Patterson adamantly maintains that this responsibility is beyond the true identity of the press as an institution. Journalistic values, although supposedly neutral, introduce an element of random partisanship into the campaign which coincidentally works to the advantage of one side or another. Election news, rather than serving to bring candidates together, drives a wedge between them. How the Crisis began Over the course of an election the public searches for the truth behind a candidate. The only source of this information readily available is the media.
News is a restless institution in search of the new and unusual.
This directly works against its intention to provide an accurate version of the campaign to the voters. The press' role between candidates and the public was not intentional. Instead, it was the result of a transition of power in the nominating process. Until 1968, political party leaders who had been elected to their positions were responsible for determining the nomination. At that time, primaries were held but were not decisive.