The travails of the foreign media (free registration required) covering the US election:
[I]t's not an easy gig. For one thing, the candidates treat the foreign media with contempt. During the 2000 election, a reporter from a German newspaper asked Karen Hughes, Bush's senior adviser, a question. Half way through her answer, something struck her. "Who do you work for?" she asked. "A German newspaper," he began. "Then what am I wasting my time talking to you for?" she asked, somewhat rhetorically, and turned on her heel. One Kerry aide was equally specific. "To us," he told the Washington Post last week, "foreign media are about as useful as lice."
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What's... galling to international superstar anchors is how important tiny local cable stations and newspapers suddenly become. The decision is going to be made in the handful of states that aren't already cast-iron Republican or Democrat loyalists. At the start of the final week, that meant ten states; Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania plus Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico and Wisconsin - although by Wednesday, previously pro-Gore Michigan started to look like a Bush target. The local media in those states suddenly achieve a status commensurate with that of CNN or NBC. Last week, for instance, some overseas broadcasters began talks to gain access to Carl Rove, the mastermind behind the Bush campaign. He blew them off for lunch with the chief reporter of the Ohio Sentinel.