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Thomas Patterson, Out of Order: An Incisive and Boldly Original Critique of the News Media's Domination of America's Political Process (Vintage, 1994), 336 pages, $13.00 (paper), ISBN 0679755101. Out of Order is Thomas Patterson (Government, Harvard University) lament on the relationships between those who govern, those who report, and those who vote. His thesis is that the U.S. “cannot have a sensible [presidential] campaign as long as it is built around the news media” (14) because, by accident or design (and among other vices), media give scant attention to ‘real’ issues, and media coverage of candidates is so negative the candidates can do little or nothing to overcome such coverage. Patterson points to how media mislead voters, switch voter viewpoints with each new opinion dynamic poll, and promote media issues over voters’ issues. According to Patterson, the campaign system asks the media to facilitate and moderate the entire electoral process, a role they cannot reasonably play. Media are not political institutions and therefore, have no capacity for organizing elections. Media frame elections as games or races, emphasizing style over substance and passing conjecture and assertions for insight and analysis. While covering elections, Patterson saw media become reckless, insincere, deeply cynical, and focus exclusively on the negative, while holding politics and politicians to a higher standard than they hold media and journalists, thought they claim to be objective.
Approximate Word count = 802
Approximate Pages = 3.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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