Elections Aren't News

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A University of Southern California shows that local television newscasts have been barely covering the 2002 campaign. As a result, candidates are forced to spend all their time "dialing for dollars" from big campaign donors so they can promote themselves through paid advertising. "They don't go to talking to people. They don't do the kinds of visits to public fora that they used to, because they know it's a total waste of time," says Martin Kaplan of USC's Annenberg School for Communication.