In his post, "Cindy McCain's Struggle with Addiction," Mark Halperin links to a story about Cindy McCain on the Washingtonpost.com. “A Tangled Story of Addiction” is an article on washingtonpost.com discussing Cindy McCain’s past history of addiction to prescription medications. Throughout the election process the media attempts to illustrate candidates, and their families, in a negative light. Is this because that information is important in choosing the next leader of our country? No this is done hopefully to sway votes and increase viewership. The media may receive this information from sources within a candidate’s party, but ultimately they choose what appears in the news. We can argue that this comes solely from an advertisement standpoint, but everyone has a political agenda, especially The Media.
Our nation’s news has become extremely “gossip centric.” We cannot believe how many times Lindsay Lohan has been in rehab, or the fact that Tom Cruise practices Scientology. These are the types of stories our nation loves to read about. While this may be what some consider “newsworthy,” in an election these types of issues have no place. Over the course of this election the number of times I have read a story that focuses on a candidate’s character or values rather than the issues at hand is ridiculous. For example, Barack Obama did an interview with Fox News George Stephanopoulos regarding his religious beliefs, and his words were misconstrued to cause the public to question the truth (Obama My Muslim). Fox News being a typically right winged news outlet used their power to help negatively portray a candidate. Again after the nomination of Sarah Palin to the Republican candidacy, a list of books that she supposedly hoped to ban from libraries in her town began to circulate the internet (Malkin). This has since been proven false, but people who do not support her candidacy hoped to shed negative light on her character.
These examples are similar to the problem I found with the article “A Tangled Story of Addiction” on the WashingtonPost.com website. News outlets are focusing on topics that have no relation to the ability of these people to lead our country. However, like the story of Cindy McCain’s addiction to pain medication in 1989, the media chooses to waste time on stories like these. Cindy McCain’s addiction is not news. She speaks on the topic regularly and hopes to prevent others from similar experiences (Kindy, 1). Yet for some reason the Washingtonpost.com decided to write a five page story on this issue. In conversations that I have recently had about politics, people actually believe these things make or break a candidate. This is not because they are not educated, but because the media spends so much time on these insignificant issues that people begin to perceive them as significant.
This election isn’t about false accusations, and “name bashing.” We as citizens should be informed on the topics that will affect our country once we elect the next President of the United States of America.
Halperin, Mark. “Cindy McCain’s Struggle with Addiction.” The Page. Time, 12 Sept. 2008. Web. 13 Sept. 2008. http://thepage.time.com/2008/09/12/cindy-mccains-struggle-with-addiction/
Kindy, Kimberly. “A Tangled Story of Addiction.” WashingtonPost.com. The Washington Post company, 12 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Sept. 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091103928.html?sid=ST2008091103947&s_pos=
“Obama’s ‘My Muslim Faith’ Gaffe Fuels New Round of Rumor-Busting.” FoxNews.com. Fox News Network, 8 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Sept. 2008. http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/08/obama-my-muslim-faith-gaffe-fuels-new-round-of-rumor-busting/
Malkin, Michelle. “The Bogus Sarah Palin Banned Book List.” Michelle Malkin. Michelle Malkin LLC, 6 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Sept. 2008. http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/06/the-bogus-sarah-palin-banned-books-list/
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3 comments:
In my political blog I defended Palin from an advertisement standpoint. That was more about the way she advertised herself though. When it comes to the media and third parties, though, I agree it is way more political then it is marketing. Although, one could also make the argument that the two concepts go hand in hand.
Gossip seems to just be human nature. Who did what when with who is always more interesting than what policy a candidate is enforcing. It’s just what people are more driven to listen to and talk about. All those little side stories that end up defining a candidate’s characteristic, I think, are petty but yet still interesting to know. Now, I’m not saying the stories that are filtered out and spat at us are the ones we should be judging our candidates by, but that the general idea of learning a candidate’s character is something voters should consider among other things. We do it when choosing friends. We don’t simply look for what this person’s ambitions are in their future career, or what their opinions are on gas prices. We try to take those things and determine what these things say about their character. So the point I’m trying to make is, yes the character representation our candidates by the media is very skewed, but knowing their characters is just as important as knowing their policies.
Hi Jacelyn,
It's Cassy from your Media and Comm class and I decided to comment on your political blog for extra credit. I agree with pretty much everything you are saying about how the media decides to bring up things from the past to try and influence the election.
Any one in the public eye, especially if they are involved in the presidential election know that it is a given that everything they are doing is going to be judged. Also that everything they have done in their past will be brought up and discussed at some point and time.I think the past doesn't really affect who you are today, to an extend, because what you did when you were a teenager doesn't determine who you are today.
I think it is irrelevant in the political campaign that Sarah Palin possible had a list of banned books. I don't believe her personal life will affect her ability to run the country. People with political power understand that they must keep the personal life separate and not affect their political life.
I agree with what you said in your blog and I think you have made valid points.
-Cassy Lark
I don't understand why people are so concerned with finding "dirt" on others. We will never find a perfect candidate with a perfect family, and that makes perfect decisions. In our search for the right candidate and family we need to stop critisizing every bit of their lifes, and focus on the facts and their policies that will greatly affect your personal life.
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