I was interviewed by Bob Garfield for On the Media about my research on the role of the news cycle in presidential scandal (PDF), including the GSA scandal that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. Here's the audio for those who are interested:
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April 16, 2012
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About Me
I am the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Duke University and have served as a RWJ Scholar in Health Policy Research and a faculty member in the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. I am a co-director of Bright Line Watch. Previously, I contributed to The Upshot at The New York Times, served as a media critic for Columbia Journalism Review, co-edited Spinsanity, a non-partisan watchdog of political spin, and co-authored All the President's Spin. For more, see my Dartmouth website.
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Brendan says one reason for Obama's long scandal-free reign was that Republicans didn't have to focus on scandals because they could attack the President over the bad economy. However, the right did focus on Gunrunner.
Rep. Darrell Issa conducted as least two rounds of public hearings. The conservative media wrote article after article. The right reported interesting side stories, such as personal stories about the murdered US agents and stories about the impact on foreign relations with Mexico. I think the right did what they could to make this tragedy into a scandal.
Yet, the mainstream media gave the story a wide berth, even when the Justice Dept. admitted that much of the earlier testimony had been false or incorrect. The New York Times actually wrote an editorial laying part of the blame on Rep. Issa.
The next six and a half months will provide an empirical test of competing theories. If Brendan is right, Republican efforts to tar Obama plus the shortage of new daily political news will lead to numerous reported scandals. OTOH if media bias is the main cause, then there will be few if any scandals, because the mainstream media work especially hard to defend Obama right before the election.
Posted by: David in Cal | April 16, 2012 at 06:34 PM
Just happened to notice a particular instance of a conservative trying to make a scandal out of Gunrunner. She called it the "deadliest and most sinister scandal in American history. A scandal so big, it’s worse than Iran-Contra and makes Watergate look like a high school prank gone wrong."
This sort of article refutes Brendan's claim that Gunrunner wasn't a scandal, in part because the right didn't promote it sufficiently.
See: http://townhall.com/columnists/katiepavlich/2012/04/16/opening_the_flood_gates_on_fast_and_furious
Posted by: David in Cal | April 16, 2012 at 08:06 PM
I see WaPo referred to the "Summit Scandal" on Page 1 today above the fold.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/WashingtonPost/Content/Epaper/2012-04-17/Ax1.pdf
Posted by: David in Cal | April 17, 2012 at 08:40 PM