With the monthslong slog of election season looming ahead and the political machine roaring to life, the reporters and staff of the Long Beach Post have begun to take a hard look not only at our own plans for covering this cycle of races but at our past coverage, the coverage of other news organizations and the state of election coverage in the industry. What we found is that the information we provide hasn’t always been of significant value to the reader; in fact, in some cases, it may be doing more harm than good.
There are reasons the coverage is like this. Election season poses a sizable challenge for today’s news organizations, many of which have been sapped by significant staff reductions. Election coverage—which most editors agree is a core duty of the media—takes hours of staff time, intimate knowledge of the community and resources to do well.
Many outlets have saddled a single reporter with dozens of races to triage. Reporters too often write up any press release that arrives, cover staged events, or allow candidates to respond to questions without challenge. The candidates and campaigns with the most money and the loudest voice get what they want, which is to drive the narrative, to get the media to do their PR for them. This, in turn, results in coverage that, at best, is boring, and at worst is misleading and detrimental to voters.
This is why, starting now, the Long Beach Post is taking a new, deliberate approach to the 2022 elections. Our aim is to focus everything we do around you, the reader and voter, instead of the candidates.
Here’s what that looks like.
Outreach
Beginning this week, you may be receiving a survey from us asking what issues matter in your community, your neighborhood and your home. Please help us by being candid and detailed: What would a candidate need to tackle in order to get your vote? What problems need fixing? What qualities are you looking for in a representative?
We are also planning more intimate conversations with residents, particularly in underrepresented areas such as North, West and Central Long Beach, by working with neighborhood leaders and community groups to host listening sessions over the next month and during the primary election season.
What you tell us will be used to formulate questions for candidates, and we will press them for answers and concrete, specific solutions. If they offer none or don’t respond at all, we will tell you that.
Coverage
Your feedback will be part of this new elections portal that launched today. It will include our popular Compare Your Candidate web tool (more on that below), an updated list of candidates who have submitted paperwork to run and this live blog, which will keep you up to date on need-to-know information, including deadlines and upcoming events, along with summaries and stories that are based in large part on the feedback you give us.
The stories we write will also explain some of the dynamics that shape politics in Long Beach, including:
- How charitable donations can be used to curry favor with politicians, skirting limits on traditional campaign donations.
- Analysis of campaign finance filings, which shed light on which companies, and interests, are seeking to sway politicians.
- More scrutiny of “front-runners”—which we define as a candidate with significant funding, resources or backing from the political establishment. We will take a hard look at their track record of public service, ask tough questions, and analyze decisions, votes and initiatives they have supported.
Candidates should know this: We will not be covering most announcements made via press releases or staged events, including endorsements.
When the filing period ends on March 11, we will send candidates a questionnaire, informed by reader feedback, that includes questions specific to the office you are seeking. Those answers will be published on our Compare Your Candidate tool, which provides side-by-side comparisons of the answers provided by those seeking office. This will be the candidates’ chance to speak directly to voters on our platform. Readers can expect this tool to launch in mid-April.
The Post is enlisting many of our staff members in this ambitious effort. They include Jake Gotta, our social media manager; Jackie Rae, our podcast host and multimedia journalist; Sebastian Echeverry, our membership coordinator; Dennis Dean, our product director; and, anchoring our news coverage are Jason Ruiz, who has been covering City Hall for nearly a decade, and senior reporter and editor Anthony Pignataro.
There is a lot at stake.
A year from now, Long Beach will have a new mayor, a new city attorney, a new congressional representative and at least three new council members. These are the people charged with spending our money, safeguarding the public during a pandemic, ensuring government services are equitable and representing our city to the outside world.
We need you to help ensure these politicians are thoroughly vetted and held accountable.