Tag Results for Scott Brown

Sometimes we cover the media news here at Beat the Press, sometimes we make it.

Today's show starts with a Emily's recent interview with Newsweek Senior Editor Jonathan Alter, who's new Obama book, "The Promise," includes a section on the Martha Coakley-Scott Brown US Senate election. It includes this passage:

Coakley had taken a six-day vacation in the Caribbean three weeks before the election - an unforgivable sin in politics.

The only problem: Coakley says she was only on the Cape for a half day, not in the Caribbean for a week, and that the misinformation mushroomed into a truism in the political press and blogosphere. Author Alter seemed genuinely surprised that it appears not to have been true.

Our other segments:

Image Clean-up: The petro-muck has hit the beaches and the you-know-what has hit the fan for BP. The company's attempts to control the narrative have journalists accusing BP of caring more about cleaning up its image than cleaning up the Gulf.

Conflict at Sea: The Israeli raid on the Turkey-to-Gaza aid flotilla was captured by multiple video cameras held by people with multiple agendas. The story shows that pictures don't necessarily tell the whole story.

Plus panel peeves.

The panel: Emily, Callie, Dan, Joe, and Josh Benton in the guest chair.

BC's "This Week" has allied itself with Politifact.com, the political fact-checking site run by the St. Petersburg Times, to verify assertions made by guests on the show. Some say the plethora of friendly partisan media outlets has made politicians more whopper prone, but is the new movement toward fact-checking a fad or something that will last?

The Project for Excellence in Journalism and Boston University have published a study on how the media covered the race to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, a race that culminated in Republican Scott Brown’s surprising victory over Democrat Martha Coakley.

Among the authors of the report, “Hiding in Plain Sight, From Kennedy to Brown,” was my old friend Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the project, with whom I worked at both the Boston Phoenix and “Beat the Press.”

The findings of the study — which mainly focuses on the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, and to a lesser extent on the Associated Press and the New York Times — are not surprising. Essentially we learn that the media devoted precious little attention to Brown during the primary and general-election campaigns until Jan. 5, when Rasmussen released a poll showing that Brown was within striking distance.

From that point on, according to the report (verified by anyone who was paying attention at the time), the media went into overdrive, covering the campaign relentlessly but devoting far more resources to the horse race and strategy stories than to the issues. You will also not be surprised to learn that the Globe was more favorable to Coakley and the Herald to Brown.

(Click "continue" to keep reading)

Governor Deval Patrick says he's not going to make the same mistake Martha Coakley did in her US Senate race by ducking Boston's legion of right-wing radio talkers. Patrick's determined to go into the lion's den, but will it help him snatch victory from jaws of defeat, or will the likes of Howie Carr, Gerry Callahan, and Michael Graham simply have him for lunch?

From increased truck sales to action figures to a genealogical link to President Obama. Can the media find any more angles on the new Senator?  Now that’s he’s on the job, will the coverage change?

Scott Brown’s election has been called a referendum on healthcare, and President Obama and the economy.  The media has not stopped speculating on what Brown’s win meant even without reliable election day exit polling.  So what is the speculation based upon?

The majority of hosts backed Scott Brown, interviewing him regularly and giving him positive exposure. Did talk radio play in the Senate election?

Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown became a national sensation as the first Republican to win a US Senate race since the 1970s. Since his victory on Jan. 19th, the coverage of Brown has been non-stop. How is the media shaping Brown's image?

"Beat the Press" panelists sound off on their rants and raves of the week: Topics include WCVB's election night coverage; the New York Times charging for online content; sympathy levels for outgoing NBC host Conan O'Brien; coverage of the Supreme Court's ruling on corporate campaign spending; and using political party surrogates as political analysts.

Over on the Don't Quote Me blog, our friend Adam Reilly has a good post on why, periodically, seemingly sure-thing Democratic candidates from Massachusetts flame out and blow up in big political races.

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/dontquoteme/archive/2010/01/19/brown-v-coakl...