From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: AGRAN: Columbia Journalism Review Documents Agran Black-Out
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: University of Missouri
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 04:39:48 GMT

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     Joshua Meyrowitz is Professor of Communication at the
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824.  Maria Peralta
assisted with research.  A version of this article appeared in
Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1992, pp. 46-48.
Copyright 1992 by Joshua Meyrowitz.  This article has been made
available on this computer network with the permission of the
author.  This file may be downloaded for the personal use of the
reader only, and may not be reprinted or uploaded to any other
computer information service without the prior written consent of
the author.
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                   The Press Rejects a Candidate
                         Joshua Meyrowitz

     When Vladimir Clementis, a close aide to Czech Communist leader
Klement Gottwald, was charged with treason and hanged in 1952, the
state propaganda apparatus quickly airbrushed the traitor out of all
state photographs.  Such a crude act is almost unimaginable in a
democratic society, but airbrushing of a more sophisticated kind is
not entirely unknown.

	[NOTE: In fact, there _was_ literal photo-doctoring used
	against Larry Agran, by the New York Times, "no less" -- see
	footnote at the end excerpting another article -- Harel]

     Take the case of Democratic presidential candidate Larry Agran.
The national press almost never reports on his campaign; when his name
does appear, he is described as a "dark horse," a "fringe candidate"
or "an obscure contender."  Agran has been barred from most of the
televised debates on the basis of criteria that seem to shift as he
tries to meet them.  When he is allowed to participate in forums with
the "major candidates," he is often left out of news reports of the
events or is asked by press photographers to move aside.  With
Catch-22 logic, Agran has been told by news media executives that he
has not earned the right to media exposure, because, among other
things, he has not received enough media exposure.

     To be fair to those making such news judgments, much of Agran's
dark horse status derives from his unconventional credentials as a
presidential contender.  Although he is a Harvard Law School graduate
and published author who has devoted twenty years to public service,
he has never held statewide or national office.  He has served for
twelve years as an elected official in Irvine, California, America's
largest master-planned city.  Most national journalists I spoke with
dismissed him based on his having held only local office.  As Roger
Mudd put it in a rare television interview with Agran that aired on
The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour on August 30, 1991: "It does stretch
credulity to think that a Jewish ex-mayor of a small suburban
California town can make it."

	[The *city* of Irvine's population of 110,000 makes it not
	only the "largest master-planned city" but it ranks among
	the country's 200 largest cities -- so much for Mudd's "small
	suburban town" -- but such are State Propagandists (and those
	who would be) -- Harel]

     But Agran's supporters -- and a substantial component of the
local New Hampshire press reporting on the first-in-the nation
primary--see more in Agran than do most national journalists.  His
supporters point out that, as Irvine's first directly-elected mayor,
Agran initiated progressive programs that received national acclaim.
They note that, as Executive Director of the Center for Innovative
Diplomacy, he played a unique role as a "global mayor," who pursued
issues of international trade, cultural exchange, arms reduction, and
human rights, and earned his city a United Nations award for his
pioneering legislation to eliminate ozone-depleting compounds -- all

	[The United Nations Environmental Achievement Award received by
	Irvine was one of only eight cities worldwide -- and the only
	U.S. city -- to receive that award.  --Harel]

from an unlikely base in deeply conservative Orange County.  They
point out that, although he has not yet qualified for federal matching
funds, he has already met the criteria for getting his name on more
than thirty-five primary and caucus ballots.  And they describe him as
the presidential contender with the boldest and most specific plan for
shifting military spending to domestic needs.

     Regardless of whose views of his campaign are correct, Agran's
candidacy presents an interesting case study for press coverage of
political campaigns.  He has found that to become visible, he needs to
be disruptive.  When he was barred by the Chairman of the State
Democratic Party from a televised Health Care Forum with presidential
candidates in Nashua, New Hampshire, for example, he stood up in the
audience and demanded to know by what criteria he was being excluded.
Responding to a signal from a state party official, security police
began to remove Agran from the hall, but the crowd's shouts of
"Freedom of speech!" and "Let us vote!" embarrassed the men at the
dais into inviting him to join them.  This confrontation was Agran's
first widely reported "campaign event" -- but no mention was made of
his innovative proposals for health care reform.
       
    [Some history of the NH Dem. Party's antics, from email I got
    from Stephen Smith, Issues Director at the Agran campaign:

    The very day that Agran announced for his candidacy, on August 22,
    I personally called the NH State Party to notify them of Agran's
    candidacy and his intention to participate in all Party-sponsored
    events.  When the Party scheduled its convention for November 2
    and stated its intention to use the convention as a candidates'
    forum, we were told that if Larry Agran wanted to address the
    convention he'd have to pay the party money.  Harkin's $50,000
    "donation" was cited as an example.  They wanted $2,000 for a
    block of 300 seats we wouldn't use; $800 to construct a booth we
    wouldn't use; and $10,000 for a voters' list that we could get far
    more cheaply from the NH secretary of state.  We were told that if
    we wouldn't pay the money, Larry Agran would be barred from
    speaking to the convention.

