Editor’s Corner
March 7, 2008
Finding new ways to frame election-year narratives
By
Constance Hale
In a season awash with political narratives—devised by campaign strategists, drafted by speechwriters, delivered in the undeviating tones of careful candidates—we couldn’t help but ask ourselves which reporters have managed to wrest narratives away from presidential wannabes. We wanted to revisit pieces that made us laugh, shudder, or just say “aha.” Are there writers, we wondered, who cover the campaign in the mold of an R. W. Apple or a Gail Sheehy; is there a magazine in 2008 that recalls Esquire in 1968?
We also wondered whether we’d find gems in the usual places—magazine and newspaper features—or diamonds-in-the-rough in the myriad blogs that are breaking stories and shaping opinions.
We emailed political writers and editors across the country, asking where they were seeing the best storytelling. “In the political arena, this is not a great time for narrative,” one wrote back. Long-form narrative journalism, we heard, is losing out to analysis or scoops. “The proliferation of blogs,” wrote another, “means that there is not as much informative narrative writing as there once was.” Those who copped to following blogs insisted that it was for “data”—links or headlines—but “certainly not for good narrative.”
Perhaps predictably, profiles rose to the top: Todd Purdum’s piece on Barack Obama in Vanity Fair; a light-hearted study of that unlikely Romeo, Dennis Kucinich, by The Washington Post’s Libby Copeland; a piercing portrait of Mike Huckabee by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone. Yes, serious political profiles still provide a home for relentless reporting, keen observation, colorful characters, and the insights of strong narrators.
And what about blogs? Despite the high profiles of the Huffington Post, the Daily Kos, or that ur-site, the Drudge Report, we were not able to find a single one we’d call narrative. Most are written in bits and pieces, with voice being the most constant narrative element.
Hendrik Hertzberg’s blog on newyorker.com did impress, though. In “Rally,” we found some of what we were looking for:
- The description of the Izod Arena (“Mammoth, isolated structures, some of them skeletally half-completed, are placed seemingly at random on a prairie of empty parking lots … like a mining colony on one of the larger moons of Saturn.”);
- Crisp character sketches (“Kennedy’s thick body was dressed in downtown black. He really is an astounding old lion. He has the great white mane, the heavy features, and the slow-moving confidence of a king of the beasts. And his roar!”);
- Fresh language and playful voice (the “Obameter”);
- A narrator who pulled no punches (“Whoever was responsible for organizing this event should be put in a job where he or she can do no further harm.”)
Will Hertzberg’s blogs be the accounts we fondly remember in years to come, or will it be up to journalists like Joe Klein and David Maraniss to make sense of the campaign in book-length narratives? We’re not sure which magazine is today’s Esquire, but we have to admit that Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone sure did remind us of Hunter S. Thompson.
Send us your thoughts.