Top Eleven Ways the Media Has Screwed Up Election Coverage

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:04 PM EDT

Article Source: Utne

politics, barack-obama, media, john-mccain, sarah-palin, election-2008, fair

The always-thorough folks at FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) have compiled the "Top Troubling Tropes of Campaign '08," a handy (if alarming) roundup of eleven misleading, factually bankrupt themes that have dominated election coverage.

Not only do journalists organize the election story around the question—not terribly helpful to voters—of who's up and who's down, they largely base their evaluation of the race on shallow image-based narratives that the media construct themselves: Barack Obama is an "elitist" who might not "get the way we live" ( Extra! , 8/08), while John McCain is a straight-talking "maverick" ( Extra! , 6/08).

The FAIR report goes well beyond deconstructing the "maverick" and "elitist" labels (Troubling Tropes #1 and 2), using extensively sourced analysis to rebut the claim that the so-called liberal media has "smeared" vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (#3) and contesting the media's treatment of John McCain as a "national security pro" (#4).

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Vanessa Wilson's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Media Watch, Political Analysis, The Citizen Journalist
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4.0

{"commentId":3697664,"authorDomain":"alysah-98"}

Lisa1717

Great article! It really deconstructs the false narrative about the "liberal media bias." But of course repubs will counter that FAIR is in the tank for Obama.

{"commentId":3697664,"threadId":"399383","contentId":"2040228","authorDomain":"alysah-98"}

1 vote

#1 - Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:23 PM EDT

{"commentId":3700278,"authorDomain":"djehuty"}

Djehuty

The degree of bias is so serious, and goes so unnoticed. The MSM is a monolithic propaganda machine, or at least it seems so from a distance.

John Stewart is the nearest thing to a reporter, it seems.

{"commentId":3700278,"threadId":"399383","contentId":"2040228","authorDomain":"djehuty"}

4 votes

#2 - Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:35 AM EDT

{"commentId":3751448,"authorDomain":"laef"}

LaeF1

cheers Djehuty,

BUT, in many ways, unfortunately, the humor twist that Stewart puts on the stories causes people's reaction/way of dealing with all the BS is to laugh at it, instead of getting mad and doing something about it. Seeing him at the end of the day call out all the BS that went on in Washington has turned into a way for people to also cope with it.

"ah man, that is so true, ha ha ha. That Bush is such a dumbass! heh heh."

Sometimes I wish Stewart would get MAD, rather than just make jokes about the absurdity of it all.

{"commentId":3751448,"threadId":"399383","contentId":"2040228","authorDomain":"laef"}

1 vote

#2.1 - Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:44 PM EDT

{"commentId":3753079,"authorDomain":"djehuty"}

Djehuty

True, sadly.

{"commentId":3753079,"threadId":"399383","contentId":"2040228","authorDomain":"djehuty"}

1 vote

#2.2 - Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:15 AM EDT

{"commentId":3732162,"authorDomain":"energynet"}

energynet

We should have been promoting this angle of things a bit earlier.

The media has gotten away with one of the saddest examples of voter suppression, not covered yet. Drive people into a totally negative hate filled state of affairs and then pop a whammy on dummydems at the last minute to make sure that their base stays home.

Let's face it, Just as the women who carved herself up is now a non-issue the next attack piece will be in the mouths of Limboheads tomorrow or the next day, to be met with another one soon after.

They've been pulling these kinds of stunts at the local, state and national level for decades. We are seeing the full set of fireworks this time.

{"commentId":3732162,"threadId":"399383","contentId":"2040228","authorDomain":"energynet"}

1 vote

#3 - Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:15 AM EDT

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VANESSA WILSON

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Top Eleven Ways the Media Has Screwed Up Election Coverage

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