Chapter 9 - Interest

Groups
I. Explaining Proliferation
1. Interest groups are active participants in the political scene, lobbying for certain causes.
2. There are so many interest groups in the U.S. because there are so many cleavages, or
differences, in opinion, because the Constitution contributes by giving so many points
where they can contact the government (political authority is shared by the president, the
courts, and Congress), and because today’s weak political parties let lobbies work directly
on the government.
i. In Great Britain, centralization has made it so that only one group
represents the farmers, one represents industry, and so on…
ii. To lobby is to try to influence government decisions through petitions or
other means; lobbyists are people whom, naturally, lobby for changes or actions.
II. The Birth of Interest Groups
1. The 1960s and 70s were a boom for the establishment of interest groups, but these
groups also sprang up quickly during the 1770s to agitate for American independence;
during the 1830s-40s to protest slavery (mostly religious groups here); in the 1860s, when
crafts-based trade unions sprang up; and during the 1880s-90s, when business
associations were commonplace.
i. The biggest area of organization of interest groups came in the first two
decades of the 20th century, when groups like the Chamber of Commerce, the
National Association of Manufacturers, the American Medical Association,
the NAACP, the Urban League, the American Farm Bureau, the Farmers’
Union, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the American Jewish
Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League sprang up.
ii. The 1960s-70s interest groups were mostly based on environmental,
consumer, and political reform issues and were sponsored by people like Ralph
Nader.
2. Interest groups arise because of certain reasons (usually):
i. Broad economic developments create new interests and redefine old ones.
a. The farmers didn’t organize until they started selling their products
through forces that THEY could not control (railroads, etc…).
ii. Government policy helps create such groups (i.e. war creates veterans
who can band together).
a. The Grand Army of the Republic was the first large such organization.
iii. Political organizations often emerge as results of social movements, where
bands of people rally for a cause, like anti-slavery, women’s suffrage, and
Darwinism.
iv. The more activities undertaken by the government, the more organized
groups there will be that will be interested in those activities, simply because
America is so diverse.
a. When the government starting making policies important to a certain
subject, interest groups devoted to that subject sprang up.
III. Kinds of Organizations
1. Many interest groups are made up of corporations, law firms, or public relations firms, not
necessarily individual members.
i. There are two types of interest groups: “institutional” groups and
“membership” groups.
2. Institutional interest groups are individuals or organizations representing other
organizations, like General Motors, which has a rep that represents it.
i. People in these groups tend to be interested in the bread-and-butter
issues of vital concern to their clients, and some people who work in these groups
(lawyers) can charge up to $250 an hour for their time—and thus are expected to
do a lot!
ii. What they deliver varies with the company: the American Cotton
 Manufacturers Institute represents southern textile mills, but these mills are
broad enough to let the institute to carry out clear policies based squarely on the
business interests on its clients.
a. Other groups may not be like that because of more diversity in the group.
iii. Institutional interest groups can also represent governments, foundations,
& universities.
3. Membership interest groups are made up of Americans who join because they feel
strongly on an issue (religious, civic, or political feelings can play parts).
i. They are willing to join a group to make a real difference in a situation.
ii. On the other hand, people don’t join clubs JUST because they think that
one member can make an enormous difference; instead, they have incentives
that entice them.
a. Solidary incentives are the sense of pleasure, status, or
companionship that arises out of meeting in small groups (for example,
local members that support a national staff).
b. Material incentives include money or things and services that are
valued by members and lure them into the group; they are tangible
rewards.
c. Purposive incentives are based on an ideal of accomplishment, and
when an interest group’s goal can benefit even those who don’t join,
those who do are very ideological; these are ideological interest
groups.
iii. A public-interest lobby will even benefit those people who are NOT
members of it.
4. Most of these public-interest lobbies are controversial, and that controversy is what
attracts people to the groups.
i. After Ralph Nader won a settlement against General Motors, he got
royalties and got rich and created many groups that dealt with matters of interest
to consumers.
ii. He founded Public Citizen, a group that raised money, as well as Public
Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) that were supported by students.
5. Membership groups that offer purposive incentives tend to be shaped by the times; the
an issue is hot, there are bound to be more organizations there, and when it’s not, there’s
less.
i. These groups try to take advantage of critical atmospheres, when the
government is hostile.
6. In many cases, an interest group does what its staff wants rather than what its members
believe, especially when there are members that join for material incentives.
i. The staff will sometimes push for actions, even though the members want
those actions.
