Election Coverage 2004 Campaign

One way for citizens to become more active participants in the election process is for news organizations to provide information that allows voters to make an informed decision. The Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) has been monitoring the election coverage in West Michigan since 1998. We have concluded over the past 6 years that if citizens were relying on any of the local TV stations to make an informed vote they could not.

Some examples over the years on the lack of election coverage are:

• During the 2000 Elections there was no coverage of the following races: State Board of Education, State Supreme Court, State Board of Appeals, University Regents, regional judicial races, Kent County Commission, Kent County Clerk, and most of the State House of Representative races (see: An Informed Vote? 2000 Election Coverage).
• In 2001 there were more stories on the 3 local TV stations about Ostriches running lose in Kent County (12) than election stories (8) (see: An Informed Vote? 2001 Election Coverage).
• In 2002, all 3 stations ran more stories on the DC sniper (107) than all local election races combined Ð 0 stories on Kent County Commission races (see: An Informed Vote? 2002 Election Coverage).

In addition to the lack of coverage viewers are often given mostly horse race coverage Ð coverage of candidates on the campaign trail, with little or no information on platforms or voting records. We have also documented that viewers are exposed to far more crime stories and paid political ads during the newscasts than election stories.

In the last Presidential race in 2000, we documented the total of paid ads during the newscasts and the ratio of ad to election story; WOOD TV 8: 502 total ads and a 5-1 ratio, WZZM 13: 428 total ads and a 5.5-1 ratio, WXMI 17: 209 total ads and a 3.3-1 ratio (An Informed Vote? 2000 Election Coverage).

This TV market has been running paid political ads since March and the amount is only expected to increase before the November 2 Election. On May 2, WOOD TV Station Manager Diane Kniowski had this to say "If they keep up this spending week to week, it will be a slugfest, a real dogfight, and the ad buys will continue to increase. Of course it's great. It's a windfall of revenues. We started out projecting $9 million in the political market. But I'm thinking it could be $13 million by the end of the campaign." (GR Press, May 2 page A1)

According to the research by the Alliance for Better Campaigns the Grand Rapids market was 7th in the Country in amount of paid political ads during the 2000 Presidential race. In other words, TV station will make lots of money during the election cycle, but what does the public get?

We invite citizens and organizations in the West Michigan area to join our campaign to have broadcasters serve the public interest by participating in the following:

• Sign the Election Coverage 2004 Campaign document
• Agree to be part of a delegation to visit the local TV stations in early September
• Share the Election Watch 2004 resources with your organizations, and
• Stay informed with GRIID's weekly Election Coverage Monitoring Project