Elizabeth Edwards weighs in on press shortcomings

As the spotlight shifts to North Carolina, one of the state's leading political families has taken the opportunity to re-enter the campaign dialogue after dropping out of the race earlier this year. Last week, John Edwards made a hilarious stop on "The Colbert Report," and yesterday, his popular wife Elizabeth contributed an op-ed piece to the New York Times in which she critiques media coverage of the campaign.

Edwards repeats many of the now familiar refrains about the media's leaning on soundbites, drama, and trivial matters rather than providing in-depth reports about issues and policies; the article is entitled "Bowling 1, Health Care 0." She laments the "Cliff Notes of the news" and "strobe-light journalism" that deprive us of the full picture. Rather than complaining on her husband's behalf, she points to other worthy candidates whose campaigns were doomed from the start by media neglect, in particular Joe Biden. By contrast, she notes how much attention Fred Thompson received before even entering the race officially.

I think an especially intriguing passage is one where Edwards describes the convenient narrative template that the media has constructed for the campaign, making each candidate an archetypal character in a story: "on one side, a self-described 9/11 hero with a colorful personal life, a former senator who had played a president in the movies, a genuine war hero with a stunning wife and an intriguing temperament, and a handsome governor with a beautiful family and a high school sweetheart as his bride. And on the other side, a senator who had been first lady, a young African-American senator with an Ivy League diploma, a Hispanic governor with a self-deprecating sense of humor and even a former senator from the South standing loyally beside his ill wife." While those easy characterizations are true, they are not enough; Edwards argues that "issues that could make a difference in the lives of Americans didn’t fit into the narrative template and, therefore, took a back seat to these superficialities. "

Edwards concludes that the media must change, and it will not do so on its own accord: "If voters want a vibrant, vigorous press, apparently we will have to demand it." It is a worthy call to remind people that we may get the news we deserve, so we must raise our expectations rather than being complicit in the rampant mediocrity of reporting today. I think her piece offers an eloquent summary of a grievance many have been seeking to articulate over the course of the campaign. It helps for respected figures like Elizabeth Edwards to put public pressure on the media to do better. If we consider the primary season as a first semester, the media's report card is the kind you might want to intercept at the mailbox; in the coming months, the media should aim for general election grades worthy of the fridge door.