	   Larry Agran refused.  He believes in free speech, not fee
    speech. 

	   After that, the state party repeatedly refused to return
    our phone calls.  When we DID get through, they made only vague
    promises that Agran would have some role in the convention.

        End of excerpt. --Harel]

     To prevent this sort of inclusion from happening again, the next
state Democratic party debate was moved to a high security TV studio
with no audience.  Agran stood outside the studio, among a crowd of
four hundred people who braved zero-degree temperatures to protest the
exclusion of their candidates from the debates.  As reported in the
local press, the protest offered many dramatic moments, with the
"major" candidates forced to pass "picket lines for democracy" as
protestors shouted "Scab! Scab! Scab!"  Yet perhaps because there was
no violence, the event went unreported in The New York Times and The
Washington Post, and in all but Agran's home county edition of The Los
Angeles Times.

     The dozens of New Hampshire newspaper articles, editorials,
columns, and letters to the editor, which have described Agran's
exclusion and/or supported his right to be heard in national debates,
have made no dent on national coverage.  Several reporters and editors
at national newspapers and magazines that I spoke with admitted that
the longer one has not covered a candidate, the harder it becomes to
do so.  "The obvious question in such situations," said Alvin Sanoff,
a senior editor at U.S.  News & World Report, "is `Where have you been
that you just discovered this person?'"  He also noted that "it's
always safer to stay with the pack and be wrong, than to risk going
out on a limb and covering someone who then turns out to not be that
important."

     When local press coverage and protests had no impact on his
national media profile, Agran's campaign staff became convinced that
his status as a "fringe" candidate could be erased if he began to show
up in the poll results, especially if he tied or passed one or more of
the "major" candidates in the polls.  They were wrong.

     When a January 6-11 WMUR-TV poll registered Agran's first
measurable showing, the AP put Agran's result in the anonymous "other"
category.  When a January 22 poll, conducted by the American Research
Group, showed Agran tied with former California Governor Jerry Brown
and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, the AP bluntly reported this finding
two-thirds of the way through a story.  When a follow-up ARG poll
showed Agran doubling his support and moving ahead of Brown, the AP
incorrectly referred to it as Agran's "first measurable showing."
When the next ARG poll showed Agran still ahead of Brown, ABC's World
News Sunday -- perhaps to sidestep the problem of explaining the
identity of a candidate they had not been covering -- reported on the
poll by skipping all mention of Agran and moving directly from Harkin
to Brown.  CNN listed Agran's name in its report without comment, but
some other news organizations solved the "problem" by reporting only
on the top three names.  ARG pollster Dick Bennett says that had
Agran's surprise strength in the polls been played up by news
organizations it might well have led to a further rise in the polls.
But, instead, "the press completely ignored the story, and he began to
sink."

     Agran's unusual appearance with four of the so-called "major
candidates" at the U.S. Conference of Mayors led to the first
significant mention of his campaign in The New York Times.  In a
January 24 article, Richard Berke noted that, after listening to the
candidates, "dozens of mayors...seemed to agree on one thing: the
single candidate who truly understands urban needs is Larry Agran."
Yet the AP story and the TV news reports I saw on the conference did
not even mention Agran's presence.

     Similarly, when Agran participated with the "major" candidates in
the Global Warming Leadership Forum in February, the audience "was
more enthusiastic about Larry Agran than about Bill Clinton and Bob
Kerrey," according to conference organizer Carole Florman.  But the
major news organizations covering the event -- ABC News, CBS News
(through a local affiliate), and the AP -- omitted all mention of
Agran from their reports.

     Most of the national journalists I spoke with expressed little
surprise over the press treatment that Agran has been receiving, and
they offered similar explanations for it.  Tom Rosenstiel, for
example, who is based in Washington and writes on media and politics
for The Los Angeles Times, suggests there are several reasons.  For
one thing, political reporters tend to cover those candidates that
their sources, the party professionals tell them are the "major
^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
candidates."  Reporters ask them What are you hearing?, Who is lining
up endorsements?  Who is doing fundraisers for whom?  This year,
especially, says Rosenstiel, "the last thing the Democratic leaders
want is to have attention paid to someone like Larry Agran, which
would reinforce the impression that they are putting forward a `field
of unknowns.'"

     Secondly, says Rosenstiel, it is difficult and expensive and
confusing for the media to have to contend with a lot of candidates.
"Journalists don't sit around in newsrooms asking `Whom else should we
cover?'  The big question is `Whom can we stop covering?'"

    [From Agran's article in In these Times:

    Appearing in late December on ABC's Nightline, Mr. Brown [chairman
    of the Democratic National Committee] said that it was his hope to
    eliminate all but three candidates from the race after the New
    Hampshire primary, and to have all but one candidate eliminated by
    "Super Tuesday," March 10.  Apparently, Mr. Brown felt that it was
    more important for the powerful insiders of the Democratic Party
    to protect their jobs by quickly choosing their personal champion
    to oppose George Bush, instead of allowing Democratic voters
    across the nation to choose for themselves at the ballot box.

