Bill Clinton and the MTV Presidency

During the 1990s, cable television ushered in deep political and economic changes that fundamentally transformed how citizens interact with the government, marketplace, and one another. Journalists and pundits frequently lament how this multi-channel, 24/7 medium has contributed to partisan polarization, voter apathy, and media excess. Contemporary narratives, however, focus on the product of media change without an understanding of the historical process by which new communications technology shaped and was shaped by political debates, economic structures, and cultural practices. But, this paper argues that the cablecasting campaign strategy deployed by the Clinton campaign became political currency for the industry, ultimately giving cable executives an advantage in shaping the regulatory landscape during the Clinton presidency.

By examining the media politics surrounding the 1992 election, this project argues that regulatory debates about how to expand the cable industry during the 1990s hinged on the creation of narratives—constructed by the cable industry—that sold the political possibilities of the new technology to solve public problems, promote economic growth and provide political leaders alternative communication channels that could be advantageous for their careers. With Clinton, this strategy worked. He depended on MTV and CNN to win the presidency, and then in an unlikely turn of events, became an advocate for deregulating the industry four years later. Cable’s prominence in the 1992 campaign gave the industry legitimacy, profits, and ultimately political power as they negotiated the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Excavating new archival research from presidential libraries and the Cable Library in Denver, this paper argues that the growth of market populism in the cable industry further transformed citizens into consumers, ultimately encouraging both news programs and presidential contenders to cater to audiences a “media consumers” first, citizens second.