The Importance of Tone

Katia Bachko has a pretty interesting article on the presses reaction to the other nights press conference. I think her wrap-up is pretty solid and holds a good deal of truth.

In the end, the focus on tone demonstrates all over again how the press transforms politics into a blood sport with quantifiable winners and losers, which is disconnected from the significance of actual policy—roads built, hospitals staffed, schools renovated. The impulse to cover the horse race at the cost of the seriousness of governance persists. In this case, if Obama’s the professor, then the press is a bunch of unruly kids who won’t calm down after recess. The election is long behind us, get back to work.

While I think it is very true that the press attempts to turn everything in politics into a blood sport or a horse race, I think there is also something more to it. I think a number of people in the press avoid digging in on policy simply because they don't understand it. That isn't really a knock on them, some of this stuff is pretty complicated. Obama surrounds himself with a number of advisers who help him work through policy, people who tend to be experts in the field they are working in. These are people who often have dedicated much of their lives to education, health care, the financial markets, etc. The press surround themselves with people who have spent much of their lives dedicated to grabbing headlines and shaping stories. While they have their own version of experts to help breakdown stories, their contribution is a pretty small part of the story if they go to them at all. The big news heading into the presser the other day was that Geithner had just released his big plan to help nudge the financial market back on track. There wasn't a single question asked about it. I think a big reason why is because folks like Jake Tapper and Chuck Todd are not experts in the field of finance so they don't know what to ask or even how to ask it.

To put it in a more simple way, I do a lot of writing on fantasy football. During the season and sometimes even out of season, I spend hours each day researching stats, tendancies, injuries and trends. While the season is rolling, I can tell you the top defenses in the league defending against quarterbacks and who are the worst. I can tell you which No. 3 wide receiver is most likely to turn in a solid week, which is gold in fantasy football. I have a fair number of articles out there with my name attached to them and I feel as if I have a somewhat solid grasp of the industry. What I can't do is tell you how a credit default swap works. I struggle in explaining cost outlays of medicare. So when, and if, I ever write about them I have to dance around the edges. As a result, and for good reason, there are no articles out there with my name on them dealing with the financial markets and medicare reform. So why, when the first presser after the announcement of Geithner's plan isn't the New York Times sending Paul Krugman to ask some questions?