Scribes admire scribes

A week or so ago, I posted We don't respect what we're doing. Why should anyone else?, commenting on an article by James Fallows from 1996, Why Americans Hate the Media. The substance of his argument was that the media had an ever worsening inclination to write about the partisan political process - who was up, who down, what were the tactics of winning, etc. - rather than focusing on the actual policies. Americans want to know what problems are going to be solved and how politicians were proposing to solve them while the media was much more focused on who was winning and who was losing.

Just now, I posted Actually, it is the ability to give scope to the untalented that is most vital in maintaining social stability discussing Hoffer's hypothesis in The Ordeal of Change by Eric Hoffer, published in 1963. Hoffer argues that we are producing a surfeit of credentialed scribes who seek government positions as a substitute for actually achieving anything.

Tying these together is this report: Media focuses on Trump's leadership, character more than policy by Joe Concha.

A Pew Research media study released Monday showed that nearly three-quarters of all stories on President Trump focused on his leadership and character instead of policy agenda.

The survey also found that "stories were four times as likely to carry an overall negative assessment of the Trump administration’s words or actions as a positive assessment."

The study, which looked at media coverage of the president and his administration over the first 100 days in office, also showed that five storylines dominated coverage about Trump and the administration, including the president’s political skills (17 percent), immigration (14 percent), appointments and nominations (13 percent), U.S.-Russia relations (13 percent) and health care (9 percent).

According to Pew, "none of the remaining 39 topics accounted for more than 4 percent of the stories."

"Coverage was much more likely to be framed around Trump and the administration’s leadership and character than around policy," Pew wrote when breaking down focus on the president's leadership and character versus core ideology and policy agenda.

"Overall, the news media structured nearly three-quarters of stories (74 percent) around President Trump’s leadership and character and about a quarter (26 percent) on his policy agenda," it reads.

So that comports with Fallows's hypothesis - the media focuses on the social dynamics and not on the policy. Voters want policy information and journalists want to be middle school girls.

But the Pew study got me to thinking. I have lived long enough to have memories of news reporting on Nixon onwards. You expect the media, being overwhelmingly Democrat, to be critical of Republican presidents, but with Hoffer in mind, I wonder if there is another pattern in play as well.

My recollection of the media coverage of the presidents is Nixon (-), Ford (-), Carter (-), Reagan (-), Bush I (-), Clinton (+), Bush II (-), Obama (++), Trump (--). Now let's look at their life achievements prior to becoming president:

Nixon - Practicing attorney and partner in a law firm; Active duty officer in the South Pacific in WWII; Two-term Representative from California; One term as Senator from California; Two-terms as Vice President of US.

Ford - University football star; Yale Law school graduate; Active duty officer in the South Pacific in WWII in multiple combat zones; Twelve-term Representative from Michigan, including four terms as House Minority Leader; Vice President of the USA.

Carter - Naval Academy graduate; Seven-year naval career as an officer including pioneering in the nuclear submarine service; Commercial farmer; Two-term Georgia State Senator; One term Governor of Georgia.

Reagan - Professional Radio announcer; Active duty officer in Army; Eight-term union leader of the Screen Actors Guild; 17-year career as movie actor and television star; Two-term governor of California.

Bush I - Youngest naval aviator at the time of his commission; Active duty officer and bomber pilot in the South Pacific in WWII in multiple combat zones; Yale University graduate; Eighteen year career as a business executive including founding two oil-companies; Two terms as a Representative from Texas; UN Ambassador; Chairman of the Republican National Committee; Ambassador to the People's Republic of China and opening of bilateral relations; Director of the CIA; Two-term Vice President.

Clinton - Georgetown University, Rhodes Scholar, JD Yale University; Law professor; Attorney General of Arkansas; Two-term Governor of Arkansas.

Bush II - Yale University undergraduate, Harvard MBA; Six years as a fighter pilot in the National Guard and Air Force Reserve; 11 years as a business executive including founding an oil company and acquiring the Texas Rangers baseball franchise; Two-term Governor of Texas.

Obama - Columbia University, Harvard JD; author; Four-term Illinois State Senator; One-term as Senator from Illinois.

Trump - University of Pennsylvania undergraduate; 45-year career as billionaire business executive founding multiple companies in multiple fields including real estate property development, airline industry, education, casinos, golf courses, branding, hotels, sports franchises, Miss Universe franchise, executive producer and star of fifteen season reality show, etc.; author.

Looking at this, the only two presidents for whom there was routine positive media coverage, praise, and support (at the time they were candidates) were Obama and Clinton, the two with the narrowest and shallowest experience, both being essentially and solely academics with some local political background, neither of them with either command experience or executive experience. Unlike all the others, the two most admired by the media were, in Hoffer's terminology, scribes. Scribes who admired scribes.