ABSTRACT
Orientations shared by the community of television newsworkers motivate how and where they look for election news. Common perspectives support similar routines and procedures for getting the story and form the underpinning of television's portrayal of the campaign. Ever wishful for substantive news programming and keenly aware that critics find television lacking, ABC attempted an experiment during the general election stage of the 1992 campaign designed to remaster the horserace -heavy, issue-thin mix of election coverage traditionally found on the major networks. ABC's efforts to alter the content of election coverage presented newsworkers with a challenge to their orientations from within the organization. The make-up of the Perot campaign presented a similar type of trial but from an external source. From the start, Ross Perot was an uncommon political figure. The effort was centered exclusively on Perot himself, who made both large and small decisions on behalf of the "campaign" without first sharing them with the media.
