Buck Ryan's 'Ballot Bomb' on KET Tonight Gets National News Coverage

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 20, 2014) — "Ballot Bomb: Exploring the Young Voter Explosion," a documentary by journalism professor Buck Ryan airing on Kentucky Education Television (KET) tonight, has been the subject of FOX News and MSNBC reports nationally before its Monday night debut.

The half-hour program, co-hosted by Ryan and his 19-year-old son, Austin, will be shown for the first time statewide on KET at 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20. KET plans to rebroadcast the program several times on its various channels.

"We've been working on this for two years, ever since young voters, 18 to 29 years old, swung the presidential election," Ryan said. "Austin was an 18-year-old Lexington Catholic graduate when we started; now he's a 19-year-old Centre College sophomore studying in Shanghai."

"Ballot Bomb" is an update to Ryan's award-winning 2001 KET documentary, "Citizen Kentucky: Democracy and the Media," when Austin appeared with several children in the opening segment as a kindergartner. 

"Austin and his contemporaries in the Millennial Generation have come of age to vote in what may be America's most watched election," Ryan says in his fifth documentary aired by KET. 

Ryan, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications in the College of Communication and Information, is director of the Citizen Kentucky Project of UK's Scripps Howard First Amendment Center. The 13-year-old project is designed to engage young people in civic life.

The "Ballot Bomb" program raises the question of whether young voters can swing the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky. It features segments where Austin interviews three Senate candidates about their messages to young voters and about the first time they voted.

When the Democratic candidate, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, declined to tell the Louisville Courier-Journal about whether she voted for President Barack Obama, her comments made national news.

Sam Youngman, political writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader, wrote an Oct. 10 story, along with reporter Jack Brammer, about Austin's interview with Grimes, who said she voted for then-U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Kentucky Democratic primary election against Obama.

Austin's interview then went viral. Youngman's tweet, "Grimes did tell UK's Buck and Austin Ryan she voted for HRC in '08 primary," launched a discussion on Oct. 14 with the All Star Panel on "Special Report with Bret Baier" on FOX News.

Austin's interview with Grimes was aired for the first time the next morning, Oct. 15, as part of a panel discussion on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

In his interview, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell tells Austin that when he was 18 years old he "proudly voted for Richard Nixon" in the 1960 presidential race against John F. Kennedy because his father, a World War II veteran, was a big fan of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. At the time Nixon was President Eisenhower's vice president.

Citizen Kentucky's research project with UK's Honors students highlighted that even today young voters are influenced by their parents' political views.  

The "Ballot Bomb" program focuses on three questions about the Millennial Generation: "Who are they?" "What are their politics?" and "What can we learn from them?"

The Pew Research Center suggests that young voters tend to be independent and lean libertarian. 

David Patterson, the Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, sued unsuccessfully to appear in the  Monday, Oct. 13, KET debate with Grimes and McConnell that was moderated by Bill Goodman.

Cpl. Patterson, a Harrodsburg police officer, gets equal time in "Ballot Bomb."

"My goal for the documentary was to present people in the best possible light to contrast with the dark, depressing negative news coverage and political ads," Ryan said. "The people, the press and the candidates have become one big dysfunctional family. With 'Ballot Bomb' I hope to serve the Commonwealth as a civic marriage counselor. Will that work? Just watch."

MEDIA CONTACT: Ann Blackford at 859-323-6442 or ann.blackford@uky.edu