Media impact on the special election

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:29:21 -0500, raccoonradio@mail.com said:

> btw did anyone notice Donna was quoted in the Herald the other day
> but they got her last name wrong? It said "Donna Harper". I think it
> was about the election coverage and Donna said something like Boston
> has lots of conservative talk and the election talk was doing well

I was talking with Scott on Tuesday night, and he pointed out to me
that traditionally Republican parts of Western Mass. voted
overwhelmingly for Coakley over Brown, whereas people within the
Boston market went the other way.  I don't know if the final results
show the same pattern, but if they do, it may say something
interesting about the impact of the mass media on the election.  I
assume that neither the candidates nor the "independent expenditure"
groups bought TV time in the Albany market, which reaches that part of
the state, and that most voters read the campaign coverage in the
/Eagle/ (which gets its Eastern Mass. coverage from the AP).

-GAWollman