IV. Interest Groups and Social Movements
1. A social movement is a widely shared demand for change in some aspect of the social
or political order.
i. One can be triggered by a scandal, widely publicized activities of a few
leaders, or by the coming of age of a new generation that takes up a cause.
2. Then environmental movement included the organization of groups such as the Sierra
Club (1890s), the Wilderness Society and the National Wildlife Federation (1930s),
and the Environmental Defense Fund and Environment Action (1960s-70s) and had
spread out groups, with large groups being more moderate than the smaller, liberal ones,
and thus, lasting longer.
3. There have been many feminist movements (1830s, 1890s, 1920s, 1960s) that have
brought forth organizations like the League of Women Voters.
i. Feminist orgs. that rely chiefly on solidary incentives recruit middle-class
women with relatively high levels of schooling and tend to support those causes
that command the widest support among women generally (i.e. the League of
Women Voters & the Federation of Business and Professional Women, which
 supported the Equal Rights Amendment, but not intensely).
ii. Some women orgs. attract people through purposive incentives (i.e.
National Organization for Women and the National Abortion Rights Action
League, which take strong positions, tackle decisive issues, and employ intense
tactics to please their members.
iii. The third type of women org. takes on specific issues that have some
material benefit to women (i.e. the Women’s Equity Action League).
4. Labor Unions often struggle to stay alive because their social movements have often run
out of steam.
i. The peak of labor union membership was in the 1930s, during the Great
Depression, but since then, membership has steadily fallen, and many today only
exist because they rely on anything but purposive incentives.
ii. Unions made up of government workers are growing in importance and
size, as have groups affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
V. Funds for Interest Groups
1. Membership groups have more trouble raising money and are more crowded and small
than institutional lobbies made up of wealthy companies or corporations.
2. A huge amount of lobbying groups receive money from foundation grants, which are
donations that come from foundations like the Ford Foundation or the Rockefeller
Family Fund.
3. Government can sometimes give money that can indirectly support a group for doing a
certain action(s).
4. The modern interest group can use direct-mail to solicit funds and donations from
individuals.
i. An example of a group that thrives on direct-mail is the Common Cause,
a liberal org. founded in 1970 by John Gardner, who sent letters to thousands of
people to join and donate.
ii. Using mail to get money costs money, so to get more money than it
spends, a group usually uses techniques such as: putting a “teaser” on the
envelope so it isn’t thrown away unread; arousing emotions, usually be talking
about a threat caused by “some devil;” having the endorsement of a famous
name; or personalizing the letter by having the computer insert the recipient’s
name so that he/she will think the letter’s personally written to him/her.
VI. The Problem of Bias
1. Some people think interest groups benefit the wealthy more because rich people are
more likely to join them than poor people and interest groups representing businesses
and professions are much more common than those representing minorities, consumers,
and/or the disadvantaged.
i. Even though these facts are true, what actually gets done is also
important, because those represented may not always win, and those not
represented (minorities, etc…) may be unexpected recipients of rewards.
ii. Also, business-oriented groups are often divided themselves, and while
they may represent a rich company overall, it can also represent a poorer minority
working for that company.
2. It’s important to ask precisely what any “upper class bias” is so that one doesn’t just
make an errant generalization, but one shouldn’t ignore the overrepresentation of
business in Washington DC either.
VII. The Activities of Interest Groups
1. Size and wealth do not measure an interest group’s influence—what do are dramatic
newspaper headlines, protests, suits in federal court that block actions, or big letter-writing
campaigns.
2. The single most important tactic is to supply detailed and valid information, gathering it
and supplying it in the most influential and persuasive way possible.
i. Constant, habitual suppliers of information to the government can have
great advantages over newer or contrasting suppliers of information.
ii. Public officials also want political cues, which are signals telling the official
 what values are at stake in an issue: if many respected groups are on the same
side of an issue, an official will feel more securely about his/her own stance on
that issue.
iii. Ratings are ways in which cues are made known, and they are designed to
generate public support or opposition to various legislators.
iv. Ratings and cues can come instantaneously, now, due to the advent of fax
machines.
3. Lobbyists used to use an “insider strategy” where they’d meet personally with
Congressmen and exchange favors and information, but no, they use an “outsider
strategy” where they spread information out to the public quickly, using grass-roots
lobbying to get the members of the public to put pressure on the politicians.
i. Of course, sometimes, politicians simply listen to presented info and make
their own choices.
ii. Lobbyists also like to work with legislators who will NOT argue with them,
but they may make an effort to persuade an undecided legislator by starting polls
or getting citizens to write to that Congressman to get a change.
