Media Criticism

I cannot believe I have to talk about O.J. Simpson again. I was in high school physics the day that O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder and to that point, it seemed like all everyone was talking about was O.J. I thought I was done with the Juice but he could not stay away from the police blotter. His off-then-on again book outlining what he would have done if he did kill Nicole Brown and his recent attempt to steal his own sports memorabilia back certainly seem like a fitting end for Mr. Simpson.

I should amend this last statement because it is not an end, just an opportunity to do something else. The Juice may try to break out of prison by getting a tattoo of the prison on his body or contact Leslie Nielsen to try and get another Naked Gun movie filmed in prison. I don’t know what will happen next but it will certainly involve the media hopping on the Juice train until it runs off the rails.

My solution to the O.J. Simpson problem is to send him to another country. I know this is not legal and the global media would make its way back to America if he ever did something wrong. It is worth the effort though as O.J. would get a new start and Americans would get a rest from that 30 seconds on the news detailing his latest caper. I suggest the Low Countries in northern Europe, perhaps Denmark. We could trade O.J. Simpson for one of their former athletes/current criminals.

The people who read this blog are probably sick of me talking about the Democratic debates, the 2008 election and other aspects of politics that are fueled entirely by the media. I even get sick of these diatribes but I think I have given myself the unintentional mission of ending the long primary process once and for all, one blog at a time. To fuel this fire, the awful trio of the Huffington Post, Yahoo! and Slate are putting on a unique debate and a “mashup� tool that allows people to put individual answers together into their own package. Here is a little bit more detail on the debate from the New York Times:

Here’s how it works: Charlie Rose is hooking up by satellite individually from his studio in New York with each of the eight Democratic candidates, who are scattered across the country. He’ll question them each for 12 minutes on three topics _ Iraq, health care and education. There will also be a “wild card� question.

According to all three sponsors, these answers will be available on Friday through each website. The “mashup� tool will also be available to help political and technological nerds the opportunity to get involved in yet another debate.

Marc Lampkin makes a good point in his latest post on the Huffington Post, a liberal blogging website headed by Arianna Huffington. Lampkin discusses the use of the “mashup� tool as a way for people to hear what they want to hear from each candidate. Yahoo!, Slate and the Huffington Post should know better. This is already what the mainstream media does to candidates particularly the minor candidates who only make it on the news when they make a gaffe or do something silly.

If the Internet-using public is indeed tired with politics as usual and poor media coverage for their candidate, they should not resort to the “mashup� tool. Instead, they should search for unabridged audio, video and written transcripts of their speeches to hear what they are saying around the country. Lampkin’s final point is that we will hear more of the same which makes a “mashup� of what Obama, Clinton or even Kucinich or Gravel useless. Let’s stop pretending like high-tech gadgets and tools are really going to improve the process until we are actually ready to change the process in Washington D.C.

The underlying theme of any presidential primary debate depends on who is hosting the candidates. Forums held by the AFL-CIO will probably not deal with the environment while the Logo Network debate probably won’t get too far into the Iraq War. I understand that the good graces of the host make a focused debate a necessity in order to get the best questions from the panel. The Democratic debate held on September 9th on Spanish-language channel Univision may be drawing too fine a line in pleasing constituents with debates that few people watch.

I think that Hispanic voters who are interested in the debates have probably watched the endless hours of debates already conducted across the country. The political correctness that is rife within the Democratic Party was obvious when Senator Dodd and Governor Richardson (who is HISPANIC!) tried to speak Spanish to the chagrin of hosts. Every candidate was required to speak English which was then translated into Spanish for the viewing audience. The difficulty of listening to candidates of any party lay out their talking points for an hour and a half is made more significant when it is filtered several times over.

All of these points lead to one conclusion: the primary season is not too long, just the list of debates. While I have an interest in what candidates have to say on gay marriage or the environment, I don’t want to hear 90 minutes on the topic. I have not decided who I will vote for in my primary and I definitely have not thought about the general election yet. Like most voters, I will make a decision as I approach the ballot box. These debates are focused too much on a particular issue based on questions from single-minded forum moderators and offer nothing that a look at each candidate’s website won’t yield. If the Democrats and Republicans insist on holding similar debates in future election seasons, here are a few suggestions:

1) Let local news stations host the debates, not issue-oriented groups.
2) Space these debates out so that you have no more than one every month.
3) Stay away from the YouTube debate…please!

I always find it troubling when the media participates in raising false hope when an abduction or natural disaster occurs. This has happened with mine troubles out in Colorado and West Virginia over the past few years with talking heads spending hours bandying about conjecture under the guise of keeping hope alive. The disappearance of adventurer Steve Fossett on Monday has led to a week’s worth of stories stating that wreckage was found that was likely linked to Fossett.

