Campaign Is the Ultimate Reality Show

During an 11-minute, 21-second appearance on the “Tonight Show” to announce his candidacy for governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger transformed a recall election that was already a national spectacle into a global media story that may break all the old rules about the way a race for elective office is waged, won and covered.

An electronic media that is largely inattentive to elections now finds in the California governor’s race something it truly values: a reality TV show with a proven ratings winner cast as the star.

“It will be wall-to-wall,” Marty Kaplan, associate dean of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, said of the campaign’s TV coverage.

“It’s entertaining. It’s exciting. The circus has come to town. That’s good for ratings.”

Schwarzenegger’s campaign staff is not underestimating the role the electronic media will play. Sean Walsh, one of the actor-turned-politician’s senior strategists, said he believes the winner won’t be decided by political ads, but by free media.

“It’s a great way to see who has what it takes,” he said.

But Schwarzenegger’s wide appeal for TV has drawn questions about fairness and access to free media in a 59-day race with a crowded field.

Schwarzenegger’s entry into the race to succeed Gov. Gray Davis sparked debate, as well, about whether the campaign will be covered as entertainment or politics.

Already he is drawing interest from entertainment news shows such as “Access Hollywood” and “Entertainment Tonight,” which normally shun politics.

Such shows are free to cover Schwarzenegger and not other candidates because they are exempt from equal opportunity requirements. They were granted newscast status by the Federal Communications Commission in the 1990s, enabling them to cover candidates based on newsworthiness.

On Thursday, for example, NBC officials defended their decision to have Schwarzenegger appear on the “Tonight Show,” which drew its highest ratings in three years.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is a newsmaker, and people want to talk to him about his decision to run,” said Bill Wheatley, vice president of NBC News.

On the way to the Oct. 7 vote, Schwarzenegger is likely to benefit from the relaxation of federal equal time regulations that, when drafted in the 1930s, ensured no one candidate could be covered to the exclusion of others.

Not only has Schwarzenegger been awash in invitations from the big networks, some friends in show business have used time during their own movie promotions to tout him as a candidate.

Appearing Thursday on “Good Morning America” to promote her new film “Freaky Friday,” actress Jamie Lee Curtis said her “True Lies” co-star “will make a fantastic governor.... What else does California need except somebody who is going to do what they say they’re going to do.” In most political campaigns, TV coverage is minimal.

Kaplan cited a study of the 1998 governor’s race in California, which showed that in the top seven media markets, less than 0.5% of the coverage was devoted to the election.

“In California, in particular, by and large the broadcast media have walked away from the enterprise of covering politics,” said Paul Taylor, founder of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, a public interest group.

Schwarzenegger no doubt will boost commitment to political coverage. But political analysts wonder whether the extra attention will come at the expense of other candidates. And will the inexhaustible coverage translate into substantive coverage? Consider this exchange from Wednesday’s “Tonight Show” appearance:

Jay Leno: “Arnold, I thank you. This is kind of the American dream....”

Schwarzenegger: “I’m going to pump California up!”

Because of his fame, Schwarzenegger can bypass the newspaper reporters and local TV news correspondents likely to pose the toughest questions in favor of entertainment shows that won’t demand specifics about fixing California’s problems, some political analysts said.

“What will access to Arnold be?” said Harvey Englander, a Los Angeles political consultant. “Is it going to be the walk and wave? How many in-depth interviews will he do? How many sit-downs will he have with the media who cover government and politics in California?”

Philip Trounstine, who heads the Survey and Policy Institute at San Jose State, said it is critical for political writers to pose serious policy questions.

“Arnold may try to sidestep the political writers,” he said. “As long as Jay Leno is your only interviewer and you don’t have to face a [veteran political reporter], it can be a cakewalk.

“Schwarzenegger has a Q factor now that other politicians couldn’t possibly have. That’s all fine and dandy, except there is a huge, unprecedented responsibility to find out where he stands on policy issues.”

Added Kaplan: “He’s not going to pick up a ray gun the way he does in the movies and splatter it across the Assembly. And he’s not going to literally muscle his opponents.

“These are all elected officials. And [former Gov.] Jesse Ventura’s experience with the state Legislature in Minnesota was a chastening experience for him. They didn’t just roll over.”

In newsrooms throughout the state, both TV and print, editors are devising plans to cover a celebrity candidate who can get all the publicity he wants in friendlier forums.

Phil Bronstein, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, said: “We will treat him as what he appears to be at the moment -- a front-running candidate.

“And particularly because there’s a foreshortened period of time between now and the election, and because his positions on so many issues are pretty unknown, we will be as aggressive as we possibly can in ferreting out what it is he thinks about these things.”

Cheryl Fair, news director for KABC-TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News, said: “We’re kind of in uncharted territory here, and we’ll have to see how things go. I will assume we’ll have access to him, and we’ll be able to ask him questions as time goes on because I think he’s going to want people to know who he is and what he believes.”

For all the attention Schwarzenegger can expect, there may be limits to the lift he gets from re-airing of his hit movies. The Federal Communications Commission notified California broadcasters Thursday that equal opportunity requirements would kick in as soon as the state files its official list of candidates, which is expected next week.

So don’t expect to see Schwarzenegger’s “Kindergarten Cop” on broadcast TV anytime soon.

As FCC officials determined when Ronald Reagan ran for governor in 1966, the broadcasting of programs featuring candidates is considered free advertising, requiring the stations that air them to provide similar time to all competitors.

And Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, a contributing anchor to NBC News’ “Dateline,” asked for and received an unpaid leave of absence until the campaign is over, NBC officials said Thursday.

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Contributing to the coverage of the recall campaign were Times staff writers Nick Anderson, Mark Z. Barabak, Greg Braxton, Jia-Rui Chong, Nancy Cleeland, Maura Dolan, Virginia Ellis, Li Fellers, Michael Finnegan, Megan Garvey, Anna Gorman, Gregory W. Griggs, Jean Guccione, Carla Hall, Allison Hoffman, Peter Y. Hong, Elizabeth Jensen, Carl Ingram, Gregg Jones, Caitlin Liu, Brian Lowry, Eric Malnic, Joe Mathews, Seema Mehta, Dan Morain, Monte Morin, Hilda Munoz, Peter Nicholas, Jean O. Pasco, David Pierson, Ashley Powers, Jeffrey L. Rabin, James Rainey, Kenneth Reich, Olga Rodriguez, Joel Rubin, Richard Simon, Doug Smith, Nancy Vogel, Kenneth R. Weiss and Janet Wilson.