From my notes, but never published until now.
Sat. Sept. 8, 2007: CRP Convention Seminar, Indian Wells:
Meet the Press panel discussion featured moderator Pat (ex-CRP Communications guy), with Carla (SF Chron), Lisa (Contra Costa Times), and John (San Diego Tribune).
Same old blather...
on Reporting:
Republicans need to form personal relationships with the reporters so that their side will get covered...
Layers of editors the reporters go through to get their story approved...
Have to produce more and more with less people (SF Chronicle lost 80 reporters recently - 35% of their employees let go), which produces less in-depth reporting...
Consolidation of the papers hurts the readers a lot by reducing multiple coverages of stories...
Bloggers don't often tell the truth, [although the panel reporters do go to blogs like FlashReport daily]...
Newspaper readership is down because of free news websites, [not because people don't want to read or pay for bias]...
People who only read their side of the story are uninformed...[intimated Repubs do that more than Dems]...
on Issues:
Term Limits: public not interested.
Pollsters having problems polling as there are fewer telephone land lines, and pollsters aren't reaching cell phones.
Redistricting: for Dems, this is a nuclear issue, threatening their supremacy in CA. Dems will throw $$$$ to defeat.
on Candidates:
O'Bama is a terrific public speaker, but Hillary is running a "flawless" campaign. She has the organization in place, and will be the Dem's candidate. More and more Independents who, at first, would vote for Rudy over Hillary, are turning and supporting Hillary.
Public tenor is: not much enthusiasm for Republican candidates.
Among Repubs, lots of support for Rudy. Some for Romney. Not so with Thompson.
Huckabee "wowed" SF Chron editors recently when he interviewed with them.
Romney is bordering on "slick" instead of sincere. His support is collapsing [quite gleefully said].
In response to audience charge that lesser candidates aren't covered:
Campaign Money results in higher polling, reporters only cover candidates who are polling well.
on Abortion:
Audience question: we don't care about abortion. why do you?
Reporter: Abortion is an issue with us, so deserves coverage. [Press keeps this issue alive.]
Audience questions:
A young M.D. from Fresno put it succinctly. "We don't trust you...past reporting has shown an ignorance of facts... Lies of omission are still lies. There's a reason papers are declining. How do you propose changing our distrust of you?"
Another audience member: "When did news change from reporting to raising h---l?"
Reporters response was, of course, to deny that there is media bias, and Lisa, from the CC Times, even said, "Truth? What is Truth? There is no one Truth. There are about 50 different versions of "Truth" [so we have a hard time distinguishing what to report].
My view:
Unbelievable piety, total indifference to criticism, bubble-residing, whiney, entrenched reporters (just like bureaucrats) who believe in their hearts they are fair in their coverage; that they are unjustly maligned, that their jobs are threatened because of all the bloggers and free websites.
Final moderator quote: "You can disagree [with the press], but don't be disagreeable."
