tino dallmann visited the usa for the first time as did some other in the group. after athens, the mephisto bobcats -- as ou organizers nicknamed them -- travelled on to washington d.c. and new york. tino dallmann is producer and anchor-to-be for mephisto 97.6. stine eckert: what was your impression about the first presidential debate?
tino dallmann: my first impression was that is was similar to the german television debates we had in 2005 because we adopted that from the u.s. system. it was interesting to watch as it doesn’t affect me like a german debate does. nothing really surprised me from the debate except some reactions from the candidates. they made a little bit of an insecure impression in the beginning especially obama who from a german perspective is seen as very charismatic with brilliant rhetoric. the debate was very outbalanced: both candidates appeared more human; but mccain was also impressive.
s.e.: how do german media cover u.s. election campaigns? t.d.: they definitely follow the main events. german coverage is more fact focused. you might not read about the election everyday but it’s no secret that most germans want obama to win and that’s due to obama and not to german media coverage. they like him because he’s a type of politician you hardly find in germany. he’s young, younger than german chancellors would be, he has definitely charisma, and he gives the impression that the u.s.–german relationship can change. it hasn’t been good over the recent years and with him they hope for a positive change.
s.e.: do germans have an opinion about sen. john mccain and governor sarah palin? t.d.: although germans stick to facts, obama is more visible in the media because he came to berlin, he is a new element. mccain stands for 20th century politics of the usa. that’s probably how the germans perceive him. as for sarah palin most people know about her pregnant teenage daughter and her conservative point of view. but there isn’t much emotional reaction , germans neither hate nor like her. overall obama and mccain are more in the center. only germans who are really interested in u.s. matters are interested in the running mates.
s.e.: how does your Leipzig radio station, mephisto 97.6, cover the u.s. election? t.d.: our aim is not only to look at us. politics but to cover u.s. culture and how that plays a role in politics. we cover a broad range of topics for instance social issues and religion. most of our research groups want to get close to the u.s. people. that’s why i chose to cover poor people who are affected by social problems. some people chase for the answer of some questions for instance germans can’t imagine a young republican who supports mccain with all his or her heart. so the question is can we find such a person.
juliane stansch, veronika laggerbauer, and kristin weber discuss the u.s. election campaign in the pita pit.juliane stansch is co-editor for mephisto 97.6 and anchor. she monitored u.s. election coverage by german newspapers and magazines’ online editions between the beginning of august and the middle of september 2008. she included quality publications sueddeutsche.de, spiegel.de, zeit.de, taz.de as well as the occasionally more boulevardesque reports by focus.de and bild-t-online.de. she said among these publications, only the weekly newspaper zeit.de featured an election center.
juliane: in the beginning, when obama visited berlin, the papers almost exclusively featured him, his role in u.s. politics, what kind of change he can really offer, his charisma. what do german politicians have to do to be like that? i remember a cover by the newspaper “bild” in which a picture of german chancellor merkel was morphed into obama. the papers asked why german politicians were so boring. why don’t they manage to motivate the german populace like obama who isn’t even president yet?
the papers weren’t very focused on issues such as obama’s iraq strategy, what influence he would have on german politicians, what he expects from germans. when sarah palin got picked as vice presidential mate the german coverage shifted extremely. suddenly everyone started talking about mccain. before the only coverage mccain got was when he dissed obama. but with the palin pick he was immediately of interest. for example spiegel magazine featured his portrait on its cover just like it had done for obama about a month before. as a result obama slid into the shadow. the papers reflected who headed the game. as the only one, taz.de covered obama’s berlin visit very critically. the paper asked: ‘ who is this guy and why does everyone suddenly chase him like crazy? all other media rated him rather positively in the run-up to his visit.
mccain’s comparism of obama to britney spears had an interesting effect; it caused quite a wave with obama shooting back and then paris hilton giving her two cents. this wouldn’t work in germany, where we have fundamentally different election campaigns. of course, sympathy for a candidate is also important but so are the issues. in the usa there’s intentionally less about issues; candidates motivate voters with flowers of speech and after the election the president can do what he wants. the first debate was rather palish and empty. i felt no real debate developed, the candidates only gave statements. all three [the candidates and the anchor] were tired and boring. so far nobody made a move out of fear to do something wrong.
kristin weber, co-chair for evening news show “direct”.
kristin: the debate was without content and catching moments, so people concentrated on the performance. the people in the usa follow their gut feeling and what effect the candidates had: obama smart, polite, fit in mimic and gesture; mccain with a stick in his rear didn’t talk to the fictitious audience, his eyes were glassy, his face stiff, and he stammered in the beginning.
obama repeatedly said ‘yes, john, you’re right’ and mccain answered ‘you don’t have a clue.’ mccain only had one topic, security. he said nothing about social, health insurance, and financial issues and only positioned himself as a pow. the anchor was also crabby. in the beginning he emphasized that he’s leading the questioning but then the candidates talked to each other.
an ohio university professor told me the republican strategy to cause some mud-wrestling didn’t work out for example their efforts to brand obama liking young boys when the issue of children’s sex education was brought up. the professor also said that for election news, television does a crabby job and that the internet despite some insecurity is the only somewhat good information source; the professor didn’t talk about print media though.
veronika laggerbauer, chair for the interview show “m19”.
veronika: the debate only disappointed. but this emotionalization of issues and personalization of candidates are growing tendencies in germany, too.
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