Current.org | Public TV and 1998 elections

For the upcoming mid-term elections, public TV stations are experimenting outside tried-and-true paths of traditional campaign coverage, trying new ways to offer voters information they can use at the ballot box.

With help from CPB and the PBS Democracy Project, scores of stations have expanded their coverage beyond the mainstay of election-year fare--candidate debates--to offer web sites linked to political resources, or to dissect campaign ads for truths, half-truths and outright lies. Wisconsin Public TV, WTTW in Chicago, and Rochester's WXXI are producing candidate "free time" messages, and at least two stations are partnering with commercial affiliates on election-night coverage.

"We're pushing to become more of a civic space for citizens to gain a voice," said Cindy Balan, managing producer of WHYY's 12 Tonight. The station, which serves the Philadelphia/Wilmington area, received three Democracy Project grants totalling $20,000.

For the first mid-term election since PBS President Ervin Duggan launched the initiative in 1994, the Democracy Project awarded $540,000 to 60 public TV stations for three types of campaign coverage:

Nine stations, including WHYY, received grants to deliver all three types of coverage, according to Cynthia Fenneman, interim executive director of the Democracy Project.

CPB provided the funds this summer, enabling the project to distribute an "unprecedented" amount to local programs and web sites for "Election 98," according to Fenneman. "We've never given out this many grants in one initiative."

"Election 98" grants were helpful, even though they were "not large," acknowledged Bill Hanley, production v.p. for KTCA, Twin Cities. The availability of funds focused producers' attention on "doing something that otherwise might not have risen to a priority."

"Three to five thousand dollars can go a long way if it gets you to do it at your station," commented James Steinbach, production director at Wisconsin PTV.

Local focus

In effect, the grants shifted the focus of public television's mid-term election coverage from PBS to local stations. The Democracy Project commissioned three national election specials--the first of which aimed to repeat the success of its 1996 "Debate Night," a special evening of complementary national and local election programs. But congressional leaders wouldn't commit to the planned national program--a debate on the future Congress, which was scheduled for Oct. 4. To fill the slot, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions delivered "The National Report," an overview of the mid-term elections that combined field reports, expert analysis and a discussion with voters in Denver.

PBS's other election specials this fall aired back-to-back Oct. 6: "Washington's Other Scandal," a Frontline special report with Bill Moyers investigating campaign finance abuses of the 1996 elections, and "The 30-Second Candidate," a documentary from Wisconsin PTV that looked behind the scenes at political advertising. The Democracy Project commissioned the latter program to complement stations' local ad-watch projects, and it created an extensive "Election 98" web site on PBS Online.

"We're down in terms of the number of programs, but the ones that have been there have been outstanding," said Hanley.

Thirty-six stations aired candidate match-ups on Debate Night. Maine PTV (pictured) broadcast a debate among statehouse leaders, hosted by Don Carrigan (right).

Debate Night II

Thirty-six stations broadcast 53 debates on Oct. 4, according to Fenneman, and another six scheduled debates for later dates. Among the local "Debate Night" specials, state networks in Maine and Iowa produced face-offs between statehouse leaders, modelled on the congressional leadership debate planned by the NewsHour. "We stayed with it even though the national debate didn't happen," said Dan Miller, programming and production director at Iowa PTV.

Throughout this month, weekly public affairs series produced by state networks have featured interviews with candidates for major offices. Last week, Iowa PTV aired five installments of The Candidates' Forum, featuring independent and minor party candidates for state and federal office. Mainewatch broadcast one-on-one interviews with minor party candidates for governor. Even though Maine's gubernatorial race is dominated by the incumbent, the state network recently aired a special that profiled all five contenders in the race--two of whom are minor party candidates. The documentary by Bill Maraldo was modeled on Frontline's "The Choice," a biography of presidential candidates that has become a quadrennial staple on PBS.

On Debate Night, WCNY in Syracuse broadcast live an old-fashioned political rally--expanding a concept it created successfully in 1996 by adding interactivity. The station erected a large tent near its building, where ordinary citizens delivered "soapbox" speeches on issues of their choice, and two congressional incumbents separately debated their challengers. Outside the tent, some 20 political groups distributed pamphlets. Online participants signed onto a chatline that ran simultaneously with the debates.

"We were concerned about what we would end up with--kids fooling around--but we had no problems with that," said Jack Neal, production director. The number of participants--up to 18-- was small but "really good" for the size of the Syracuse market. Producers elsewhere reported limited responses to online chats.

Further west, WXXI in Rochester produced a "Voice of the Voter" debate on Oct. 4, as part of its ongoing civic journalism collaboration with the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper and the local ABC affiliate. Citizens participating in the project crafted and posed debate questions to congressional candidates.

The debate helped launch this fall's civic journalism project, at the end of which participants will have created a "Citizen's Agenda"--a list of action items to be presented to newly elected officials and followed by the media partners. WXXI's web site invites surfers to weigh in on the citizen's agenda, but so far only a "handful" have posted messages, according to Elissa Marra, news director.

In Houston, KUHT performed a rare civic service by producing a two-hour debate special featuring 56 judicial candidates. The idea was to help Harris County voters wade through the most confusing part of their ballots--choosing candidates in 29 races that most never have heard of, let alone come to understand the issues at stake. Local papers published "score cards" to help viewers record their impressions of the candidates.

Scrutinizing campaign ads

Ad-watch projects underway at stations are similarly tailored to suit local interests and capabilities.

Producers of Greater Boston, WGBH's weeknightly program, took a hard-news approach to analyzing ads. "To do these things properly, you really have to have a researcher and fact-check," said Emily Rooney, executive editor and host.

Ads with a lot of money behind them, and those that lend themselves to a factual analysis are targets for scrutiny, explained John Carroll, managing editor of the show, who also delivers the reports on-air. "Allegations or claims can be accurate up to a point, but they don't always present voters with a truthful picture."

So far, Greater Boston has reported on ads produced by Democratic candidates in a congressional primary race, ads by gubernatorial candidates, and ads dealing with a ballot question on electric utility deregulation. "People don't pay attention to the accuracy of ballot question ads," explained Carroll.

"It's been an unusually quiet year for advertising," Carroll noted. "It's a mid-term election with no Senate race, and most of the congressional races are lopsided."

Reaction from viewers has been "good, but not overwhelming," said Carroll. "We have gotten some response from people involved in the campaigns one way or another."

"One of the things we do try to do is get documentation of claims from the campaigns," he elaborated. "We don't always agree with their interpretation of the facts."

Carroll described the ad-watch project as labor-intensive, and suggested that the Democracy Project grants weren't substantial enough to cover costs. Nevertheless, Greater Boston probably wouldn't have "gone about it this way, dissecting ads," if it weren't for "Election '98" funding. "We would have done in a more informal, horse-racey, strategic way."

Bostonians who missed ad-watches on Greater Boston can download transcripts or RealVideo clips from WGBH's "Election 98" web site. Surfers with wider political interests can click to KTCA's web site, which streams RealVideo of 1998 political ads and notable Minnesota ads from the past.

Rather than analyzing political ads in-house, producers of KTCA's weekly Almanac are interviewing political experts for their insights on ads, according to Brendan Henehan, producer. Since Minnesota imposes low spending limits on state candidates, few campaign ads have aired to date. He expects ad campaigns to kick in imminently.

Oregon Public Broadcasting last week aired a special ad-watch edition of 7 Days, its weekly public affairs series. The program featured a discussion among real voters about their impressions of campaign ads. "We've never done ad-watches at this level, with produced pieces," said Morgan Holm, news director.

WHYY's 12 Tonight has adopted a similar approach, taping an ad-watch program that features an appearance by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication, a prominent expert on campaign advertising. A representative group of voters will also discuss their responses to ads. WCNY is calling in experts from the University of Syracuse to analyze campaign ads on Central Issues, its newsweekly, according to Neal.

Surprise: ratings of 5 and 6

PBS Online posted its "Election 98" web site in early October, and began giving it big play last week with a special icon on its home page. The site includes an ad-watch, a weekly poll, and a voting records database provided by Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan group that collects and disseminates information on political candidates and officials. Surfers can also click to stations' "Election 98" sites.

Most station web sites offer transcripts or RealVideo of past candidate appearances and links to candidate web sites, and post schedules of their election coverage. Others poll surfers for their views on campaign topics, or offer ad-watch info. KCET in Los Angeles publishes a "Citizen's Participation Pamphlet" to help voters reconsider their role in the election process. WXXI provides a "cyber ballot" with which voters can research the choices they'll face on election day.

Aided by Project Vote Smart's special focus on Oregon's mid-term election, OPB offers the most extensive web site found by Current in research for this article. The site delivers information on candidates for both houses of Congress and the State House, in addition to highlights of ballot issues. "We're pleased with what we have out there and it's accessible to people," acknowledged Holm. "It's been a learning experience for us -- what we can do and what people will use." While not many people participated in online chats convened by OPB, traffic in the network's web site has increased noticeably since webmasters added "Election 98" info. OPB's web site topped the "500-user-a-day-mark" two weeks ago, and he suspects the election site had a lot to do with it.

Over 10,000 visitors have clicked on to PBS Online's "Election 98" site since it went up earlier this month, reported Theresa Riley, producer of news and documentaries for PBS Online.

Riley said the complementary local and national web sites are an initiative that PBS webmasters plan to push further in the next year.

Several producers expressed surprise at viewers' reaction to their coverage. Rooney had feared viewers would find Greater Boston's ad-watch on electric utility deregulation "really tedious," but lots of viewers came into the program and stuck with it. "They didn't know there was another side to the issue," she said.

Wisconsin PTV's "free time" broadcasts featuring gubernatorial and Senate candidates generated about 50 appreciative voice mail messages from viewers, an unusual amount for an election special, according to Steinbach.

In Twin Cities, Hanley reported that KTCA's Oct. 15 public affairs block enjoyed a big boost in viewership: Washington Week in Review hit a 6.1 in its second quarter hour, and Almanac followed with a 5.2. "Clearly people find us when they're looking for serious public affairs coverage," he commented. "It surprises me to see viewership so robust."

In research conducted on "Debate Night," a research firm commissioned by CPB measured viewers' responses to four debates that aired locally or statewide. Gordon Black Inc. recruited registered voters to watch the debates, then called them afterwards to measure their reactions, explained Janice Jones, CPB director of research.

The poll findings were significant: 83 percent said watching the debates helped them become more informed voters, and 80 percent told pollsters they'd learned something more than they'd read in print media or heard on the radio. Researchers also measured increases in viewers' familiarity with the candidates and knowledge of issues. Viewing the debate changed the voting preferences of 19 percent of respondents.

"This certainly shows that airing this kind of program is a real public service and helps with public broadcasting's citizenship mission," commented Jones.

Election 98 projects zoom in on local contests

Local focus

Debate Night II

Scrutinizing campaign ads

Surprise: ratings of 5 and 6