Saturday, April 22, 2006

The CBS Sunday Morning Formula for Democrats


"We accentuate the positive and don't try to shock," says host Charles Osgood. "I think there's a growing appetite for that. We're surrounded by shock."

Osgood also says that his program assumes viewers have an attention span. "We're very lucky to be on at a time when people can actually sit down and watch — as opposed to a weekday-morning audience walking in and out of the room." It's like reading the paper on a Sunday morning: a mix of stories about politics, the arts and culture -- and the time to read and digest it and perhaps discuss it with the family.

Sounds like a winning formula for Democrats to follow in their campaigns.

  • Accentuate the positive.

  • Don't shock. It's just another form of fear.

  • Assume that voters have an attention span.

Don't you agree?


PS: In a report on The State of the News Media 2006 by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the audience for CBS Sunday Morning is growing where almost all other network news programs have diminishing market share. It's one of the very few programs I TIVO just in case I can't see it live.