Media Circus Does No Good

04/06/2008

Paul Munnis


Whether or not you support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for president I am sure you have noticed the media bias in their coverage of the campaigns. It is not a pretty sight and it shows the way that the media impacts political campaigns here in the U.S.

For awhile the media did an about face as Hillary won state contests; and then they turned the heat up under Barack instead of Hillary. He felt it too and to his credit he fought back and he won more states. As high profile endorsements are coming Barack’s way the media is trashing Hillary once again.

I have wondered what would happen if Hillary announced she were coming to the Mayo Civic Auditorium in Rochester. I think it would be a sell out crowd that filled the place to capacity. People would come from all over our state and the adjacent states too just to hear her speak. I am sure it is the same for Barack. Neither of the two candidates is despised by Democrats. They keep polling as near equals in all of the studies that I have seen. Neither deserves to be demonized.

What to do about this media bias is a real problem for candidates and their campaign staffs. Some of the news channels seem to go out of their way to try to create news when there is none. I am thinking about MSNBC, FOX and CNN when I say this. Some of the shows seem to try to make low rating hosts into super-stars by having them adopt extreme positions and say ridiculous things and then have them say it over and over until people take sides. “Illegal Aliens” is one such extreme that comes to mind as does the one of the off-shoring of jobs due to globalization.

What the networks are doing is no better than what Karl Rove did in his efforts to divide America in order to conquer it for the GOP. Yes these are two controversial subjects and they deserve a much more candid and balanced discussion that what they get from the networks. In time FRONTLINE will do a story on PBS or a C-SPAN discussion will take place that does the subjects real justice but by then people will be polarized.

From a Democratic Party view-point I don’t think that we are being hurt in the aggregate I think it is causing people to focus on a contest between two Democrats to the exclusion of McCain. The GOP is being hurt and since we have been in that position for the last seven years we can at least admit that it’s an awful position to be in. I suspect that if that keeps up all the way to late August then there will be a short campaign between the Democratic candidate and the GOP candidate and then it will suddenly be time to vote after maybe two or three TV debates. The data shows that Democratic Party momentum is building into a tsunami wave as a result of the battle between Hillary and Barack while McCain is left far at sea.

If I were working on Hillary’s campaign I’d be angry at the media bias for it is hurting her in her attempts to win delegates.

The other soap opera is one of dealing with Michigan and Florida and it is yet another area turning into a media circus. No matter what the Democratic Party does about these two States the media will condemn it out of hand. That is a no-win situation for all involved. The candidates lose delegates, the party gets smeared for enforcing their rules, and the Sates lose representation. It seems impossible to turn it into a win-win situation at this point. One thing I have been wondering is if Florida and Michigan super-delegates will be barred from the convention? Nobody is even asking.

The British seem to have a way of taming the press during the campaign period and it is done mainly by having a short-fast campaign cycle combined with only public financing of the candidates and free media coverage is required on an equal time basis for each candidate. Our American campaigns runs 18 months, cost a fortune, make the media rich as double thick cream, and it wears thin with the public. People get turned off and they tune out the candidates by the time summer of the presidential election year hits. The Conventions are then run in late summer and they turn into a media circus and people get disgusted by Conventions for they are about as interesting as watching ice cubes freeze. Sensible people plan alternatives during the summer Convention period.

Then you get people like Ralph Nader and Lamont Alexander. They each represent about 10 people and yet they are asking to be taken seriously as candidates. Come on we can do better than that.

We do need election reform and it’s much different than what the Congress thinks is needed. Congress concentrates on hard versus soft money and equal media time for candidates on the public airwaves as the focus of campaign reform. What we really need is a faster election cycle, less hype, fair and balanced media coverage, and more factual positioning by the candidates against our key issues. We also need public financing only and even that should have a limit set. Finally, the media who is using the public airwaves, should offer free and equal time to the candidates.

We can and we should be doing better by these people. We don’t want the contest between McCain, Hillary and Barack, to be decided by heart attack.