Clinton’s Blouse Versus Trump’s Blazer—The Sometimes Sad Media Coverage of the Presidential Primaries

(The following article is written by serial contributor Guy Heston, who has a life-long habit of spending vacation time in Iowa.)

We have fifteen months to go until the U.S. presidential election, plenty of time for quotable quotes, debate gaffes and such from the eventually culled list of candidates. We the electorate can endure that long process, but must we also endure the often silly media coverage? I never thought I would agree about anything with Sarah Palin (who has delivered a bonanza of quotable quotes), but her repeated references to “the lame stream media” have recently rung a bell with me, though probably not for the same reason.

The following may surprise my friends on the right, but herein I’m not going to take on the reliably ultra-conservative Fox News or The Wall Street Journal. No, I refer you to The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, publications that many on the right believe lean reliably to the left. The recent reportage by these newspapers of the presidential candidates’ appearance at the Iowa State Fair has been on the verge of silly and largely uninformative.

Let’s start with The New York Times (NYT) report posted on Aug. 15, “Excess in Iowa: 90 Degrees, a ButterCow and Rides on Donald Trump’s Helicopter.”  Similar to reporting of a Sarah Palin news conference, there is a certain appeal to the headline. 

But you really don’t need to read beyond the headline, similar to reporting of a Sara Palin news conference. Unless you want to know that “Mr. Trump drifted in a unified blob of camera phones, sweat and spoiled beer, past the Ultimate Brisket Bomb booth toward the Agriculture Building where the butter cow rests.” (FYI, the butter cow is a long-time fixture of the Iowa State Fair and is indeed butter made into the shape of a cow.)

Or if you want to know that Trump gave free rides in his helicopter to some Iowa children?  Or that he read the shopworn references to fried foods at a state fair? Or maybe you want to know that Hillary Clinton wore a blue gingham blouse and that a brown cow mooed behind her? (I am not making this up.)

Or perhaps there's value in reading the various references to the media representatives in tow by the candidates, as though that were news? And perhaps only the NYT could with a straight reporting face refer to “spoiled beer”. I do confess to having a moderate interest in the Ultimate Brisket Bomb; sadly, the NYT offered no details. And when it is 90 degrees in Iowa during the summer you are going to sweat as you would anyplace else; and a typical summer temperature is hardly newsworthy, as was anything else I could see in this NYT report.

Next is The Washington Post (WP) headline of August 16, “DonaldTrump, Hillary Clinton and Chaos Visit the Iowa State Fair.” The WP offered a much more detailed description of Trump’s outfit compared to the NYT’s paltry reference to Clinton’s blouse. He was “...sporting a navy blazer and breezy cream slacks, a red cap with his ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan, French cuffs and buffed white dress shoes...”  

Sadly, the WP reported, the Trump entourage later had to walk through a pile of horse dung, whereas Clinton had to stand at the fence of a dirty paddock to meet a shorthorn cow named Maggie, where she bit into a “greasy” pork chop. A dirty paddock and greasy pork chop at the Iowa State Fair qualifies as news? 

Every paddock I’ve ever seen has a lot of dirt in it—it’s the nature of paddocks. And can someone tell me where I can buy breezy cream slacks?  I gave away my blue blazer and don’t want to know where to get buffed white dress shoes. And I hate to break it to the media, but you might find horse dung at the Iowa State Fair or the Texas State Fair or the Nebraska State Fair or the California State Fair. That’s one of the reasons they are called state fairs. As Martha Stewart says, “It’s a good thing!” Even the horse dung and a greasy pork chop.

Finally, let’s turn to the Aug. 16 Los Angeles Times (LAT), which in comparison to the NYT and WP appeared more restrained in its coverage of the candidates’ appearances at the Iowa State Fair. The headline screamed “Iowa Fairgoers Mob Presidential Hopefuls,” but the reportage was more straight ahead and subdued. 

While the WP report judged the pork chops greasy as though the reporters were food critics, the LAT reporter dubbed them “grilled.” Probably a California thing. Wouldn’t it make a great segment on a cable news channel gabfest—“Were Those Pork Chops Greasy or Grilled?!!!”

And even in the more subdued LAT report there was the predictable reference to “...livestock, sculptures carved out of butter and cholesterol-laden treats on a stick.” At least the LAT quoted The Donald as saying Hillary was the worst Secretary of State in American history. There are many reasons to disagree with his opinion, but it  was some semblance of actual news in these three reports.

It will be a long fifteen months until the presidential election, and we can only hope the media focus on the content of the various campaigns, not just the style and the poll numbers and predictable anecdotes about state fairs. Judging by this past weekend’s coverage by some of the major media outlets, they have a long way to go.  As to Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, well I’ll save them for another posting.