Chapter 10
Elections and
Campaigns
WHO GOVERNS?
1. How do American elections
determine the kind of people who
govern us?
2. What matters most in deciding who
wins presidential and congressional
elections?
TO WHAT ENDS?
1. Do elections make a real difference
in what laws get passed?
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Campaigns Today
Campaign tasks
performed by
• Media consultants
• Direct mail firms
• Polling firms
• Political technology firms
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Source: Federal Election Commission, 2010 House and Senate Campaign Finance Summary.
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Source: Adapted from Federal Election Commission summary reports, January 2009 and May 2009.
Dollar figures rounded. Inflation adjustment keyed to consumer price index 1976–2008, 3.74 (i.e.,
assumes that what cost $1.00 in 1976 cost $3.74 in 2008).
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Figure 10.1 Presidential Campaigns,
Spending on Media, 2008
Source: Federal Election Commission, summary reports, May 2009. Figures rounded.
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Campaigns Today
Better or Worse?
• Extensive Polling
• “High-Tech Canvassing”
• Campaign Spending and Fund Raising
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Campaigns Today
Here And Abroad
• In the U.S., elections have two crucial
phases: getting nominated and getting
elected. They both require an individual
effort on the part of the candidate.
• In most of Europe, the political party
decides who will be allowed to run and
puts the candidate’s name on the ballot.
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Presidential Versus Congressional
Campaigns
Presidential Race
More Competitive
• Winner usually gets less
than 55% of the vote
Larger Voter Turnout
Must Rely On The Mass
Media To Reach Voters
Incumbent Presidents
Are Often Held
Responsible For
Whatever Has Gone
Wrong
Congressional Race
Less Competitive
• Winner usually gets over
60 % of the vote
Smaller Voter Turnout
Closer Contact With
The District’s Voters
Even Incumbent
Congressmen Can
“Run Against
Washington”
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Presidential Campaigns
Running for President
• Getting “Mentioned”
• Money
• Organization
• Strategy and Themes
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g36/g36/ZUMA Press/Newscom
Lisa Murkowski, a write-in
candidate, won a Senate
seat in Alaska, the first
person to do this in any
state since 1954. She
defeated the Republican
candidate.
Political campaigns are hard
work, even when you get to
fly on the vice president’s
airplane
Tomas Muscionico/Contact Press Images
Barack Obama campaigned on the
slogan “Change We Can Believe In.”
Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
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Getting Elected To Congress
The Problems Of Malapportionment
and Gerrymandering
Winning The Primary
Staying In Office
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Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census.
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Two Kinds Of Campaign Issues
Position Issues
• The rival candidates have opposing views and
the issue divides the voters.
Valence Issues
• The voters are not divided on an important
issue and examine whether a candidate fully
supports their view.
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Television and Debates
Television
• Paid Advertisements/Commercials
• Making the Nightly Newscasts
Debates
• What effects do they have on elections?
• What risks are involved in televised
debates?
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Politically Speaking:
Clothespin Vote
The vote cast by a person who does not like
either candidate and so votes for the less
objectionable of the two, putting a clothespin
over his or her nose to keep out the
unpleasant stench.
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In the 1888 presidential campaign,
supporters of Benjamin Harrison rolled
a huge ball covered with campaign
slogans across the country. The
gimmick, first used in 1840, gave rise
to the phrase “keep the ball rolling.”
Library of Congress
Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin debates Senator
Joe Biden during the
2008 campaign.
Rick Wiking, Pool, File/AP Photo
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Money
The Sources of Campaign Money
Campaign Finance Rules
A Second Campaign Finance Law
New Sources of Money
Money and Winning
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Candidates first made
phonographic recordings of their
speeches in 1908. Warren G.
Harding is shown here recording a
speech during the 1920 campaign.
Bettmann/CORBIS
John F. Kennedy and Richard
Nixon debate during the
1960 presidential campaign.
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Paul Schutzer/ Time Life
Pictures/ Getty Images
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Figure 10.2 Growth of PACs
1979–2010
Source: Federal Election Commission.
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Source: ABC News/Politics 2010 National Exit Poll, November 2, 2010, reporting data on more than 17,000
respondents.
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Source: ABC News/Politics 2010 National Exit Poll, November 2, 2010, reporting data on more than 17,000
respondents.
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Source: Center for Responsive Politics, based on FEC data.
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The figures for 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1996 fail to add up to 100 percent because of
missing data.
