Leading up to the midterms. Many news outlets projected major gains
for Republicans driven in part by polls that showed the economy as
voters top concern. But Democrats so far have defied predictions.
As votes continue to be counted. Control of Congress still hangs
in the balance, but at a closer than expected margin. So what did
the media get right and wrong in the 2022 midterm coverage? And what
are some best practices moving forward for that? I spoke with Margaret
Sullivan, a former media
A columnist for The Washington Post and author of the book newsroom
Confidential.
So if we do a media postmortem on the midterms, there was this focus
on this red wave that did not materialize. Part of that, I think
had to do with a misunderstanding of what polls can and can't do
and what they should and should not do. But how should journalists
think about the work that we do in an election year, capturing the
mood of the electorate through interviews and field reporting?
Analyzing quality polling data without leaving the audience with
false Presumptions. Pretty sure we should stop doing is trying to
predict the future because we're so bad at it, and the polls, particularly
individual polls, are often wrong or skewed. So I think that the
field reporting is more important. And I think more than anything
getting across to our audiences and to citizens. Um what the stakes
of the elections are.
Is the most important thing to focus on the issues More and the horse
race less on the other hand, despite the best efforts by some on
the right to sow distrust about the midterm elections, the integrity
of the midterm elections, But we saw was an election that was peaceful.
There was high turnout, and there were very few problems. A lot of
that has to do with the fact that the mainstream press has gotten
better about calling out election lies and conspiracy theories when
they pop up.
No question, And I think one of the things that members of the news
media did do well. This time around, is to prepare news consumers
for the idea that there may not be a decision on election night,
and that doesn't mean that the election was rigged. It just means
it takes time. And so that message is getting through. But I do think
it could be done with a little more. Let's talk more about that because
there were hundreds of election deniers who were elected. We expect
the former President Donald Trump to announce a reelection.
Shin bid this coming week.
How should we think about covering people who say and do things that
are objectively antidemocratic? We have to keep telling people what
these newly elected officials stand for and that they are election
deniers. We need to tell people that they are lying about elections
and whether they're talking about that issue right now, This is who
they are, So we need to be very clear with people about not allowing
that lie.
And it is a lie to be magnified and to be spread, but to counter
it all the time, and that's hard to do. It gives the sense that we're
on somebody's side, and that's not really what's going on here. We're
on the side of truth.
Do the old school journalism tenants still apply these days. Do you
think
I think they apply when they're about approaching a story with the
public's interest at heart and with impartiality and with fairness
and accuracy. I don't think they stand up very well. If we take everything
down the middle and equate things that aren't true with things that
are true or equate anti Democratic candidates with those who accept
democratic norms. It's that kind of false neutrality or false equivalence
that we need to get rid of is the mainstream press.
Yes, up to the job of covering 2024. I'm not prepared to say that
the press is not up to the job. I think that they should give a lot
of thought to what has to happen now, and that leadership has to
come from the top of news organizations, and it has to be very directed.
So I do see some positive signs. And I think we could do a lot better.
And I say we because I'm a member of the media to we could all do
a lot better.
Margaret Sullivan is a former media columnist for The Washington
Post. And she's author of The New book Newsroom Confidential. Thanks