I watched and listened to some of the debate last night (I had handbell choir and a church meeting that prevented me from seeing all of it, but I heard enough to get a good feeling about what probably went on overall). Now, I'm not going to sit up here and say who I think won or lost because, quite frankly, I've pretty much decided who I'm going to vote for and that wasn't likely to change from the debates.
But as I watched the end of the debate last evening, I found myself wishing something. I wish they'd just show the debate, live from start to finish and then have an achor come on and wish us all good night. What I really have found distasteful about all these debates is that the aftermath by all the news outlets. I don't need a talking head to bring up points and spin it, I don't need immediate results on who won, I don't need a million and one party big wigs and party celebrities to tell me how George W. Bush or John Kerry did. I'm an intelligent person and I can figure it out for myself.
First of all, any poll data can be skewed. A poll can say just about anything you want--it's all about how you interpret the results. Or how you ask the questions. I was watching some of CBS's coverage last night about how they had "undecided" voters rating each candidates. Both cut-aways were misleading at times--each designed to put Bush in a less than flattering light and Kerry in a more flattering one. I'm sure had I tuned over to FOX news, we'd have got the same thing, only reversed.
Both sides of the media are doing this as kind a "peer pressure" kind of things. "Oh look," they seem to say, "everyone is going to vote for _____________, but you're going to vote for _____________. You won't be cool if you vote for __________, so why not just vote for ______________ since everyone else is."
And, ya know, you may swing some voters either way on that one. And it's a shame because it's not actually allowing voters to make up their own minds about the candidates and the issues. Instead, we're just following an agenda set down for us by a media who a bias one way or the other.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 10/14/2004 07:29:00 AM |
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