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What Decides the Election?
Party
Issues, Especially the Economy
• Prospective voting
• Retrospective voting
The Campaign
Finding a Winning Coalition
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Figure 10.3 The Economy and Vote
for President, 1948–2008
Notes: (1) Each dot represents a
presidential election, showing
the popular vote received by the
incumbent president’s party. (2)
1992 data do not include votes
for independent candidate H.
Ross Perot. (3) 2004 value on
RDI is projection from data
available in December 2004.
Source: From American Public Opinion, 5th ed.,
by Robert S. Erikson and Kent L. Tedin.
Copyright © 1995 by Addison-Wesley
Educational
Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of
Pearson Education, Inc. 2008 update from
Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department
of Commerce.
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Union members were
once heavily
Democratic, but since
Ronald Reagan began
winning white union
votes in 1980, these
votes have been up
for grabs.
AP Images
At a public meeting, Samuel Joseph
Wurzelbacher challenged Barack Obama
on his tax plan and quickly became
known as “Joe the Plumber.”
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Al Goldis/ AP Photo
a1968
Sources: For 1964–1976: Gallup poll data, as tabulated in
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, “Changing Patterns of Electoral
Competition,” in The New American Political System, ed.
Anthony King (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise
Institute, 1978), 254–256. For 1980–1992: Data from
New York Times/CBS News exit polls. For 1996:
Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 1997, p. 188. For
2000: Exit polls supplied by ABC News. For 2004 and
2008: CNN exit polls.
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election had three major
candidates (Humphrey, Nixon,
and Wallace).
b Jewish vote estimated from
various sources; since the
number of Jewish persons
interviewed often is less than
100, the error in this figure, as
well as that for nonwhites, may
be large.
c 1980 election had three major
candidates (Carter, Reagan, and
Anderson).
d 1992 election had three major
candidates (Clinton, Bush, and
Perot).
e For 1980–1992, refers to age
60 and over.
f For 1988, white Protestants
only.
g For 1996, refers to age 45 and
over.
Figure 10.4 Partisan Division of the
Presidential Vote, 1856–2008
Sources: Information for 1856–1988, updated from Historical Data Archive, Inter-University Consortium for
Political Research, as reported in William H. Flanigan and Nancy H. Zingale, Political Behavior of the American
Electorate, 3rd ed., 32. For 1992: World Almanac and Book of Facts 1994, 73.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
MEMORANDUM
To: Arjun Bruno, National Party Chairman
From: Arlene Marcus, State Party Chairwoman
Subject: Supporting a National Primary
In the past few election cycles, our state’s role in the
party nomination for president virtually has
disappeared with a May primary date. Several states
have leapfrogged ahead of us, and party leaders have
indicated that they do not want any more states to
move up their primary date. The national party needs
to find a way to ensure that all states, large and small,
have a real voice in nominating a presidential
candidate.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Arguments for:
1. A single national primary permits equal participation by all
states and presents a fair compromise with the increased
number of delegates that larger states send to the national
conventions, much like the compromises during the original
constitutional debates.
2. The nominating process needs to be less costly, particularly
when presidential candidates realistically need to raise $100
million a year before the general election to be competitive
for the nomination. Holding all primaries and caucuses on a
single day will reduce overall election expenses significantly.
3. If the American electorate knows presidential nominations
will be decided by each party on one day, then they will be
more likely to vote, a significant factor for elections in which
historically, fewer than 20 percent of eligible voters typically
participate.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Arguments against:
1. Each state decides in conjunction with the national party
when its primary or caucus will take place, and the federal
system of government designed by the Framers did not
guarantee that all states would be treated equally at all
times.
2. A national primary would favor candidates with high name
recognition and funding to further that recognition and
would severely disadvantage lesser known candidates within
the party.
3. Even though the general election takes place on one day,
voter turnout in the United States still is lower than in other
advanced industrialized democracies, which suggests that
other factors influence who participates.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Your decision:
Support a National Primary?
Oppose a National Primary?
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Chapter 11
Interest Groups
WHO GOVERNS?
1. Do interest groups dominate
government, and is any particular
lobby politically unbeatable?
2. Why do people join interest groups?
TO WHAT ENDS?
1. Is the proliferation of political action
committees (PACs) and other groups
good or bad for America’s
representative democracy?
2. Should interest groups’ political
activities be restricted by law?
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The Rise of Interest Groups
An interest group is any organization
that seeks to influence public policy.
