Pack Away the Pundits

The one thing that this presidential race has shown is that the pundits are about as useful a magic eight ball in predicting the outcome of this race. Whether it was last years numerous predictions about exactly when Senator McCain would drop out of the race, and who he would support when he did; or the Clinton ‘inevitablity’ statements, at almost every turn the media has guessed wrong. However, in a race that is historic and fascinating pundits are still endlessly featured on every cable news network.

Here’s a suggestion for the media, put away your crystal ball and do some reporting. There are plenty of issues that all three candidates address frequently that the media never bothers to discuss. Last week there was a back and forth between the Obama and McCain campaign about diplomacy, who a president talks to and under what circumstances. This was covered in the media as campaign bickering when in reality this is a serious issue that deserved more that superficial grade school level reporting.

If the press is looking for a new aspect of the race to cover report, how about the effect the internet is having on the race. This is a completely new and unknown element of politics. Does it help? Could it hurt? Will there be a backlash from Obama supporters over the top Clinton criticisms, or will this just get lost in cyberspace? Who reads political blogs? Who comments on political blogs? This is something completely new and the main steam media covers this like it does many topics; very lightly. It will be interesting to see as the internet continues to develop if the main stream media’s lack of depth will limit its future.

Tags: cnn, fox news, internet politics, Media Bias, media criticism, media critique, msnbc, presidential politics, punditry, pundits, web politics

2 comments May 25th, 2008

Media Bias - A Survey

I’ve always been weary about claiming media bias because there is often a conspiratorial element to these claims, and I think conspiracy theories tend to be weak.  However, this election cycle has been accompanied by such blatantly slanted journalism whether it is the New York Times’ irresponsible journalism or cable news’ infatuation with Senator Obama, objective reporting has all but disappeared.  So what do you think about bias in the media…

1.  It’s institutional, the networks are biased and they employ biased journalists.

2.  Journalists simply tend to be more liberal than the average American.

3.  It’s incompetence.  A good journalist doesn’t convey personal views in their reporting, and good journalists are in short supply.

4.  It’s a systemic problem.  Wealthy liberals control much of the media and influence its content.

5.  Other   _________________________

I lean towards a combination of 1 and 3.  What’s your opinion?

Tags: 2008 race, cnn, conspiracy theory, fox, fox news, liberal media, Media Bias, msnbc, New York Times, nyt, soros, survey

April 2nd, 2008