A game changer for campaign reporting

Ezra Klein writes A game changer for campaign reporting "But when you buy ‘Game Change 2,’ you should also buy its opposite -- ‘The Gamble,’ by political scientists John Sides and Lynn Vavreck (you might know Sides from the awesome 'Monkey Cage' blog). It, too, is an account of the 2012 election. But it signals its contrasting point of view in its first sentence: ‘68,’ the authors wrote. ‘That is how many moments were described as ‘game-changers’ in the 2012 presidential election.’ The rest of the book is dedicated to proving that almost none truly were."

"If most election narratives cast the campaign staff as key actors, “The Gamble” focuses on the centrality of the news media. Over and again, Sides and Vavreck record the candidates acting -- and the media reacting, filtering, covering, assessing. That process determines what information voters do and don’t hear. It’s also a process that members of the news media tend to overlook, in part because it raises complex questions about their role in shaping what they cover."