Back in June 2007, The Boston Globe published a seven-part series called ?The Making of Mitt Romney,? chronicling the candidate?s life from boyhood to businessman to presidential hopeful.
The series, which included not only articles but extensive photo galleries, videos, and documents, was seen then as the definitive profile of Massachusetts?s former governor and established the Globe as the paper of record on Romney, even as he left the statehouse in pursuit of the national limelight.
Continue Reading?We very much consider ourselves the paper of record of Mitt Romney,? said Don MacGillis, the paper?s national politics editor, and in January, the paper will lay down an impressive marker ? ?The Real Romney,? a 336-page biography based on its 2007 series.
Presidential elections always present newspapers with the chance to be an authoritative voice on their hometown candidates, but they also bring in national media eager to find just the overlooked biographical detail or unexplained financial transaction that will redefine the candidate ? and undermine the local paper?s claim to expertise.
The Globe learned this lesson the hard way in 2004, shortly after it published its biography of another Massachusetts presidential candidate, Democrat John Kerry ? a seven-part series on the candidate had appeared a year earlier. The Globe authors offered what, at the time, was the most detailed portrayal of Kerry?s Vietnam War experience, only to have that account overshadowed by the narrative presented by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the Republican group that largely succeeded in redefining what had been the highlight of Kerry?s career.
Though the Globe?s initial reporting may have been accurate and thorough ? ?it stands the test of time,? said Michael Kranish, one of the book?s authors ? the narrative was no longer theirs.
Other papers have struggled on the national stage, as well. This time four years ago, the Chicago Tribune was losing hold of its grip on then-Sen. Barack Obama to a national media that was swooping in with more resources and an appetite for the candidate?s new narrative.
?For the Tribune, it was a struggle, because we had pretty much owned the coverage of Barack Obama,? David Mendell, a former Tribune reporter who started covering Obama in 2003, told POLITICO. ?We were the leading news resource on Barack Obama coverage when he was a U.S. senator, and it was difficult to suddenly have to compete with the world.?
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