Howard Kurtz on the Media Blowing New Hampshire

In a lengthy column at today’s Washington Post, media reporter Howard Kurtz pulls no punches in criticizing the horse race coverage that has defined the primary races: “The series of blown calls amount to the shakiest campaign performance yet by a profession seemingly addicted to snap judgments and crystal-ball pronouncements. Not since the networks awarded Florida to Al Gore on Election Night 2000 has the collective media establishment so blatantly missed the boat.”

Here’s how Kurtz describes the factors contributing to the news media’s overwhelming fascination with polls and hyped predictions:

The reasons are legion: News outlets are serving up more analysis and blogs to remain relevant in a wired world. Many cash-strapped organizations are spending less on field reporting, and television tries to winnow a crowded field for the sake of a better narrative. Cable shows and Web sites provide a gaping maw to be filled with fresh speculation. Tracking polls fuel a conventional wisdom that feeds on itself. The length of today’s campaigns provides more twists and turns long before most voters tune in. And there is a natural journalistic tendency to try to peer around the next corner.

Perhaps the best quote is from Tom Brokaw, who himself was caught up in the predictions:

“The pirouettes are amazing,” says Brokaw, who was analyzing the campaign on MSNBC. “The utter confidence with which everyone had been wrong 20 minutes earlier, they have the same utter confidence about what produced this surprise. It’s intellectually dishonest.”