Just one day before the vice presidential debate, the election coverage in the Grand Rapids Press continues its trend of focusing on personalities and not the issues.

On Monday (9/29), the Grand Rapids Press ran a New York Times story titled "Style points count." In the opening paragraph the article states, "McCain was by turns action-oriented and impulsive as he dive-bombed targets, while Obama was measured and cerebral and inclined to work the phones behind the scenes."

The bulk of the Times article then presents what both the Republican and Democratic camps thought about the first debate, but it included a paragraph on a Saturday Night Live skit that mocked the debate. The only issue that was raised in the story was the proposed $700 billion Wall Street "bailout." The article states "Both candidates said on Sunday they were inclined to vote for the bailout even though they were not completely happy with it."

On Tuesday, the Grand Rapids Press ran two Associated Press (AP) stories side by side that focused on Obama and McCain from a post-debate perspective. The story on Senator Obama used words like "calm" and "assured" when describing the Democratic candidate. Again, there was no information on Senator Obama's position on issues, but the AP writer did mention a new AP-Yahoo News poll that says "race is certainly a factor" and that people have doubts about "his competency."

The accompanying AP article on Senator McCain wasn't much better. The story focused on how McCain appeared to be responding to the financial crisis, without providing any information on what his campaign actually proposes to do about the crisis. Instead, the AP writer focuses on the so-called risks that McCain is taking--saying that he is bold, but may have "maneuvered himself into a political dead end."

Despite the lack of substantive coverage in the mainstream press, there are some interesting responses from media reform groups in regards to the first debate. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) issued a media alert that challenges moderator Jim Lehrer's role in limiting the foreign policy discussion to topics that FAIR says "left out the vast majority of the world." The organization also criticized how Lehrer framed the questions that were put to the candidates:

"Lehrer spent much of the debate asking about the ongoing global financial crisis, quoting President Dwight Eisenhower as saying that "the foundation of military strength is economic strength." When he turned to questions more specifically about foreign policy, he asked about the "lessons of Iraq"; whether "more U.S. troops should be sent to Afghanistan, how many and when"; the degree of threat posed by Iran; whether Russia was a "competitor," an "enemy" or a "potential partner"; and the likelihood of another September 11-style attack."

The Madison-based media reform group Free Press also had an interesting response to the first presidential debate. They organized more than 4,600 volunteers to watch and rate the debate as a way to potentially improve national media coverage of the elections. tended to focus more on issues than on the character or style of the candidates.