THE PRESS AND THE DUMBED-DOWN COVERAGE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Jim Taricani
Once again, the mighty self-absorbed national press corps is doing a disservice to voters across the country. How many front page stories have there been about Bill Clinton bad-mouthing Obama, acting as a not too stealth attack dog for his wife, Hillary? Way too many! And how many front page stories have there been about Mrs. Clinton and Obama’s positions on the economy, the war or any other truly important topic effecting millions of Americans? Not enough, for sure.
And don’t get me started on the television pundits. One in particular, Chris Matthews of MSNBC is the most egregious offender of ignoring issues and focusing on the superficial.
Matthews is a blow-hard, in my opinion, who rarely lets his guests speak without him yelling over whatever they have to say. He is no doubt sesixt, and was taken to task by numerous feminist organizations for his condescending and sexist treatment of Hillary Clinton.
On the night of the New Hampshire primary, before all the votes were in, Matthews, ( and several other television talking heads) all but wrote off Clinton and began touting Obama as the next Christ.
It was especially so for Matthews, who has publicly made his distaste for Hillary Clinton well known. He was waxing poetic about Obama and what an historic night this was going to be for America.
And when later that evening Matthews and others found out that all the network exit polling had been wrong, what did Mr. gutless do? He blamed it on a producer “ who kept handing me a piece of paper saying ‘ it’s going to be Obama.” Pathetic on Matthews part.
The coverage of the Republicans is no better. The national press tried to paint Mick Huckabee as a Gomer Pyle double, and the New York Times keeps digging up old personal dirt on Rudy while ignoring the issues all the candidates are trying to talk about.
Voters in this country, as noted in dozens of surveys, are ill-informed.
The national and to some extent the local media are partly to blame.
We keep reporting on the horse race, the personal faults of candidates while giving scant attention to the issues on which they are running.
I remember watching one debate where NBC’s Tim Russert was the moderator. His first question to Obama was something like “ Hillary has raised the race card, are you offended?”
The “ race card “ hasn’t been raised by anyone except those in the press.
It’s very disturbing to think that American voters decide who will lead their country based on how the candidates look, or how well they can bad mouth their opponents in televised debates.
This lousy and superficial press coverage just highlights the need for the networks to offer free air time to candidates so they can present their positions on important issues to the voters, and let the voters decide, instead of a screaming Chris Matthews, who will make the best president.