Editor’s note: This op-ed by Kevin Ellis first appeared on The KSE Blog. Ellis is a lobbyist with Kimbell Sherman Ellis.
The media coverage of the Vermont gubernatorial campaign is driving me nuts. There is plenty of coverage, mostly on blogs. But I can’t seem to get a fix on the race and am totally frustrated by the coverage. Chalk it up to an aging ex-print journalist (The Tennessean, Burlington Free Press), but I think the press is missing the campaign. That is terrible for everyone, because this campaign is a dousy.
Examples: Republican Brian Dubie calls Democrat Peter Shumlin unethical. Shumlin says the biggest misconception about him is that he is “slick.” Where is the story about this alleged quality in Shumlin. Political insiders talk about it all the time via email and on the street. Yet the media can’t seem to write that story. One journalist told me that they have written it and that people won’t talk on the record about it. I don’t buy that. Oh – and I heard the other day that Shumlin’s wife Deb is out on the campaign trail. That is a story. Shumlin told us months ago the two are separated – and now she is campaigning for him. Deb Shumlin is a talented dynamo of a person, a huge asset to a campaign. Is that not a story – that the estranged wife of an allegedly “slick” candidate has put aside personal issues to work for him because she believes him to be such a good candidate.
Example 2: Brian Dubie refers to “housewives” balancing budgets, calls the China-born Harvard Medical School professor hired to redesign our health care system a “doctor from Taiwan.” And he says abortion is not an issue in this campaign. Free Editorial Page Editor Aki Soga comes inches from saying that Dubie made a racist statement. Yet we get no follow-up in newspapers. In my day, we would have run over to Shumlin’s campaign and asked him about the statement. Doesn’t this reflect something about Brian Dubie – that he is a from a military culture dominated by males that still talk about housewives, doesn’t really care about abortion and plays fast and loose with people’s ethnicity (Taiwan vs. China).
The answer to both of these examples is “I don’t know.” That’s why we should get to read about it in a newspaper!!! By the way, given Dubie’s “housewives” comment, has anyone asked him how many women he has advising him at a senior level?
I know Dubie and Shumlin. They are both excellent people. But this is a campaign for governor. Mark Johnson over at WDEV wants them to take a clean campaign pledge and not attack each other. WHY? A journalistic friend of mine told me this week that she doesn’t want to cover the “circus.” WHY?! It is a circus! It is a great circus. These are two smart guys who talk a lot. This race is a reporter’s dream. Yet the media is acting like they don’t want to offend anybody.
Another journalist said to me this week that they didn’t think Dubie’s comments amounted to racism and therefore didn’t merit a story. That’s fine. But that discussion should be done in the newspaper. It is not the reporter’s job to be the arbiter of what is a story and what is not. Their job is simple – get the news in the paper or on the air. Let the people decide.
Another issue – I think the press is timid, afraid of being called biased by one side or the other. Get over yourselves. This is a great campaign between two talented politicians backed by passionate supporters at a critical time in Vermont history. There are a lot of talented journalists in Vermont and they look like they are holding back. I guess I sort of get that when it comes to the Associated Press. But we now have blogs and video, Facebook and Twitter. The media need to stop hiding behind that old canard of objectivity and cover this race. Any more objectivity out there and we won’t know who to vote for.
Please, the next time Dubie calls Shumlin unethical, it ought to be a front page headline.
I hope the media gets aggressive before it too late. This great campaign will be over all too soon.