The conditions that lead to the rise of
interest groups are
• Broad economic developments
• Government policy
• Leadership exercised
• Increased governmental activities
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BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters/Landov
A woman holds a Tea Party sign at a rally in Concord,
New Hampshire.
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Figure 11.1 What the Top Lobby
Spent, 1998–2010
Source: Center for
Public Integrity,
Georgetown
University,
Washington, D.C.,
2011.
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Kinds of Organizations
Institutional Interests
Membership Interests
W. E. B. Du Bois, scholar and
activist, was one of the founders
of the NAACP.
C.M. Battey/Hulton Archive/Getty
Images
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Getting and Keeping Members
Incentives to Join
• Solidarity
• Material
• Purposive
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Group/Roll Call/Getty Images
The Service Employees
International Union, a large and
growing force, listens to Andy
Stern, its president until 2010.
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The Influence of the Staff
Some members of an interest group
may not care about many of the
issues with which the group gets
involved.
What the interest group does may
reflect what the staff wants than
what the members believe.
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Interest Groups and Social
Movements
The Environmental Movement
The Feminist Movement
The Union Movement
The Million Moms
March in 2004
demanded a
federal ban on
assault weapons.
Larry Downing/Reuters
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Funds for Interest Groups
Foundation Grants
Federal Grants and
Contracts
Direct Mail
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Upper Class Bias?
Do interest groups reflect an upperclass bias?
Those most likely to belong to a
voluntary association have
• Higher incomes
• College degrees
• Professional or technical jobs
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Upper Class Bias?
Consider:
• Do interest groups and lobbyists always
get what they want?
• Are business-oriented groups divided
among themselves?
• Are there profound cleavages of opinion
among the upper class?
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Farmers once had great
influence in Congress and
could get their way with a
few telephone calls.
Today, they often must
use mass protest
methods.
JP/Laffront/Sygma/Corbis
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The Activities of Interest Groups
Information
Earmarks
Public Support
Money and PACs
The “Revolving Door”
Civil Disobedience
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Source: Federal Election Committee, “Top 50 PACs by Contributions to Candidates and Other Committees,
January 1, 2009–December 31, 2009,” 2010.
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Figure 11.2 Political Action
Committees (PACs)
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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Group/Roll Call/Getty Images
Jack Abramoff, convicted of unethical behavior in handling
lobbying claims by certain Indian tribes, is sworn in before a
congressional committee investigating this.
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Lawsuits, such as
this one against
Proposition 8 which
banned same sex
marriage in
California, are often
more effective than
protest
demonstrations in
changing policies.
Fred Prouser/Reuters/Landov
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Regulating Interest Groups
1946 – Federal Regulation of
Lobbying Act
1995 – Congress unanimously
passed lobbying bill
• Tightened registration and disclosure
requirements
• Broadened definition of a lobbyist
• Did not cover grass roots organizations
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Regulating Interest Groups
2007 – New regulations took effect
• No gifts of any value from registered lobbyists
or firms that employ lobbyists
• No reimbursements for travel costs from
registered lobbyist or firms that employ
lobbyists
• No reimbursement for travel costs, no matter
the source, if the trip is in any part organized
or requested by a registered lobbyist or firm
that employs lobbyists
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
MEMORANDUM
To: Kathleen Moore, Senate majority leader
From: Christopher Franklin, chief of staff
Subject: Full federal financing of presidential campaigns
Every presidential election since 1976 has been financed in
part by federal funds. Now presidential candidates say they
will forego public funding for the general election, given the
vastly greater resources available through private fundraising. Congress needs to decide whether elections are a
public investment or a political free market for citizens and
candidates.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Arguments for:
1. Legal precedents are promising. Federal matching funds already go
to presidential primary candidates who have raised at least
$5,000, in contributions of $250 or less, in each of twenty states.
For the general election, each major party nominee already is
eligible for federal funding if he or she agrees to spend no more
than that amount.
2. The funding required would be small. Allocating $1 billion out of
the public treasury for a presidential election every four years is
hardly a fiscal drain on a nearly $2 trillion annual budget.
3. The effects would be pervasive. Candidates and party leaders
would stop covertly courting big donors with phone calls, lunches,
and personal visits, and would focus instead on the needs of
average citizens.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Arguments against:
1. Constitutional precedent for requiring political candidates to accept
public funds is weak. In Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the Supreme Court
upheld limits on campaign contributions for candidates who accept
public money, but it also defined spending money for political purposes
as expression protected by the First Amendment, thereby giving
individuals the right to raise and spend as much of their own money as
they choose, if they forego federal funds.