4. Some lobbying groups, especially those that use an ideological appeal to attract
supporters, will actually ATTACK the government in order to embarrass them and
therefore gain publicity (Ralph Nader) and get action.
i. Congressmen are skilled at seeing what kind of public pressure is forced
and what kind should be heeded, so attacking the government has varying effects
in terms of action produced.
5. Lately, though, special interest groups have developed close ties with grass-roots
organization, counting on their support at times (like when the FDA said saccharin could
cause cancer and the Calorie Control Council rallied people to reverse a ban on the
substance that was used by many soft drinks).
i. Usually, though, direct-mail is relied upon more, because the public
doesn’t seem to care that much about a subject.
6. A few decades ago, powerful interest groups used fat wallets to buy support and get
influence in Congress, but after 1973, that changed, and now, money is one of the least
effective ways that interest groups can get influence, because the 1973 campaign finance
reform law restricted the amount that any interest group could give to a candidate and
made it legal for PAC’s to give money to politicians.
i. With the enormous growth of political action committees (PAC’s) and the
ease in which one can be formed, it’s likely that there is money supporting every
side of almost all issues.
ii. Instead of PAC’s controlling Congress with money, sometimes,
Congressmen tell PAC’s when to give them money, so that they might consider a
certain action!
iii. Ideological PAC’s have risen faster than business or labor PACs and have
raised more money than the other two, but they’ve donated less money to the
other two as well.
7. There have been suggestions to lower the maximum PAC donation from $5000 to $2500,
but the truth is that most PAC donations are small, spreading large sums of money over
MANY candidates.
i. If PAC donations do make a difference it is only on some issues, not all,
and the only thing that money really buys is access to the Congressmen.
8. There are some fears that a “revolving door” of politicians taking lucrative jobs in the
private sector after they have helped interest groups will lead to the suffering of public
interest.
i. Michael K. Deaver was convicted of perjury, and Lyn Nofziger was
convicted of breaking the Ethics in Government Act by lobbying the White
House on behalf of special groups soon after he left it.
ii. Whether or not the “revolving door” really poses a problem is not really
known, because a member of the FDA may approve a drug to get a good position
at the company that makes that drug later, but a member of the Federal Trade
 Commission may want to prosecute businesses vigorously to prove that he can
win cases later on when he works as a lawyer.
9. Protests have been used since the beginning of America, and they have ranged from
peaceful sit-ins to violent rallies and riots and lynchings.
i. Since the 1960s, making trouble (protesting) has become an accepted way
of getting a point from interest groups across to the public and to politicians.
ii. Women used to chain themselves to lampposts or engage in “sit-ins” to
disrupt normal, orderly work and cause trouble in hopes that their opponents, tired
of such problems, would give in to their demands and do what they wanted.
iii. Government officials hate protests, because if they ignore the
demonstrators, they’re “insensitive” and “arrogant,” if they give in, they encourage
other such protests, and if they call in police to break them up, injuries and
lawsuits may abound.
VIII. Regulating Interest Groups
1. Lobbying cannot be made against the law, but in 1944, there was an ineffective law
passed that required lobbyists to register.
i. In late 1995, a tighter law was passed that broadened a lobbyists to
include people who spent at least 20% of their time lobbying, people who were
paid at least $5000 in any 6-month period to lobby, and corporations/other groups
that spent $20,000+ in 6 months to lobby.
ii. Twice a year, all lobbyists must report the names of their clients, their
income and expenditures, and the issues on which they worked.
iii. The law didn’t include “grass-roots” organizations, and the more seriously a
group lobbied, the more likely it would lose its tax-exempt status and find
operating itself very difficult.
a. Donations would not be as effective, then.
b. The NAACP lobbies, and pays taxes, but the NAACP Legal Defense and
Education Fund, which does NOT lobby, is exempt from paying taxes to
the IRS.
2. Beyond making bribery illegal and banning other forms of corrupt money transfer, there’s
probably no real way of controlling special interest groups.
Chapter 10 - The
Media
I. Journalism in American Political History
1. In America the media has much greater freedom than in other countries, such as France
and Great Britain, because in the U.S., media companies are privately controlled, and
they only need licenses from the government—nothing else.
i. In England, politicians can sue those who make fun of them, while in
France, broadcasting is governed by a national agency that can control what and
what not to show the public.
2. The media can provide exposure for a political candidate, but it can also ruin a politician’s
career by showing negative views of him or her.
3. Basically, there are four general periods in American journalistic history, each with its own
major change during the time:
i. In the early years of the Republic, newspapers were expensive to print and
usually read by the political elite, and the lack of transportation made each
paper’s circulation small; as a result, the earliest newspapers tended to be very
partisan and support political parties.
a. There was not necessarily objective news reporting.
b. Alexander Hamilton created the Gazette of the United States, while
Thomas Jefferson created the National Gazette, financing its editor with
federal funds.
ii. Advances in technology and transportation made newspapers cheaper to
buy and more widely available, and the invention of the telegraph meant that
news could be flashed almost instantaneously from cities across the country!
 a. The partisanship became one that was based on the editors’ points of
view, not on the influences of the political parties, and many journalists
resorted to sensationalism, or the filling of stories with violence, romance,
patriotism, and exposés, to popularize their papers.
b. As a result, the real stories were often embellished to make readers
interested, and many stories were just flat out made up!
c. Strong-willed publishers like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph
Pulitzer became powerful political forces, using their influence to shape
political actions (i.e. Spanish-American War) and enrich themselves.
iii. The middle class was soon repelled by this “yellow journalism,” and many
opinion magazines, like the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, McClure’s, Scribner’s,
and Cosmopolitan sprang up, bemoaning the issues of corruption during the
times and constantly adding muckrakers, or people who looked to expose the dirt
and evil in society (monopolies, corrupt government, et al).
a. Some people didn’t like the muckrakers, calling them troublemakers.
iv. In the 1920s and 40s, the invention of the radio and television greatly
enhanced political strategy, since candidates could buy [expensive back then in
the early days] radio or television time to expose their ideas to the public.
a. However, people could simply tune to another station or channel.
b. Eventually, CBS, NBC, and ABC came to dominate the news market,
covering all the events with their massive influence, but recently, due to
the Internet and other forms of media, their power has declined.
c. The sound bite, of a video clip of a presidential contender speaking, has
dropped from 42 seconds in 1968 to less than 10 seconds in 1988, which
means that candidates have had a harder time recently to get their
messages across television.
4. Many candidates prefer call-in, town meeting formats when they are on TV as opposed to
confrontational, disputative debates, but when they are prepared on what to say, it doesn’t
necessarily help the public decide who is the best one, since no one can be sure how the
candidate really feels.
i. Most politicians nevertheless crave the spotlight, and they constantly try to
get “visuals,” or filmed stories, about themselves on television—simply to get
more exposure and more fame.
5. It used to be that the media covered small groups of people, and that the readers of the
newspapers were highly partisan, but as media has become less concentrated, the public
has become freer to form groups according to what they believe, not to what others tell
them to believe, and with electronic journalism in the form of the Internet and cable news
networks, a new era of journalism has begun.
II. The Structure of the Media
1. The relationship between media and politics is a two-way street: while politicians can try
to use media for their own gain, the media can use politicians for humorous or informative
purposes.
i. The media does not simply deliver the truth; there is a process of editing
and choosing behind the scenes, dictating what really is shown and what is not.
2. The number of newspaper companies has not declined, but the number of cities with
competing paper companies HAS; only 4% of America’s cities have competing
newspapers.
i. However, many smaller cities have access to different papers due to
readership overlaps.
3. Television and radio, on the other hand, are highly competitive, for although there are
only five major networks, there are over 1000 TV stations, and each one has its own news
programs.
i. There are a multitude of cable TV channels and a plethora of radio
stations.
ii. Astonishingly to foreigners, the American press—radio, television, and
newspapers—is independently operated by local enterprises, not national ones.
 4. However, the American newspaper is more locally geared (more local stories than
national ones) then European papers.
i. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibits people from
operating more than one newspaper, AM radio station, FM station, or TV station in
a given market, and companies cannot own more than 12 TV stations and 12 AM
and 12 FM stations in the country.
ii. Networks cannot make a local affiliate accept any particular broadcast (it’s
all voluntary).
iii. The recent 1996 Telecommunications Act gives broadcasters greater
freedom to enter new businesses and purchase more TV and radio stations; its
effects are unknown as of now.
5. Certain publications and broadcast services have offset local orientation: the Associated
Press and United Press International supply most of the news reported in local papers;
the Cable News Network shows news 24/7; certain magazines like Newsweek, Time, and
U.S. News & World Report have national influences; network evening news broadcasts
from ABC, NBC, and CBS are usually shown by local affiliates; and the New York Times
and Washington Post have acquired national influence because they’re read by
practically every important person in Washington, thus joining the three truly national
papers—the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today—in
popularity and scope.
i. The existence of a national press is important because politicians pay
attention to the opinions of a writer in a national paper; also, reporters for national
papers tend to come from more prestigious colleges, be more liberal, be better
paid, and seek the chance to write stores that are not accounts of a certain news
event but rather investigate about issues and policies.
6. The national press can play the role of the gatekeeper by deciding what topics and
stories get attention and what topics do not (i.e. auto safety, H 2O pollution, quality of
prescription drugs weren’t big issues till the press covered them).
7. It can also be the scorekeeper by keeping track of and helping to make national
reputations.
i. This is where the exposure that politicians so dearly desire comes from.
ii. As a result, though, the news often covers presidential elections as if they
were horse races rather than choices among policies (i.e. the attention lavished
on the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, the “discovery” of Gary Hart in 1984
and George McGovern in 1972 after they finished second in primary races).
8. The press can be the watchdog, exposing scandals and corruption when and where
needed (i.e. the press discovering Gary Hart’s infidelity to his wife).
9. Newspaper folks have more freedom and less pressure than TV folks, but they make less
money.
III. Rules Governing the Media
1. Interestingly, the newspapers, which have the least competition, are the most loosely
governed, while radio and TV, which are the most competitive, must have government
licenses and follow a lot of government rules.
2. The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has given the press virtually complete
freedom, with the only restrictions being very narrowly defined.
i. After publishing something, a paper CAN be sued if it is libelous or
obscene or if it incites someone to commit an illegal act, but to collect damages, it
must be proven that the printed material was false AND was printed with intended,
malicious intent.
ii. It’s illegal to use printed words to advocate the violent overthrow of the
government if one invites others to join, but that rule has been applied to
newspapers rarely.
3. Reporters believe that they should have the right to hold the confidentiality of their
sources, but in many cases, reporters were jailed for not revealing their sources because
the case required the identity of such sources as evidence so that the trial would be fair
and just.
 4. TV stations must renew their licenses ever five years while radio stations do so every
seven years, and until recently, the FCC required all broadcasters to meticulously detail
information about their programming and how their planned to serve “community needs,”
thus receiving valuable information that could be manipulated so that the FCC would
influence what was put on the air.
5. Radio and TV stations are still regulated by a few rules that are still stringently enforced:
i. The Equal Time Rule states that if a station sells time to one candidate, it
must be willing to sell equal time to all other candidates.
ii. The Right-of-Reply Rule states that if a person is attacked on a broadcast
program (not regular news), he can reply on that same program.
iii. The Political Editorializing Rule states that if a broadcaster endorses a
candidate, the opposing candidate(s) has/have the right to reply.
iv. For many years, there WAS the fairness doctrine, in which broadcasters
had to discuss both sides of a controversial issue, but in 1987, the FCC abolished
that rule because if felt that it inhibited the free discussion of issues; many
broadcasters still follow it voluntarily.
6. At one time, the equal time rule meant that TV and radio could not broadcast a
presidential debate between Democrats and Republicans without inviting ALL the other
groups as well, so they simply it a “news event” and had the League of Women Voters
sponsor it, but today, there’s no problem.
7. A market is an area easily reached by a television signal, and about 200 of these exist in
the U.S., but some are larger than others, and some are cheaper (# of people reached per
dollar spent) than others, so some politicians use TV more than others (senators more
than house reps).
IV. The Effects of the Media on Politics
1. The media does have SOME effect on the public as to what is important and who is the
best candidate.
i. The effect is not that great, since TV and radio also suffer from selective
attention, where the viewer or listener sees and hears what he/she wants to see
and hear.
ii. Nevertheless, politicians spend millions on advertising because they know
that people will somewhat rely on the ads to made a decision that will stick for
two, four, or even six years.
2. Local newspapers have generally picked Republican candidates over Democrats, even
though Democrats have won eight of the 14 elections between 1932 and 1984, but this
has actually affected people to vote a certain way! It’s not all useless!!!
3. Media doesn’t affect major elections that much, usually minor ones, but it can help
unknown’s get their name out (say, at a major event covered by the press) and suddenly
gain major political power.
i. The media also sets agendas on issues that have little effect on people,
but on issues that have great on people, the media has very little effect (this
varies from person to person).
4. Viewers of different types of media have different opinions too (i.e. newspaper readers
thought Jimmy Carter was more liberal and Gerald Ford was more conservative than did
television viewers).
i. TV can also affect the popularity of presidents through its commentary on
them.
V. Government and the News
1. Government agencies all try to shape public opinion, and they have to, because if they
don’t sooner or later, they’ll find themselves weak, without allies and in trouble.
2. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to use the press to his advantage, giving
inside stories to his friends in the press, keeping them away from those he didn’t like, and
including a reporters’ room in the West Wing of the White House.
i. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made his press secretary a major instrument
for cultivating and managing, as well as informing, the press.
3. The White House press corps is a group of men and women who are closest to the
 president, always there whenever anything newsworthy occurs.
4. Congress has watched with jealousy at all the attention lavished on the president but has
been unsure how to act; it was only in 1974 that significant press coverage of Congress
began.
i. Since 1979, C-SPAN has provided coverage of House events, but the
Senate has used TV much more fully, allowing many events to be broadcast for
live TV or for videos, and as a result, many senators have used this TV coverage
to propel themselves to the presidency.
VI. Interpreting Political News
1. New stories are apt to be accepted by the public without question, and Americans tell
pollsters that they thing that TV is more reliable than newspapers, but lately, many people
have felt that the media tends to cover one side of stories more than it is fair—the exact
opposite of what the media thinks of itself.
i. The question is whether or not the media is totally accurate or not, and in
studies, the media seems to be a lot more liberal on many controversial issues.
2. There are three types of stories, and these types of news can have different types of
influences from the media, simply because of their characteristics and importance:
i. Routine stories are easily described by acts or statements and are not
really significant.
ii. Feature stories are not routinely covered by reporters and reporters must
take the initiative write about them and persuade their editors to print them.
iii. Insider stories involve information that is not usually made public but has
been suddenly “leaked,” thus indicating that someone on the inside has helped
the reporter.
3. Routine stories can actually be misinterpreted if the facts are not totally reported, as was
the case of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam.
4. Since feature and insider stories must be chosen, they can be greatly affected by political
bias.
i. Some selected stories will be common, though, since sometimes, the
press wants to focus on the same story because it is a great newsmaker.
5. If a nonroutine story is major news, the media will all cover it, but with slightly varying
degrees and views…each group putting a different version and opinion to the story.
i. Every reader or viewer should keep in mind: what beliefs or opinions led
the editors to run a certain story, how representative of expert and popular opinion
are the views of the people quoted in the story, and what adjectives are being
used to color the story?
6. Insider stories are the trickiest, because there involves a motive for the insider to “leak” a
story, and many times, reporters will not reveal the insider.
7. There are so many news leaks because each branch of government has different power,
and those different branches compete for power by leaking news so that one can seem
more powerful than another.
i. In other countries, where the power is centralized, there is less competition
and less leaks (plus, there are laws preventing this more than in the U.S.).
ii. However, ever since the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the
Iran-contra affair, the press has been less willing to simply accept leaks at face
value and more likely to see if the stories are actually true—thus becoming an
adversarial press.
8. Now, as the press is really distrustful of politicians, it is more likely to seize any little error
made by a politician and maybe blow it into epic proportions, covering all goofs and mess-
ups.
i. After Bill Clinton became president, the press started to uncover his
sexual escapades, the Whitewater deals, and Hillary Clinton’s profits in
commodities trading, and turned on him.
ii. People’s confidence in big business (which includes the media) and the
government has eroded, and as a result, people are not trusting the news as
willingly as before.
9. With this adversarial media likely to stay for a long time, many candidates have turned to
attacking their opponents on a personal level because such tactics work: they DO help
them win; but such tactics do come with a price: reduced voter turnout.
10. Reporters must balance between not expressing their personal views too much in stories
(or risk losing their sources) and keeping a source (and risk becoming its mouthpiece), but
luckily for them, Congress has become a goldmine for sources, because there are so
many (thousands) of potential sources.
i. Press officers sometimes try to win journalistic friends by releasing
background stories, or stories that proportionately and anonymously explain a
current policy.
11. The ultimate weapon of the government’s effort to shape the press is the president: he
can favor friendly reporters and tongue-lash unfavorable ones.
i. The press and the president do not trust one another, but they need one
another, and resulting relationship is almost always rocky but necessary.