    [End of excerpt] --Harel]

Ultimately, Rosenstiel notes, "if we think someone is not likely to
win, then we don't think of them as someone to devote much time to."

     Jeff Cohen, Executive Director of FAIR, a New York based media
watchdog group argues that "It's not up to the media to determine whom
we get to hear and whom we don't.  That's not reporting, it's
censorship."  He notes that "the media have made Agran a reverse
Zelig.  He's clearly at the right places at the right time, and they
excise him from the picture."

     Washington Post columnist, Colman McCarthy, who recently pressed
for Agran's inclusion in televised debates, agrees with Cohen.  He
expresses disgust with the "incestuous" relationships between the
media and party elites.  "A major abuse in the media is not that we
slant the news, but that we can arbitrarily choose the news.  The
Agran blackout exemplifies that this is a journalistic crime easily
gotten away with.  Who is going to report it?  Not the criminals, for
sure."

##################################################################

=======================================
FOOTNOTE: NY Times "doctors" news-photo
=======================================

    [From an article by Larry Agran which appeared in the February 13,
    1992 edition of the publication In These Times.  Permission
    granted to quote from or reprint excerpts from this article, as
    long as the text remains unaltered in any way.]

[...]

        All I asked -- and indeed all I expected -- from the party and
the national media was a chance to present my platform to the American
voters.  But the media's response ranged largely from apathy to
derision.

        Still, some took note.  I was invited along with Paul Tsongas
to address the Tri-State Democrats Unity Dinner in Sioux City, Iowa.
(At the time, we were the only declared candidates.)  The hosts also
invited potential candidates Tom Harkin a nd Bill Clinton to speak.
All four speakers were treated as equals.  My speech was broadcast on
C-SPAN with the others, and I was included in the group photo of the
candidates.

        But if you asked the national media, I wasn't even there.  The
New York Times published a version of the group photo in which I had
been cropped out.  (As Casey Stengel used to say, "You can look it
up."  The national edition, Sunday, September 8, 1991, p. 16.  I'm
standing just off to the right, where the other candidates are
gesturing.)  The extensive article on the event quoted the other three
speakers at length -- two of whom were not even declared candidates at
that point.  The Times deigned only to mention my presence with one
sentence near the end of the report, calling me a "dark horse"
candidate.

##################################################################
The Agran '92 campaign can be reached at (800) 727-9425.  Donations to
Agran '92 can be sent to P.O. Box 159, Irvine CA 92650.

##################################################################
Files about Larry Agran are availalbe by anonymous FTP (sample session:)
[Also free free to email to me: harelb@math.cornell.edu and/or
Steve Smith -- 75300.3112@CompuServe.COM -- for more info]
##################################################################

ftp pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Connected to pencil.cs.missouri.edu.
220 pencil FTP server (SunOS 4.1) ready.
Name (pencil.cs.missouri.edu:harelb): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
Password:harel

230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> cd LOOKEE_HERE/map
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> dir *AGRAN*
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for /bin/ls (128.84.234.38,1391) (0 bytes).
  total 740
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar        10705 Apr 11 14:21 AGRAN.columbia-journalism-review
  dr-xr-xrwt  3 ftp          1536 Apr 11 14:21 .
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         8124 Apr  5 20:18 AGRAN.ithaca-times.op-ed
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         9524 Apr  5 20:10 AGRAN.arrest.hum-ryt-forum.speech
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         2690 Apr  4 14:42 AGRAN.animal-rights
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar        78529 Mar 24 21:27 electronic.activism-1.tex
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar        41105 Mar 24 21:27 electronic.activism-1.dvi.Z
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar        19409 Mar 12 00:52 AGRAN.article.InTheseTimes
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         4015 Mar 12 00:51 AGRAN.environment
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         6326 Mar 12 00:47 AGRAN.economic.program
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         7407 Mar 12 00:46 AGRAN.economic-conversion

  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar        17318 Feb  8 23:56 AGRAN.middle-east
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         2285 Feb  1 23:16 AGRAN.jan26-NH-poll
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         5221 Feb  1 23:15 AGRAN.NYT-article
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         8205 Feb  1 23:14 AGRAN.Wash-Post.re.Macneil
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar        17630 Feb  1 23:12 AGRAN.health-care

  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar        20308 Feb  1 23:11 AGRAN.ANNOUNCEMENT
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         6813 Feb  1 23:10 AGRAN.bio
  -rw-r--r--  1 hbar         1921 Feb  1 23:09 AGRAN.fact-sheet

	[...]

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ftp> get AGRAN.fact-sheet
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for AGRAN.fact-sheet (128.84.234.38,1392) (1921 bytes).
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
local: AGRAN.fact-sheet remote: AGRAN.fact-sheet
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221 Goodbye.
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive