President Bush made a one-day visit last week to upstate New York. The White House press corps, as it always does, followed along, just in case news happened.
It was, as presidential visits go, fairly routine: Air Force One landed at the Rochester, N.Y. airport. The president was driven to a local school (the Canandaigua Academy), where he met with citizens, pre-selected by the White House advance team, to promote his prescription-drug plan.
Looking for News in Upstate New York
After a quick town hall meeting also packed with friendly (and prescreened) citizens, the president shook a few hands, got back in his motorcade, sped to the airport and returned to Washington D.C. “No real news here,” was the implication from the White House press corps.
But for the local media around Rochester and Canandaigua, N.Y., a presidential visit is huge. The last time the president of the United States came to call, Harry Truman was in the Oval Office.
White House strategists have stated that they count on receiving more enthusiastic and extensive coverage from local media compared with the more jaded journalists who cover the president as a regular beat. The White House often plans these visits with an eye to giving the local news outlets access. But is it always correct to assume that regional reporters always give the president an easier time? The White House makes that assumption and so, it seems, did NPR.
Good Reporting from Local Reporters
In fact, there should be a different approach to this story if one is a local reporter. There are stories to be done about the impact of a presidential visit on the community, the excitement in the coffee shops and even the inevitable interviews with the local cops about security and traffic tie-ups.
As part of the national press corps, NPR traveled with the president but on this occasion it chose not to cover the presidential visit as such. (I feel this was a good call since the visit was not particularly newsworthy and the president said nothing he hasn’t said before). Instead, NPR chose to look at how the local media handles a presidential visit. Also a legitimate story, in my opinion.
In his report, NPR’s David Greene talked about how a local television anchor waited for the president while munching doughnuts. Greene also interviewed a newspaper reporter from the Canandaigua Messenger-Post who wondered whether Bush would be able to correctly pronounce the name of the town.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: I do want to thank the folks here at Canandaigua Academy for letting me…
GREENE: How’d he do?
Ms. DEWEY: (Whispering) He got it right. He got it right.
SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE
NPR’s story showed why the White House loves these events. The national media may yawn, but the local media ate it up as Greene’s report demonstrated.
‘Slamming the Yokels…’
But there was an important piece missing, according to those who wrote to me to complain about the NPR report.
Listeners like Ron Dylewski thought that NPR was patronizing to the local media:
I’m not a big fan of the “local media” in most cities. The TV stations, in particular, are replete with feel-good stories and pandering reports on any manner of minor incidents. But I must take issue with your report on the president’s visit to Canandaigua, N.Y., which clearly set out, right from the start, to slam the yokels and make then look foolish….
Some of the little local newspapers probably are, but what about the NPR station in Rochester or the alternative newspapers or even the large Gannett paper there? They didn’t get a mention.
No, it was clear from the outset that this was a “Let’s make fun of the slathering local media” story. Don’t get me wrong. There is way too much pandering going on. I just don’t think this was the most honest way to present that point.
‘Local Reporting Was Quite Good…’
Peter Iglinski is the news director for WXXI, the NPR member station in Rochester. He agrees that there was problem of tone in David Greene’s report:
Not once did David actually consider the reporting done on the president’s talk. The end-result: a distorted feature that made local media look like bumpkins in a backwater town.
In reality, there were two stories in Canandaigua last Tuesday. One was the event itself. The definition of news includes things that are, well, new. And a city that has its first presidential visit in more than five decades is certainly encountering something new. Were the TV reporters “beside themselves”? Perhaps some were. But more importantly, the city was beside itself, and that’s what the reporters were covering. (To be honest, WXXI didn’t bother with that angle, but it was certainly legitimate.) The second story that day was the president’s message regarding Medicare and prescription drugs. Since David’s story was presumably about the way local reporters treat the president, there should have been some reference to local stories regarding Medicare. And some of those local reports were quite good; (the television) station had a thorough discussion of Medicare Part D, not to mention the politics surrounding the president’s trip. And while some reporters may have gone overboard on the reporting of the event, that doesn’t mean the substance was missing. Unfortunately, NPR listeners only heard about donuts, flags and the difficulty of pronouncing Canandaigua (that’s KAN-uhn-DAY-gwah). David’sapproach gave the national audience an unfair impression of the Rochester press corps.
‘Talented and Gracious Reporters’
Ouch! NPR’s David Greene said that was not the intention of his story:
I traveled to Canandaigua with NPR producer Martina Castro. Our goal was to see and hear how the president is covered by the local media, and to bring that back to our listeners. Mr. Bush speaks about wanting to get away from the national media “filter” which, in his view, gets in the way of his message. His speech on Medicare at Canandaigua Academy was covered live on all networks. Media outlets also reported extensively on the arrival and departure of Air Force One, road shut-downs for the presidential motorcade and all of Mr. Bush’s movements. There was also coverage of protests, as well as the president’s current political standing.
We met and interviewed some very talented and very gracious reporters. They were balanced in their coverage. They included discussions of Medicare, the president’s poll numbers and protests during his visit. But they said that above all, the big story was the fact that the president was paying the city of Canandaigua a visit. Their view was that the impact of a presidential visit on the community was the true headline of the day. And if that were not the case, they said, they would not be doing their job, nor would they be serving their audience.
Local Sour Grapes?
Sour grapes on the part of the local media? I don’t think so. It’s legitimate for NPR to report the excitement generated when the president comes to town, but there is usually more to local reporting than bunting and doughnuts. NPR implicitly made the same assumptions as the White House — that the local reporters will be dazzled by a presidential visit and will ignore the more substantive issues.
It’s not the role of an NPR reporter to judge how well the local media do, but Greene’s report should have included some mention that big national issues were also discussed. Without that, there was a patronizing quality to the report.
NPR does very solid reporting on national issues. But it doesn’t have a monopoly on good journalism and David Greene’s report seemed to imply that it does.
