Politics is Lifestyle
By Andrea Otanez

Politics are on readers’ clothing, their cars, at their tables and on their minds. So why aren’t politics more frequently in our features sections?

In an idea-filled hour led by Washington Post features editor and writing coach Mary Hadar, editors at “Politics and features? You betcha!” came away with a list of story ideas -- and arguments for getting them into print.

Chris Rose, Times-Picayune Living columnist; Deborah Heard, Washington Post deputy assistant managing editor for Style; and Seattle Post-Intelligencer lifestyle editor Stephanie Reid-Simons were on the panel.

Audience members who spoke up made it clear it’s a struggle, if not an impossibility, to cover politics in features -- or to featurize politics -- because of nervous managing editors who fear charges of bias.

Heard, whose oft-snarky Style section is loaded with stories on politics, said they watch the patterns of their stories -- the number of Bush stories vs. Kerry stories, for example, in a given period -- to keep things in balance.

But she said they don’t pull punches: “If the target or subject requires a tone, we take it.”

Of course, that’s The Washington Post, whose readers’ lives are intimately entwined with national politics and bureaucracy. What about the rest of us?

No matter where you live, said Hadar, “It’s shot through what we all do.” And, panelists said, feature writers and sections can offer a relief-valve while opening up political coverage to different kinds of readers.

“Did anybody notice last night that the two first wives had the same outfit on” at the first presidential debate, asked Rose. “That’s just funny.” Question: Did any paper write about that?

Rose used to be a political writer and covered a national campaign at one point. He said he got cynical. Every day on the campaign trail, “they would lie,” he said. “You knew, they knew, you knew they knew.”

Now as a features columnist, he can bring politics to a different audience – “lots of people who don’t read the news pages and only read the entertainment [lifestyle] pages.”

Through a features prism, “You don’t have to just inform. You can entertain.” And connect with what readers are thinking and talking about.

Reid-Simons gave the audience an argument to take to the table by pointing out the huge success of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which is where – sigh -- many young people get their news. “People have the expectation of the pop culture-political crossover,” she said.

It’s all about connecting with readers.

Andrea Otanez is an assistant features editor at The Seattle Times and a 2004 AASFE fellow.

IDEAS FOR POLITICAL FEATURE STORIES

What’d they say? A Washington Post writer pulls a buzz phrase or word from politicians and deconstructs it in a regular four-inch feature that contains on the cover. Both presidential candidates, for example, had used the phrase “desperate attempt.” What did they mean? How did they use it? What did they really say?

Boxers-or-briefs interviews. Panelist Chris Rose said you don’t want to overdo these kind of interviews, but set up chats with local candidates and ask off-the-wall questions that might help illuminate different aspects of their character. “What’s your favorite children’s book?” could be a question, for example.

Send feature reporters to conventions, or fund-raisers, or rallies.

Cull the wires and Internet. Can’t get the first-wife candidates to stop by your paper? Jill Williams, assistant managing editor for features/entertainment at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, suggested pulling together and sourcing a wide variety of tidbits that help illuminate who they are.

Red and Blue. Profile two passionate advocates for Bush and Kerry in your community. Run them side by side.

Bumper Stickers. Kansas City ran a “write-your-own-bumper-sticker” contest for readers to enter.

Spouses and kids. Claim these profiles for the feature section. Give them equal treatment. Good for local races as well as national ones. If the news section won’t let you, then do a DAY ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL with the spouse, focusing on personality – how she copes with the crowds, the awful food, what she wears, etc. Make the personality, and not the politics, the point of the piece.

Wacky ideas. The Seattle Times asked candidates for mayor to take a Rorschach test, and ran the results. Give your local candidates a pop-culture quiz.