Looking for softballs
There are plenty of them in the elite, mainstream media when they’re covering politics that fit what we understand in this culture as a liberal agenda. But it’s mighty interesting that some of the top presidential candidates are selectively avoiding media that might toss them some real hardballs. So the Chicago Tribune editorial board has this basic question for them.
The three top Democratic presidential candidates — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards — have declined to participate in an autumn presidential debate for the frailest of reasons: because one co-sponsor is TV’s conservative-leaning Fox News. (The other sponsor is the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.)
It’s true that politicians and journalists often don’t get along. Heck, we’ve had some famous pols snub Tribune editorial board meetings because they didn’t like something we wrote. Fine, it’s a free country.
But let’s be clear here. Clinton, Obama and Edwards weren’t going to be debating Fox News journalists. They would have been debating each other.
Candidates often feed scoops to favored reporters. They crave the friendly questions and the soft focus that help them appear to be commander-in-chief material. But here’s what candidates look like when they attempt to choose which reporters are worthy to question them: fragile, egocentric and frightened of tough questions.
That’s not how a prospective president of the United States wants to come across.
Are there unfair questions? Sure. Do journalists on Fox — and elsewhere — get stories wrong? Of course. But Clinton, Obama and Edwards aren’t running for board seats at the Mosquito Abatement District. They’re running to be the most powerful leader in the world. They shouldn’t dodge questioners who aren’t handpicked and pre-adoring.
This is the stage of the campaign where candidates shape their images and decide how to get their message out. They sometimes take tough hits. Voters use these moments to judge them by how they respond.
In January we’ll reach the stage where voters do the deciding. And we wouldn’t be surprised if some are disappointed, or worse, by candidates who ducked debates because of the media outlet on which they were to appear.
Political debates, the less comfortable the better, are healthy for America’s democracy. The candidate who takes all comers — who’ll debate anytime, anywhere, on any channel — is the one who earns the voters’ respect.