Catch Me If You Can: News Hooks and Nobodies Competing Voices from the Outside: The President and

Classic training in journalism expects each story to cover the fi ve Ws (who, what, where, when, and why) with primary emphasis on who. The “who” of a story serves as the news hook around which the story is developed. With the multiplicity of potential congressional voices, journalists are often overwhelmed with a cacophony of messages emanating from Congress, many of which are either not relevant to their audiences or unlikely to move the story forward. Journalists are thus forced to focus their attention on a subset of political players.