Local media's clout rises in battleground states (per Clinton)

[papau]

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20040824/a_localmedia24.art.htm

Local media's clout rises in battleground states (per Clinton)
Candidates realize impact of smaller-scale coverage
By Mark Memmott
USA TODAY

MEDFORD, Ore. — As they race around the country stumping for votes, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry hope for a minute or two's worth of coverage on the nightly network news shows and a headline the next day in major newspapers.

But more important to the candidates is an hour or two of mostly unfiltered time on stations such as KDRV, Medford's ABC affiliate, and front-page headlines in Medford's Mail Tribune, circulation 27,000.

Kerry got both those this month when he visited this southern Oregon city of 67,000. He and Bush have received similar treatment in hundreds of towns and cities across the nation this year.

The battle to win the 270 Electoral College votes needed to become president may turn on a few states or counties — as it did in 2000. That year, Bush ended up with 271 electoral votes to Al Gore's 266. Polls show a tight race this year in Oregon, where Gore narrowly won the state's seven electoral votes.

How much coverage the campaigns get in the local media in key states could determine who wins the White House in November, according to no less a political expert than former president Bill Clinton.

“How people view things from the local level is very important” to how they vote, Clinton said in an interview. A local newspaper's endorsement in a close state “like Oregon, for example, is going to have a lot more impact on voters there than those of The New York Times or Washington Post,” Clinton said.<snip>

[CarolynEC]

1. JK has done exceptionally well on local coverage...

... as far as I ca tell. While the national news outlets have been completely suck-o by and large, the local press has been terrific.

JK comes to town, totally wows a gigantic crowd, and it's the lead story all around. It's a real ray of hope among all the reek belching forth from Morder-- er, I mean, the cable news shows.