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One nice thing about blogs is you can say the same thing over and over again without any editors getting pissed at you. When you're coming up with story ideas, "what's new" is always the first question you're asked. But on a blog, by making the same arguments in response to different news pegs and events, you're actually much more effective at conveying your points. Few writers are so persuasive, and few arguments so instantly convincing, that one bite at the apple will transform the thinking of your audience. This is something presidential candidates and their communications teams know perfectly well. As Trudy Lieberman writes, however, it's not something newspaper reporters are equipped to deal with:
I asked Hoyt, who for many years was an editor for Knight-Ridder, whether journalists should set the record straight when candidates omit the real story. “There should be more of that,” he said and offered a reason why it’s often not done. “A newspaper will report something once, and think they’ve already done that. But new people are coming to you all the time. Some things you need to keep repeating.”Presidential candidates know that repetition works, and that’s why we hear the same words and themes in speech after speech—McCain and his best-in-the-world health care; Clinton and her use of “universal coverage”; Obama saying he never takes money from lobbyists. They know that if voters hear the same message often enough, they will believe it, even if it is less than true.Journalists must also repeat, therefore. We must add history, context, and analysis, and when something is flat-out wrong, we should say so. The topic of American health care quality is a good place to start. And to repeat.Right. If you ask a newspaper reporter why they don't say X (where "X" disproves some politicallie or falsehood), they'll point you to an article saying X from two months ago. But that article has been forgotten. The question is why they don't remind voters of X every time candidates say not-X. Testing politician's statements against objective reality should not be an occasional feature. It should be the very point and purpose of campaign reportage, the reason those articles are on page A1 day after day after day.
