PRESS FUELS VOTER ANGER, SCHOLAR SAYS

A new "corrective" newspaper journalism may be the cause of increasing charges of press bias and growing voter cynicism, says media and politics analyst Stephen Hess.

The Brookings Institution scholar told reporters at a Monitor breakfast Thursday that new computer technology, increasing competitive pressure with television news, and dissatisfaction with shallow election coverage in the past have created a new environment for "corrective" journalism.

Now there is an "ability for journalists in daily coverage to write within the same story the charge, the countercharge, the statement, the truth, the facts, and so on," he says, instead of the old style of printing today's candidate statement, followed by a rebuttal tomorrow, and an analysis story Sunday.

Ultimately, this change will make candidates more rigorous in their statements and help inform voters, Mr. Hess says. But for now, it has increased the electorate's "cynicism."