Why the vast majority of political reporting is useful to only the smallest political audience

By Gary Abernathy

Today’s reporters are more interested in being part of the Insiders’ Club than informing readers about the issues

Much of the reporting on government and politics these days is useful mostly to a small handful of people, specifically the senior staff of high-level officeholders, or the campaign teams running the biggest races.

One of the worst things that has happened to political reporting is the journalists’ desire to demonstrate their grasp of tactics and strategies, which they find exciting, as opposed to reporting what officeholders and candidates say and do, which they find boring and beneath them.

But voters deserve to know more about how a politician’s beliefs or actions will impact them directly, rather than learning all the behind-the-scenes intrigues of campaigns or legislative processes.

It was once understood that the job of reporters on a daily government or campaign beat was to relay what was being said or done. But today, more ink, bandwidth and air time are devoted to regaling readers with the reporters’ supposed expertise involving motives, strategies and polls than the important things that politicians or candidates are saying or promising to do – despite the fact that the latter has more impact on the general public than the former.

What politicians promise to do – or are in the process of doing – is much more impactful to the average person than whether such actions are polling well, or to whom they are designed to specifically appeal, or what under-the-radar circumstance might be serving as motivation for any given politician or party.

But for today’s breed of journalist, basic reporting is considered boring and bland – not the stuff to earn plaudits from their peers after-hours at the local watering hole, or coveted citations at awards time. “Best Daily Coverage of the White House Press Briefing” is not a Pulitzer category.

The news media’s obsession with polling is particularly unhealthy. How does a president’s approval rating have any impact on the average American? The president’s approval rating is primarily of importance not to the general public but to the president and his immediate staff, who might – or might not (in Donald Trump’s case) – be interested in how a president’s actions and decisions are playing with constituents. Voters generally align with candidates based on shared politics and unity on issues, not on polls.

The same is true during high-profile election races, from key statewide offices like governor to congressional and presidential campaigns. Polls are almost completely meaningless for the public’s sake, and yet stories about polling and how candidates are attempting to make up ground, sustain their lead, spend their money or adjust their messaging dominate political coverage.

Only candidates and campaigns need to worry about polling and tactics. Voters need to know what candidates stand for, reported honestly and without being tainted by the prejudice of how any particular reporter or news organization might feel about it. Does reporting on polling change how people might vote? Sadly, it might – which is a type of election influencing in which the news media should not be engaged.

The reason we are inundated by such stories is because it makes journalists feel like part of the club. “Hey we’re in the same universe as campaign managers! We’re part of the gang! We’re insiders!”

After a race is over and winners and losers are known, I enjoy reading about the inner workings of campaigns as much as anyone. I just finished “2024” by reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf. It was interesting and insightful.

Most such books owe a debt to a series written by Theodore H. White after every presidential campaign from 1960 through 1972 called, “The Making of the President” (followed by the year, i.e., “The Making of the President 1960,” and so on). The first book won the Pulitzer Prize.

The downside of White’s approach was that other political reporters suddenly wanted to adopt his style, even in their daily reporting. In a 2015 article for Politico Magazine, writer Scott Porch noted that White focused on “the inside-campaign dynamics: the strategy meetings, the internal polling, the publicity and marketing efforts,” as well as personal details about the candidates and their habits, written in the style of a novel.

While his books were fascinating, the downside was that almost all other reporters began to mimic his approach in real time – often under orders from their editors.

As Porch noted, “After The Making of the President 1960, news editors would routinely warn their reporters not to get beaten by White in a book appearing months after the election was over. It was the book that, to a large extent, created the drive for the ‘scooplet,’ the attention to the small scene details that has transformed workaday trail reporting into dramatic narrative writing.”

The result of such a focus is that stories are exercises in shop talk, perhaps interesting to the most politically nerdy readers, but actually useful only to a handful of insiders. Yes, there are occasional policy examinations to be found, but they pale in volume to daily stories telling voters who’s up or down, what adjustments they need to make, which demographic is responding or falling away – things on which average voters have no impact.

And, of course, every reporter whose beat was a presidential campaign comes out with their own post-election book revealing the “inside story.”

As Porch relates, White lamented inspiring the new style of political reporting. He later recalled watching in horror as reporters became overly intrusive into the smallest acts of their subjects, “which I think I invented as a method of reporting and which I now sincerely regret,” White told writer Timothy Crouse. “If you write about this, say that I sincerely regret it. Who gives a f--- if the guy had milk and Total for breakfast?”

Journalism has been called the first draft of history. When it comes to modern political reporting, journalism is now the first draft of a soon-to-be-published nonfiction novel – and you can pre-order it today.