Talk Shows, Television

Politicians have a long history of appearing on television entertainment and talk programs. Baum notes Richard Nixon's piano playing appearance on The Tonight Show in 1960, and Schultz reminds us of the same candidate's turn on Laugh-In in 1968. Many voters undoubtedly recall an image of Bill Clinton playing the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show. Besides filling guest spots, politicians have long served as comedy fodder for talk show hosts. At one level, these types of programs may seem peripheral and unimportant to the political process. However, in recent presidential elections, candidate appearances on such shows seem to have become an almost institutionalized part of campaigns. Given research findings that late night shows can serve as important political information sources, especially for young people, the relationship between talk shows and politics has become a topic worthy of academic attention. Researchers are beginning to study the political content of television talk shows and the potential effects they have on the political process.

David Niven, S. Robert Lichter, and Daniel Amundson found late night comedy talk show political content to be fairly narrow in scope. Their examination of 13,301 jokes on late night shows between 1996 and 2000 revealed that the most frequent target of humor was the president or a candidate for the office. There was little attention given to the legislative or judicial branches of the federal government, as well as other levels of government (state or city). The number of politicians targeted was relatively small, and there was consistency in individual features that served as the basis for jokes. For example, in 1996 Bob Dole's age was a springboard for humor. In 1997 Clinton was targeted based on financial dealings, eating habits, and sexual issues. It is perhaps not surprising that the researchers found only 9.3% of the jokes to deal with issues involving public policy. The appearances of George W. Bush and Al Gore on late night shows had no subsequent effect on the content of the shows as it remained substantially the same after the candidate visits.

Given the unserious nature of such programs and their particular focus on personal characteristics, why do candidates appear on them? One answer may lie in the finding that in 2000 candidates got more time on late night shows speaking for themselves than they would have during an average month of evening news. Shrinking sound bites and time constraints, as well as [Page 780]extensive editing in news formats help explain why this is true. Also, as a rule, candidates prefer communication contexts in which they exercise some control.

Another reason candidates may agree to talk show appearances is that they receive positive treatment. Matthew Baum found support for this idea in an examination of candidate appearances on daytime and late night television talk shows in 2000. His content analysis revealed that candidate interviews on what he called entertainment talk shows made fewer political references than were elicited by candidate appearances on traditional outlets such as the evening news and political talks show (i.e., Meet the Press). Entertainment talk shows avoided controversial issues and were more sympathetic to candidates than were traditional news outlets. Baum also discovered that entertainment shows did not focus on issues or candidate issue position comparisons as much as traditional outlets did. The different approach taken on entertainment based talk shows might also serve to make them an attractive communication option for candidates.

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