The most difficult part of this type of disappearance is that there is no rhyme or reason to it. Steve Fossett has gone around the world in a balloon and a number of other daring feats that make a three hour flight seem routine. The press pushes local police departments and search teams for details in order to glean something newsworthy from their hopeful words. If Steve Fossett is found dead, the media as an institution will be happy because they can eulogize this great man without discussing the series of stories that built up the nation for a fall.

I don’t think this type of information is worth more than a few minutes each day on the news to update the public on the situation. Police crews, state search and rescue crews and family members will conduct their search without the help of the public. In fact, they should be given a wide berth to make their search without interference by the media or prying eyes. Cable networks and news papers are just showing their voyeuristic nature when they cover Steve Fossett’s disappearance endlessly.

By now, you have seen the hot “buzz� video of August 27th. Miss South Carolina gets a question, A.C. Slater holds the microphone and tries not to laugh and the young lady proceeds to mess up about as bad as you possibly can. She refers to Americans as “U.S. Americans� and mixes up South America and South Africa. At least I think she does, I have no idea what she is talking about.

It is appropriate that she got a question stating that most American students cannot identify the United States on a map. I think this irony is self evident but Miss South Carolina may have accidentally done a major service to public education. I just wish this happened as the YouTube debates took place among the Democrats. A user could have just played this clip and let the Democrats speak to public education issues.

I hate to pile on people and she clearly was flustered and rehearsed something that she was unfamiliar with. I do think that the tone of the press coverage was more “take a look at this…� with a smirk than actual news which is only designed to increase the snark factor that the public seems to enjoy. In the end, her inability to put together a cohesive argument and properly identify people may have given public education proponents enough material to spring back to the fore.

As you have no doubt heard, Sen. Barack Obama has responded to the popular video series “Obama Girl� with a combination of disdain and annoyance. In a variety of interviews including Yahoo News, Obama has said that video bloggers and others who create these types of Internet products need to show more responsibility. His children have inquired about the nature of the videos and his wife has expressed frustration with having to deal with this as an issue.

The criticisms from Senators Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd have been that Barack Obama lacks sophistication in his approach to foreign policy. I think he lacks sophistication in his approach to the media. Obama participated in the YouTube debate, for God’s sake. If you can take a question from a snow man on the prospects for environmental legislation, you can suck it up and take a little ribbing about “Obama Girl.�

Barack Obama should be worried about other issues on the campaign trail. “Obama Girl� and other videos on the Web are supporting his campaign while being entertaining. Obama’s candidacy may be tripped up by an established senator ahead of him in the Democratic primaries, questions about his experience and the inevitable smear machine that comes with a two-party system. He will also deal with that insidious elephant in the room that is racism. Barack Obama has a lot of ridiculous obstacles to face in his race to the presidency without creating his own. The senator needs to relax because the people he is criticizing-namely, bloggers and activists-appreciate a little humor with their politics.

Citizen journalism may be coming to one of the biggest debates in the Presidential Primary season in New Hampshire.

A blurb from MediaWeek:

WMUR-TV Pacts With Gather.com for Pres. Debate
WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., the station at ground zero for presidential politics, is turning to the blogging community to recruit citizen journalists for the upcoming June presidential debates. Throughout the month, (May 8 to May 27), the Hearst-Argyle Television ABC station has partnered with Gather.com to sponsor an open writing competition (Your Voice, Your Vote, Your Next President) to find 15 citizen journalists (five Democrats, five Republicans and five Independents). Katy Bachman reports. more »

Above: Maybe the citizen journalist could ask Rudy what happened to his hair? Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani reacts when a supporter tells him she was getting his autograph for her 93-year-old mother following his campaign stop at Valley High School, Tuesday, April 3, 2007, in West Des Moines, Iowa. Rudy Giuliani Addresses Supporters in Des Moines, Iowa.

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Yahoo and some other online outfits are going to host the first online Presidential debates.

Very exciting and very cool.

But will we be able to see Dick Nixon, er, Mitt Romney sweat through his five o’clock shadow, er, overly dyed hair?

The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

Presidential candidates to debate via Internet
Yahoo!, the Huffington Post and Web magazine Slate will engineer two presidential debates conducted online — apparently the first of their kind — that will feature candidates participating from separate locations with a real-time connection to voters via the Internet.

Cross posted from TV Bloggin.

Yahoo, Yahoo!, Slate, Huffington Post, Presidential Election, 2008 Presidential Race, elections, President, 2008 elections, online, politics, debates