Help monitor how well TV news covers election issues

A couple dozen organizations have asked Bay Area TV news directors to allocate at least two hours per week during evening hours to cover the issues voters will decide on Nov. 2.

They’re looking for volunteers to monitor how the issues are actually covered. You can monitor as little as one newscast, or as many as you care to. The analysis will take place throughout October.

Last spring Grade the News analyzed how well local news media helped prepare us to cast informed ballots in the March 2 election. The results for the three largest stations located in the city of San Francisco, KRON Channel 4, KPIX Channel 5 and KGO Channel 7, indicated that none took their obligation to empower citizenship seriously. They spent a minute or less in two of the three weeks before Election Day reporting on candidate positions and the substance and likely effects of ballot measures, ignoring hundreds of important races and issues across the nine counties of the Bay Area.

The campaign scorecard and instructions are easy to download and use. Both are in PDF format. After you evaluate a newscast, send it in either by fax to Media Alliance, 415-546-6128, or preferably—fill in your data online at Survey Monkey.

This is a project of Grade the News, Media Alliance, Common Cause, local chapters of the League of Women Voters, the Alliance for Better Campaigns, and more than a score of other organizations. To volunteer and for more information, please email [email protected] Or call (415) 546-6334 x300