The media and politics 185
Liberal talk show hosts also emerged, but they have been less success-
ful in drawing audiences. Prominent also are religious broadcasting stations
numbering several hundreds, but more important perhaps are the television
evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson; the latter stood as a
candidate for the presidential nomination of the Republican Party in 1988.
Television
Although public television broadcasts began in Britain in 1936, the develop-
ment of television was slower in the United States, where television broad-
casting began in 1939. However, television was virtually suspended during
the war years and it was not until 1946 that the television age really began.
Television stations followed the pattern of radio in that they were commer-
cial, drawing their revenue from advertising; the three great radio networks
moved into television adopting the same pattern of working with affiliated
stations across America, joined later by the Fox network. Although televi-
sion stations are required by federal law to ‘afford equal opportunities’ to all
candidates for an elective office who wish to make political broadcasts, the
candidates have to pay for the air time they use, adding to the costs of elec-
tion campaigns. The heavy cost of using the networks resulted in the produc-
tion of ‘soundbites’, statements in support of a candidate or a party lasting
perhaps only a few seconds, during which time no coherent argument could
be developed. The use of television for political campaigning was rather slow
to evolve, but when it did it transformed elections and helped the decline
in the power of party organisations that had been gathering pace since the
introduction of primary elections.
Television has changed the way in which the public is influenced by the
media in a number of ways. Doris Graber has pointed out in Mass Media and
American Politics how the immediacy of television news broadcasts increases
their importance over other media in crisis situations. In the immediate af-
termath of the attack on the World Trade Center there was a considerable
increase in public reliance on television news. The extent of news coverage
on the major networks is limited, usually with little concern for foreign news,
although naturally when American troops are involved in warfare, as in Iraq,
the balance shifts considerably. However, the development of channels such
as Fox News and CNN devoted almost exclusively to news and comment pro-
vides the opportunity to view news stories as they break for those who are
interested.
Negative campaigning, the use of television advertising and other media
to convey negative information about an opponent’s character or record, has
been a feature of American electioneering for many years, going back to the
‘mudslinging’ era of the 1884 election in which Democrat Grover Cleveland
was accused of having fathered a child out of wedlock, and the Democrats
were portrayed as the party of ‘Rum, Romanism and Rebellion’. The election
of 2004 had a fair share of negative campaigning. The Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth (SBVT) was formed during the election campaign in order to discredit