2. Campaign spending would soon spiral once again. The federal
government may not restrict spending by individuals or organizations
working independently from the political parties, and federal funds
would merely supplement, not supplant, private fund-raising.
3. Less than 10 percent of taxpayers currently supports public financing
through voluntary federal income tax checkoffs, and voters likely
would view bankrolling elections as serving politicians, not the people.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Your decision:
Support Legislation?
Oppose Legislation?
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Chapter 12
The Media
WHO GOVERNS?
1. How much power do the media
have?
2. Can we trust the media to be
fair?
TO WHAT ENDS?
1. What public policies will the
media support?
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The Media and Politics
Freedom of the Press
The United States versus Europe
Freedom of Information Act
Privately Held Media:
• Newspapers
• Radio and Television
Federal Communication Commission
(FCC)
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powerlineblog.com. Reprinted by
permission of Powerline.
As appeared on www.dailykos.com.
Reprinted with permission.
Blogs, both conservative and liberal, have become an important form
of political advertising.
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Journalism in American Political
History
The Party Press
The Popular Press
Magazines of Opinion
Electronic Journalism
The Internet
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Bettmann/Corbis
Pixellover RM 3/Alamy
News used to come by radio, but today many people read
newspapers on iPads and other electronic devices.
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Source: Nielsen Media Research, used under license. Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in
Journalism, 2011 State of the News Media, http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/network-essay/.
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Note: 18–34 readership
represents the average
of 18–24 readership
and 25–34 readership.
2006 data is through
September
Source: The Wall Street Journal (February 15, 2007). Copyright © 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Dow Jones & Company, Inc., via Copyright Clearance Center.
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The Internet and Politics
It is now easier to:
raise money in small donations
organize people to attend meetings
take instant (unreliable?) opinion polls
instantly criticize your opponent
mobilize local followers
target campaigners with the names of
people they should contact
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The Structure of the Media
Degree of Competition
The National Media
• Gatekeeper
• Scorekeeper
• Watchdog
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Rules Governing the Media
Newspapers – least
governmental regulation
Radio and TV – most
governmental regulation
Confidentiality of Sources
Regulating Broadcasting
Campaigning
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Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
Activists urge Congress to
pass a law shielding
reporters from being
required to testify about
their sources.
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REUTERS/Jason Reed
Senator Barack Obama campaigning for president in
Los Angeles.
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Pew Research Center for the People Source: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press,
“Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two-Decade Low: Public Evaluations of the News Media: 1985–2009,”
September 2009, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1341/press-accuracy-rating-hits-two-decade-low.
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Are the National Media Biased?
Do members of the media have a
distinctive political attitude?
Does that attitude affect what they
write or say?
Does what they write or say affect
what citizens believe?
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Are the National Media Biased?
A liberal majority
Neutral and objective?
• Routine stories
• Feature stories
• Insider stories
Media’s influence
• Selective attention
.
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Government and the News
Prominence of the President
Coverage of Congress
Why do we have so many news
leaks?
Sensationalism in the media
Government constraints on
journalists
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Brown Brothers
When President Theodore Roosevelt cultivated the media,
reporters usually were unknown and poorly paid.
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In 1933, White House press
conferences were informal
affairs, as when reporters
gathered around Franklin
Roosevelt’s desk in the Oval
Office.
Bettmann/Corbis
Today, there are huge
gatherings held in a special
conference room, as on the
right.
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JASON REED/Reuters/Landov
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
MEMORANDUM
To: Matthew Wilson, senator
From: Margaret Drinker, legislative assistant
Subject: Protecting journalists
The Supreme Court has held that forcing a reporter
to testify does not violate the First Amendment to the
Constitution. But Congress could pass a law, similar
to that in many states, banning such testimony if it
reveals a confidential source.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Arguments for:
1. Thirty-four states now have shield laws similar to
the one proposed by Congress.
2. Effective journalism requires protecting sources
from being identified; without protection, a lot of
important stories would not be written.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Arguments against:
1. Every person accused in a criminal trial has a
right to know all of the evidence against him or
her and to confront witnesses. A shield law would
deprive people of this right.
2. A shield law would allow any government official
to leak secret information with no fear of being
detected.
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Your decision:
Support Bill?
Oppose Bill?
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