor of Illinois to
suspend the death penalty in his state--but that Gov. Bush had
stubbornly refused to back off of his support for capital
punishment.
What the newcomer would not learn is that, in fact, the question
of Bush's support for the death penalty--or for that matter, the
question of the death penalty itself--was not of the slightest
interest to the great majority of voters. Support for the death
penalty is consistent and relatively stable; although it has
declined somewhat during recent months of heavy anti-death
penalty news coverage, it still is above 60 percent in every
public opinion poll. What is more, the death penalty is simply
not of voting concern to almost everybody. A look through 16
recent national polls questioning adults as to the most important
issues facing the nation finds the death penalty unmentioned. The
voters know that the president has almost nothing to do with
capital punishment, and that, in this election anyway, there
isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two major
candidates on the issue.
All of this illustrates a curious thing that has happened to
presidential elections--the rise of the media as a major force,
perhaps the major force, in defining what are and what are not
issues. With the passing of party bosses and a long run of public
complacency, the press has been able to fill a vacuum, and has
established itself in presidential years as not only the Great
Mentioner but the Great Decider. In their secret hearts, I think,
most journalists feel this is not a bad thing at all. For the
good of the nation, someone has to decide, and who better than
the disinterested guardians of a free society--us?
But there are several problems here. One is that, as surveys
show, the media are far more homogenous than the general
population in their views, and these views are far more liberal.
Another is that the media's role in choosing and framing issues
conflicts with their role in objectively informing the public.
The invention of the Bush death penalty issue is typical of the
media's habit of creating issues that skew coverage to (a)
advance liberal causes and/or (b) favor the Democrat and disfavor
the Republican .
Journalists like to think that they think (and write) without
bias. But everyone else knows that this is absurd. What
journalists choose and how journalists frame inescapably arises
out of what journalists believe. And, as a group, journalists
believe in liberalism and in electing Democrats. Consider two
election-year bows to bigotry, George Bush's visit to Bob Jones
University and Al Gore's visit with Al Sharpton. The first was
deemed a big issue, with 884 Nexis hits to date, and the tone of
coverage overwhelmingly critical of Bush. The second was deemed
much less an issue--only 323 hits and
relatively little criticism. Yet pandering to Sharpton would
strike most people, I think, as at least as bad as pandering to
Bob Jones. Who decided one mattered a lot and the other not so
much? Just we few, our little objective unbiased selves, bringing
you the issues that are fit to print.
Michael Kelly is the editor in chief of National Journal.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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