The Media and the Mayor's Race: The Failure of Urban Political Reporting.

• Author: Russakoff, Dale

It would be hard to find a mayoral election with higher stakes than Philadelphia's in 1991. The city government stood at the brink of fiscal ruin. It was stiffing creditors, from foster parents to giant utilities. The threat of bankruptcy loomed so large that one candidate, Republican Sam Katz, scored points in a televised debate by intoning the number of days until the city was to go belly up. "Ninety-five days to default!" he said archly.

Phyllis Kaniss, assistant dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, saw that Philadelphia's 1991 mayoral race offered a rare opportunity to evaluate the performance of the local media. With a city's very survival in the balance, she asks, how well were constituents informed on issues and candidates by the local media?

Her conclusion is clear from the subtitle: "The Failure of Urban Political Reporting." Kaniss asserts that the city's major newspapers, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News, and the three local television stations were not up to the task at hand. Her narrative also highlights some troubling aspects to the coverage of the Philadelphia race - all the more troubling, she suggests, since these foibles are not limited to the Philadelphia press.

Kaniss is at her best when painting vivid images of the race. And this was no ordinary race. Frank Rizzo, a veteran mayor who emerged from retirement to capture the Republican nomination, died shortly afterwards in the bathroom stall of his campaign headquarters. The eventual victor, Democrat Edward G. Rendell, is a captivating character in his own right. And there's a stellar supporting cast, led by bookish financial analyst Sam Katz.

Buoyed by its personalities, the race was also an epic struggle in a city with a rich history of racial and ethnic politics. And Kaniss, with a unique perspective and a fine eye for details, has written a very readable book.

Her analysis of what went wrong with the media coverage, though, is badly flawed. She argues, for example, that local television stations cater to the flipperies of affluent suburbanites at the expense of covering the city election, often substituting "fluff" for serious reporting. Fair enough. A local station manager quoted in the book admits as much - with no regrets. But Kaniss errs in drawing a direct parallel with newspapers. Her formula - that the search for audiences in the suburbs has led newspapers to abandon urban reporting - is simplistic. Yes...