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Press Plays It (Mainly) Straight in First Reports on Bush-Kerry Debate

By E&P Staff

Published: October 01, 2004 12:00 AM EDT

NEW YORK When newspapers began to weigh in on the presidential debate late last night on the Web, they focused, as did the contest, on the split between the two candidates on the war in Iraq. USA Today, like many, highlighted Senator Kerry's charge that President Bush made "a colossal error in judgment" in going to war in Iraq, while Bush said Kerry had sent "mixed messages" that endangered America's security and hurt the morale of troops.

The headline on the top story at the The New York Times site by Richard W. Stevenson read: "Bush Sees a Safer America, While Kerry Sees a 'Colossal Error.'" The Washington Post story proved similar in describing the candidates' "different vision over how to protect the nation."

As many had urged, most of the early reports played it straight with little "spin." But USA Today did quickly reveal: "Early polls indicated Americans felt Kerry had won the debate. Fifty-three percent of Americans polled in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll said Kerry had won, compared to 37% for Bush. Kerry also was ahead in polls taken by CBS News and ABC News." Other newspaper sites also caught up with the polls in the wee hours.

And the Associated Press moved two analysis stories quickly. Calvin Woodward commented on the two candidates "stretching the record," noting that Bush exaggerated the decimation of al-Qaeda while Kerry seem to suggest only the rich got a tax cut recently. "Self-serving oversimplifications marked the first presidential debate," he wrote.

Another AP piece, by Terence Hunt, observed that "Bush appeared perturbed when Kerry leveled some of his charges, scowling at times and looking away in apparent disgust at others. Kerry often took notes when the president spoke."

Several other reporters also commented that no matter how you scored the debate on points, the cutaways to a candidate while the other spoke seemed to damage Bush the most, often finding him in a "grimace" or worse. His camp had tried to prevent TV outlets from doing this, to no avail.

In this vein, in her final real-time analysis at The New York Times site as the debate ended, reporter Katharine Q. Seelye wrote: "Bush was on the defensive at several turns. In the cutaways it was clear that Kerry had got under his skin. Kerry looked cool and collected and met his threshold test of being able to stand on the same stage as the commander-in-chief and not look diminished."

The biggest surprise of the early cable news spin was conservative MSNBC chat host Joe Scarborough saying that Kerry had clearly "won on points."

The thinking-ahead prize, however, goes to the Democratic National Committee, which ran a banner ad on the Washington Post's home page all night with the large words, "Debate Shows Kerry Strength, Bush Fails to Deliver Plan for Iraq."

E&P Staff

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