Saturday, January 12, 2008

Something to Think About

As if anyone in this country could possibly not be aware this is an election year, show me that person who is oblivious to the news, to the special reports on the primary in New Hampshire and the Iowa caucus that just ended this past week.

We should all brace ourselves because with the field so congested, shall we say, on both sides of the street -with many candidates vying for the party nomination for the presidential election.

I have not made a decision for myself as yet exactly which candidate I would prefer to see get the nomination - either for my party or for the opposition.

But what I would really appreciate is fair and balanced reporting about each and every candidate. In a country that touts itself as having great freedom of the press, of speech, I don't think that is too much to ask, do you?

This morning, my friend Minnesota Blue sent me a piece that I think regardless of your opinion of HIlary Clinton everyone should read. This article, while focusing primarily on ways the author feels Ms. Clinton has been given unfair or biased coverage by the media - primarily by MSNBC's program "Hardball" and more specifically, by Chris Matthews, a reporter/correspondent person on that program, the issue also pertains to other people - women - who have come into the line of fire by Mr. Matthews.

I watch this program on rare occasions - mainly if I happen to have MSNBC on late at night and fall asleep then wake up to hear Chris Matthews expounding his thoughts on various issues. At times, I have been confused by what I would awake hearing and thinking somehow I had been a bit groggy and accidentally clicked on the Fox network news. His attitude, demeanor, base knowledge all too often, turns me off totally so I rarely do watch this program as a matter of choice - just purely by accident.

Frankly, I think MSNBC is very lax in not addressing his manner of reporting, his patronizing attitude towards women as well as towards issues that often have a strong impact too on women's lives as well.

Check out this article though and see if you don't see the writer's point that comparing Ms. Clinton's voice, her choice of clothing, other aspects about her to male counterparts various political platforms, not their dress, their voice, their laugh -their whatever personal attributes making each person who he or she is would be biased and very unfair reporting.

Each candidate should be given fair reporting -not about how they speak or laugh but about what they actually say - what their tenets are, their creed, their beliefs, their ambitions. If the election were for a personality contest, fashion show or anything that superficial, then compare away on appearance. But it's not so make the field a level one for all concerned by fair and unbiased reporting through the media and that means to keep you opinion then strictly to yourself if you are doing a job in that medium.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jeni, for personal reasons, I support no candidate, therefore, I don't follow politics... but this sounds interesting so I scanned the linked article... that Matthews sounds like a chauvinist/sexist pig.

I thought this only happens in Sports (ie. Kobe Bryant gets no love from the media no matter what he does).

I agree with you, all candidates should be given fair reporting based on their credentials not on non-sense that nobody really cares about except for maybe some sick-minded people.

Unfortunately, some media hacks only want "traffic" or popularity by riding somebody else's coattails. They want to be famous by being controversial. However, in Matthews' case, the reasoning seems to be deeper, as shown by the various links to his more anti-Hillary campaigns.

-Saedel

Dianne said...

I can barely listen to Matthews. Whenever I do watch him I find myself waiting for him to completely lose it and attack someone - verbally and physically.

I wish they would stop presenting the news as entertainment or I wish more people would pay attention to what they're doing.

Thanks to you and minnesotablue for the link to the article. I'm going to pass it on to others.

Rick Rockhill said...

I think it is an interesting election year and will be quite exciting. Some real choices-on both sides for a change!

fermicat said...

Idiotic reporting like we've seen in this (and every other recent) election is just one of the reasons why I do not EVER watch TV news. I get all of my news from the internet news sources, NPR, or the local newspaper. Print sources will have crappy articles, but I don't have to waste time reading them.

I disagree that frivolous coverage is limited to Clinton. We all heard way too much about the $400 haircut for that to be true. I think that the 24 hour news channels are the main source of the problem because they need something to talk about to fill the time. Not enough real news? OK, they'll just make shit up or harp on the tiniest foibles. It's kind of like how sportscasters cannot let a silent moment go by when calling a game, and they say really stupid stuff to fill in the air time.

Travis Cody said...

When the news became more about entertainment and ratings than about reporting the actual facts about important events, it lost any hope of fair and unbiased reporting.

Now we have our liberal programs and our conservative programs where the only "news" we can get about the candidates is slanted one way or another and focused on nothing that helps the general public make up their minds about the best candidate to represent them.

Minnesotablue said...

As usual you wrote a great comment.

Debo Blue said...

Loved the article! Thanks for sharing.