Presidential candidates positive in TV talk show statements
Attacks focused on either President Bush or Howard Dean

John Kerry, much like his fellow Democratic contenders, continues to use the television talk show as a powerful message device. These talk shows serve as an important means for the candidates to reach voters who may not take an interest in other campaign activities, such as debates. A new study by William Benoit, one of the nation’s foremost experts on presidential campaigns, found that today’s candidates, when appearing on talk shows, are positive in their overall statements, discuss policy and character on an even scale and primarily target their attacks on President George W. Bush.

Benoit, a professor of Communication, and doctoral student Kevin Stein, examined nine candidates in the study: John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, Richard Gephardt, Joe Lieberman and Carol Moseley-Braun. The four most recent interviews for each candidate, on 13 different talk shows, including Good Morning America, The O’Reilly Factor, Larry King Live and Hardball, were analyzed.

They found that 71 percent of the candidates’ statements were self-praising. The only exception was Sharpton, who attacked in 58 percent of his statements. Four years ago in the 2000 primary campaign, the Democrats (Bill Bradley and Al Gore) were positive in 81 percent of their talk show statements, Benoit said.

In terms of policy and character, Benoit found a slight emphasis on character versus policy, 53 percent to 47 percent. The exceptions to this pattern were Moseley-Braun, who discussed policy 86 percent of the time, and Kucinich, who stressed policy in 68 percent of his statements. In the 2000 primary, Democrats focused on character at nearly the same rate, 55 percent, compared with talking about policy in 45 percent of their statements, Benoit found.

President Bush continues to be the primary target of attack with candidates, who devoted 62 percent of their statements to him. When the candidates did, in fact, attack a fellow Democratic opponent, they most often attacked Dean, who received 74 percent of those attacks. In 2000, the Democrats directed 51 percent of their attacks to one another, 36 percent to Republicans and 13 percent to the establishment in general.

Other information about the 2004 presidential campaign, along with historic contextual information, can be found at Benoit’s Presidential Campaign 2004 Website: http://presidentialcampaign2004.coas.missouri.edu/.

Additional links:

Bill Benoit
Department of Communication
Presidential Campaign 2004

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