Financial Desperation Forces Newspapers Into Good Journalism
It can cost more than $30,000 per month to keep a reporter on the presidential campaign trail, so cash-strapped newspapers like USA Today, the Boston Globe and the Dallas Morning News are no longer on the road with the Clinton or Obama campaigns, at least not on a consistent basis. The changes have thinned out the chummy pack journalism depicted in Timothy Crouse's "Boys On The Bus," and that's probably for the best. Campaign trail stories can be told more cheaply using wire services, YouTube and cable news, while seasoned reporters can spend their time on stories they think are important rather than being held captive by agenda-setting campaign managers. The Morning News, for example, took a look at how hispanics in California and Texas were voting differently. The upshot is that the country is less likely to choose its next president on the basis of who people would rather have a beer with, as was the case with Bush. After the jump, Bush shows how charming he could be on the campaign bus in a very brief preview for Alexandra Pelosi's 2002 documentary, Journeys With George.