The death of print media influence in politics?

Rick did not pay a single red cent to newspapers for ads that I know of. Bill White and his allies paid a lot for full page newspaper ads and newspaper inserts...

Rick did not seek any newspaper endorsements and in fact his pollster claims that newspaper endorsements are harmful to a candidate according to his research. Rick did not meet with any editorial boards. Bill White sought newspaper endorsements and wasted time sitting down with every newspaper editorial board around the state sucking up to them...

Bill White's final television ad was all about his newspaper endorsements...

The newspapers also invested a lot of money and time and ink into making things up about Rick... hiring fake appraisers and things like that... they created "fact checking" outfits to spin the facts to fit their narrative.... Rick only was rated true about a fifth of the time by the Austin newspaper... which is absolute garbage...

MeanRachel tweeted this last night (link)...

Good question...

Texas Watchdog has a lengthy blog about this issue (link). Excerpt follows...

Is ignoring the press an emerging political strategy? Texas' Rick Perry, others may pave the way.

Now that Rick Perry has won an unprecedented third term as Texas governor, there is a temptation to answer 'no' to the question of whether it is worth it for a candidate to try to win newspaper endorsements.

Not only did Perry decline to meet with every editorial board in the state, but he repeatedly refused the invitation of the major newspapers to a televised debate. But Peter Brown, who has two decades of reporting experience covering Washington and originally posed the question in a column for the Wall Street Journal, says the answer is better found in the results of a dead heat in Florida featuring another Rick, this one a challenger rather than an incumbent.

Rick Scott, a multi-millionaire Republican, made a point at the outset of his Florida gubernatorial campaign to tell editorial boards he would not be taking the time to sit down with them. Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer and a Democrat, has included the endorsement of at least 17 newspapers on every piece of campaign literature and in most of her television and radio commercials.

[SNIP]

Gov. Perry's signature moment in this campaign may have been his decision, months before other major elected figures in this country, to speak with empathy at Tea Party rallies. Perry told the Associated Press he had decided, even before the March primaries, to forego interview sessions with editorial boards. "It was a calculated decision," Perry told AP, "but you know the world is really changing, I mean, the way people get their information, who they listen to, etc."

It was this insight and the Perry campaign's successful use of social media to build its organization and deliver its messages that is the subtle but significant development in this election, according to David Guenthner, director of media and government relations for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.

I love it. The newspapers went "all in" for Bill White... and Bill White went all in with the newspapers... and he got smoked... Rick's relationship with the papers proved that newspapers are largely irrelevant in politics....

I would hope that next time around candidates will take it one step further... stop "shopping" stories to the print media... start leaking more oppo research to high profile bloggers...