Elections????

We as a nation have recently been through arguably one of the most influential Presidential Elections of our time. Our country was experiencing a devastating recession and maybe on the verge of a depression. The people of our country elected Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Apparently the people of America felt that he was the right person for the job. But the more important question at hand is how they came to that conclusion. Did the media influence the election, were people properly informed on the policies, and did the right man get the job?

First and foremost, since this is a media related blog, it is imperative that I examine the media’s influence on the 2008 election. Was the Election biased, and did the people receive enough information to make their decision. The debate today still rages on about bias in the media. Democrats will argue that it is biased in favor of the Republicans and the Republicans will argue vice versa. Whether it is biased or not is a completely different blog post. I’m more worried about the voters themselves being affected by the media.

Journalists have stated that they try to produce balanced coverage for all major candidates. I ask what is exactly meant by major? If it is our duty as Americans to elect someone for the job as commander and chief, shouldn’t we be introduced to all options? What about the Independent or Libertarian candidates? What if the country were better off with a Libertarian or Independent? The sad truth is we will never know because those parties get very little to know coverage at all during the election times. I personally believe that it is because the media’s ultimate goal is to get higher ratings than their counterparts. There just isn’t that much pizzazz in the Libertarian party (Democrats and Republican coverage = higher ratings). This is the sad truth in politics folks.

This sad truth leads me to my next question, are people well enough informed about the candidates to make a sound decision. When you ask most people this question they would say that they are. Then you ask them why they voted the way they did and they give you all of the redeeming personal characteristics or qualities about their choice. Then you ask what they think of their candidates policies and they sit and stare at you with a blank look on their face. I feel the problem with the media’s presidential coverage is the amount of time spent of qualities and characteristics of the candidates and not enough of the policies. If the vast majority of voters can’t tell you anything about the candidates policies, then obviously they aren’t getting focused on hard enough. In my opinion qualities and characteristics should be a factor, but not the ultimate factor. A candidates platform should be the determining factor in their election. I love Robert Downey Jr. but wouldn’t elect him as President. I would elect someone who has ideas and beliefs that I believe would make the country better off.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much I rant and rave about Presidential Election coverage and voters ignorance, it isn’t going to change. The media dominate the Election coverage and endorse one of two parties; too bad if you’re an Independent or Libertarian. Even the coverage of Democrats and Republicans is less than acceptable. It seems that with each and passing election, the personal characteristics of the candidates gets more coverage than their actual ideas and plans for the country.