Cain Coverage Fair

A new Pew survey finds more people think think coverage of Herman Cain has been fair as opposed to too tough or too easy.  The tables give a nice example of people believing what they want to believe, with Dems more likely to buy into the Cain sexual harassment story and GOPers less likely to do so.

Are journalists and others obsessed with this story?  Sure.  It's easy news.  It's got sex.  It's got a guy high in the polls for a major party nomination.  It's got sex.  And did I mention sex?  I should. 

And here's a telling line from the report:  "Among those critical of the press coverage, more say it has been too tough (24%) than too easy (14%) on Cain.”

Herman Cain Part 2

Despite living in Georgia and despite having eaten quite a few times in a Godfather's Pizza place, I don't know much of anything about Herman Cain other than his announcement recently to seek the GOP presidential nomination (lovingly covered by the press with no complaints by him) and his recent gaffe about the Middle East (less-than-lovingly covered, so therefore in his opinion biased). 

But since I write about what people know and how they learn from the media, and also about political knowledge, this brief piece caught my eye today.  In it, Cain says: "Knowing how Washington works isn’t necessarily an advantage."

Er, yeah, kinda it is -- if you're running for office in which you'd have to work in Washington, deal with people immersed in Washington, and basically run the nation from, yes, Washington.

I have no feelings one way or the other about Cain.  Let's face it, he's a non-starter as a likely GOP nominee.  But it's nice of him to provide blog fodder in the last couple of days as Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann have been strangely unable to say anything really dumb or demonstrate a lack of political knowledge, thus fitting into this blog's theme.

I'll get back to writing about research on media and knowledge very soon, once the easy stuff (Cain) is over.

Do Gaffes Matter?

The political chattering class loves it when a politician stumbles.  The most recent example is Herman Cain's gaffe, if you want to call it that, about a Palestinian right-to-return.  Sure, Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin get all the attention for saying dunderheaded things, and Vice President Joe Biden has turned the verbal gaffe into an art form, but Cain had loving attention all this weekend when he announced his unlikely bid for the GOP nomination. 

Are people paying attention?  Nope.  Do most Americans care deeply about the Israeli-Palestinian difficulties?  Hardly.  Will Cain's gaffe matter?  Not at all.  So in terms of what people know, the "gaffe" might as well be invisible.  I suspect the more the press hits him on this, the more support Cain will get from hardcore Republican voters who tend to participate in primaries.  In other words, piling on by the pundits will win the guy sympathy.