Media Contaminates Modern Politics

Twenty years ago, the Evening News was the dominate force in news and politics. Besides Meet the Press on Sunday mornings and 60 Minutes on Sunday evenings, every American tuned in to watch Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, or Peter Jennings shed light on America's real problems and the politics behind them. Today, those three men have retired and been replaced and their shows have been replaced by 24-hour cable news networks like CNN, MSNBC and FoxNews. Additionally, their influence and political slant have become so obvious one only has to mention what news they watch to inform someone what political point of view they hold to.

While that is insignificant alone, what has evolved is a medium through which politics are polarized and leaders are constantly under the proverbial microscope. The detriment is in what is transpiring where news is being slanted for the viewers and an objective view is no longer rendered. That was a hallmark of the journalists mentioned above who had political opinions but were never revealed to viewers of their television shows. The same cannot be said for Wolff Blitzer, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs. In fact what has made the cable news networks so dynamic and watched is the very thing creating such a detrimental playing field.

Locally, the Memphis newspaper, the Commercial Appeal and papers like it have long endorsed candidates running for local and national offices. What is apparent is their endorsement has spread to how they cover candidates and opponents of those they endorse. This has created a major debacle in media as campaigns are having to meander their way through the maze of network media in the 21^st Century. Nationally, Republican candidates are going to get a better shake from the people at FoxNews than at CNN. That is because CNN is more liberal while FoxNews is conservative in their perspective.

With that, presidential hopefuls are having to position themselves to interview across the board. At the same time they are entering interviews knowing that the differences between their position and that of the network will make the interview a difficult one to have. That is why candidates are spending less time on cable news networks and more time on the open formats of CBS, NBC, and ABC.

During the Memphis mayoral campaign, the various television stations were less than forthcoming about their positions. Certainly the incumbent, Mayor Willie Herenton received massive coverage because he is a polarizing figure. But what was discerned was that the Commercial Appeal covered the race with more appeal and coverage to the candidates, endorsing one of them. In fact, on the day of the election, the paper went so far on its website to follow a candidate during his earlier morning personal visit to the voting booth. That did not happen for all the candidates, just one of them.

When Rudy Giuliani begins his push for the Republican nomination one thing is certain, you will not see him on CNN doing an interview with Anderson Cooper. You will see Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton. And that makes for a sad moment in politics because the very questions needed to be answered for America to make a well-informed decision about its next president will not come from someone who believes what you believe. It is most likely to come from someone who disagrees with you. That point was exemplified on ABC's the View, the morning show that received such massive media attention because of the views of former host, Rosie O'Donnell and longtime cohost, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. In a recent taping, Elisabeth and Rosie's replacement, Whoopi Goldberg found themselves on opposite sides of the political swing when Elisabeth insinuated some women have abortions as a way of making money. Whoopi took great exception to Elisabeth's conservative point-of-view and it opened the door to the first of what will be many sparring matches between the two women.

With politics playing such a critical role in the future of America, questions have to be answered before the nation goes to polls in November 2008. As of right now, the critical questions are not being answered because they are not being asked. You will not find Mitt Romney talking about how he really feels about gay rights or why he skipped a minority-oriented debate because FoxNews will not ask him about it. You will not find Hilary Clinton being pressed about what she will do about gay rights because CNN will not push her on the subject. And that is the tragedy of the influence of the media on politics is our day and time.

And we will pay the price for it. One election at a time.