Spring 2000
NY Senate Race Triggers a Public TV Coalition
By Gary Walker
Vice President, News & Public Affairs
WXXI-TV, Rochester, NY
In Syracuse, people are worried about lagging behind the rest of the state. In Buffalo, border crossing is a growing concern. In New York City, citizens are bracing for a nasty and negative U.S. Senate race.
The Empire State is home to an incredible diversity of issues and concerns. Because public TV is, more often than not, the primary locally owned television station in each market, broadcasters at the nine New York state public televisions stations pride themselves on focusing on their own community.
Enter Election 2000.
“This election year the eyes of the nation will focus first on Washington, then the gaze will drift northward to New York State,” says Elissa Marra, WXXI’s director of news and public affairs. For the first time in history, a sitting First Lady is running for elected office and she’s paired against the nation’s most recognizable Mayor.
“Clearly, an unprecedented race calls for unprecedented coverage,” Marra says.
So, this spring the state’s nine public television stations have agreed to launch a first-time collaboration that will include such things as free air time for candidates, two hours of jointly produced prime-time election specials and a stand-alone election web site.
The goal is not only to highlight issues the candidates need to know about, but also to highlight the concerns of citizens across the state.
Beyond the Horse Race
The race between New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has already faced intense media scrutiny.
Early on, public affairs and news producers from the state’s public stations concluded that the media would focus on the Clinton/Giuliani “horse race.”
“We expect weekly polls on who’s ahead and the tactical war,” says Michael Carrese, director of public affairs at WMHT-TV in Albany. “Public TV needs to be a place were voters can come and get straight information and education on the issues, not who’s ahead this minute.”
That feeling is shared by many journalists in the New York State Public Broadcasting system. So there was ready agreement when Carrese asked if his counterparts would like to talk about covering Election 2000.
A public TV partnership to cover such a race may seem all too logical. After all, statewide public broadcasting networks are common. But this is New York and working together statewide is not part of the newsroom culture. From Wall Street to wine country, different regions of the state have separate and distinct problems and concerns.
Leon Thomas Lewek, public affairs producer for WNED in Buffalo, says it’s important for a Senate candidate to have a finger on the pulse of all New Yorkers. For example, most of the state would think of the growing bottleneck on the Peace Bridge between the U.S. and Canada as a security issue. “But in Buffalo, passage back and forth to Canada is an economic issue,” says Lewek. “It’s important for a Senate candidate to know that.”
Such regional concerns echo all over New York. In Syracuse, WCNY Station Manager Jack Neal says the number-one concern is the economy. “It’s more than our area not doing well compared to downstate,” says Neal. “It’s a concern that we are being left behind by every area of the state.”
Rochester residents are feeling the effects of some of the highest airfares in the country as well as high-energy costs. Binghamton citizens are still reeling from the loss of major industry and businesses.
In New York City, WNET Supervising Producer Andy Halper says citizens are interested in all the major national issues, from gun control to peace in the Middle East. “But what really concerns them is whether these two high-profile candidates will be able to address these issues clearly and directly. They worry, I think, about the campaign degenerating into a series of unenlightening character assassinations.”
Partnership Plans
The collaboration will include:
The two prime-time hours will be a first for New York. The specials will involve local production of regional issues and concerns combined into one statewide program.
The web site, NYelection.org, will host one of the two debates public television offered to U.S. Senate candidates. The Internet debate and Webcast will be a live video/audio/text forum with a statewide television component. This forum will feature citizen questions and polling.
The web site, which will be promoted on all nine stations, will also contain:
The stations are working now on a web tool that will enable voters to find out their voting status and polling place.