What if there’s a policy debate and nobody hears it?
Score another one for the bimbo press. Most coverage of the 2008 election is horse race play-by-play commentary, almost none of it is substantive talk of policy differences and the actual impact on the nation of electing the people involved. The style of coverage is identical to the Gore/Bush race of 2000. And we know how well the press did preparing the nation for its choice then, don’t we?
They’re just giving the public what it wants, right?
All of these findings seem to be at sharp variance with what the public says it wants from campaign reporting. A new poll by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted for this report finds that about eight-in-ten of Americans say they want more coverage of the candidates’ stances on issues, and majorities want more on the record and personal background, and backing of the candidates, more about lesser-known candidates and more about debates.
Oh, well. What those in the media will say is that people may want these other things, but they generally end up paying attention to the horse race the most. That may be true. It also goes without saying that corporate profit-driven media is fundamentally geared against providing good news in the public interest.
-jb
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