Media Obsession with Candidate Tax Returns

If you've perused the politics section of any media publication today, you're probably aware that Senator John McCain released made his tax returns public. But unlike Democratic candidates Clinton and Obama, who have both released tax returns since 2000 (Clinton even earlier), McCain only released his tax returns for 2006 and 2007. The media craze over the measly two-year period returns has turned all attention over to McCain's wife, Cindy McCain. The media have scrutinized the couple's prenuptial agreement and Cindy McCain's separate tax returns, hidden for privacy reasons. Her co-ownership of a Phoenix based beer distributor, Hensley & Co makes her estimated worth exceed $100 million.

Although, McCain's failure to release his tax returns did not catch media attention until a week after Senator Clinton released her tax returns. As early as February 2008, the media persistently criticized Senator Hillary Clinton for not making her tax returns public. MSNBC's Senior Campaign Correspondent Tucker Carlson emphasized, "[I]n order to know where the money is coming from, I think it's fair to see her tax return. That's why Obama has released his. That's why every candidate has and she hasn't." Carlson's remark was false--John McCain also had not released his tax returns at the time. In March, Tim Russert encouraged Mary Matalin's criticism of the Democrats, suggesting the voters' right to know exactly where the Clintons got their money. She responded, "...it is emblematic of her candidacy and what people don't like about her and what they are done with. They want transparency." When the Clintons released eight years of their income tax information on April 4, 2008, the media immediately covered the story on its headlines.

But does the American public really care about the “specific” tax returns of the presidential candidates? I don’t think so. Many voters already have trouble getting the candidates’ views on issues straight. I doubt many voters will take out their calculators to carefully track each candidate’s tax return from eight years ago. The media’s exaggeration of the importance of “open-book”, “transparent”, tax returns is due to their dominant game schema. Contrarily, the public’s governing schema has minimal interest on these statistics. For the media to even suggest that public is interested each candidate’s detailed tax return is an unrealistic and self-defeating illusion. The only probable reason for media demand for the long-term release of these tax returns is to enable political analysts to meticulously search for further questionable events, in each candidate’s past, that would make a good story. As for John McCain, Media Matters for America reports that although McCain’s story is currently in the news, “the media do not cover John McCain the way they have covered countless Democratic presidential candidates.”