Primary Talk Show

Primary Campaign

TV Talk Shows

TV talk shows are an important means for candidates to reach voters who may not watch other campaign messages, such as debates. The study included nine candidates: Carol Moseley-Braun, Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Richard Gephardt, John Kerry, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Lieberman, and Al Sharpton. It examined the four most recent television interviews for each of the nine candidates. The dates of these appearances were typically in the last month, but older for Moseley-Braun and Kucinich who were less active on the television talk show circuit. Programs in the study were Good Morning America, The O’Reilly Factor, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, American Morning, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Larry King Live, Judy Woodruff’s Inside Politics, Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, The Big Story with John Gibson, Now with Paula Zahn, Hannity and Colmes, and Hardball.

Candidates most frequently are positive: 71% of the statements were self-praise (28% were attacks and 1% defended against attacks). The only exception was Al Sharpton, who attacked in 58% of his statements. Four years ago in the 2000 primary campaign, Democrats were positive in 81% of TV talk show statements. The 2004 are still mainly positive at over 70%, but they are attacking more today than Gore and Bradley did in the past. View percent of self-praise for all candidates.

These candidates discussed both policy (issues) and character, with a slight emphasis on policy (53% to 47% policy). Exceptions to this pattern were Moseley-Braun, who talked policy 86% of the time, and Kucinich, who stressed issues in 68% of statements. In the 2000 primary Democrats focused on character in 55% of statements, about the same level of emphasis. View percent of policy for all candidates .

Who is the target of attack when the candidates are critical? President Bush was the primary target of attack with candidates devoting 62% of their statements to him. When candidates did attack a fellow-Democratic opponent, they most often attacked Dean, who received 74% of all the attacks directed at other Democrats. In 2000, the Democrats directed 51% of attacks to one another; 36% to Republicans, and 13% to the establishment generally.

Attacks do not appear to vary widely from one medium to another. Democratic primary candidates in 2004 attacked in 28% of TV talk show statements, 22% of TV spot statements, and 37% in debate statements. So, all three message forms are mainly positive. A major difference in medium arises on topic. Other message forms stress policy (63% of TV spot statements; 75% of debate statements), but only 47% of TV talk show statements. It is not surprising that some of these venues, like Good Morning America, might tend to look at the candidates as individuals (character) rather than focus mostly on policy.

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