Kerry Feedback and the “Biased Media”

Kerry Feedback and the “Biased Media”
by Steve Finkelstein

Praise de Lawd! Ah’s got e-mails on my last John Kerry article! Somebody is actually reading mah stuff! All kidding aside, I was gratified that my last article provoked some responses. Today I will deal with the e-mails I received, and then address the inept fashion in which the media is dealing with this election.

First off, “JP” writes:

Not only does it not surprise me, but I agree with you 100%. Instead of running an aggressive campaign, Kerry is following on the heels and acting in the tradition of George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.

The thing Kerry fails to realize is that this is not a traditional, issue-based campaign. Karl Rove and the brilliant (if not totally evil) Republican media consultants have made it a campaign of emotions: a campaign for the hearts (?) and minds (???) of America. And they are succeeding brilliantly. Kerry, whom I want to win, looks like an out of date, old-style patrician wuss.

God help this country and the world.

Dileep Rao writes:

Steve--

Here are some other thoughts on Kerry:

I think he has to laugh off this shit, all the spin and just focus, over and over, on Iraq--the cost, the intelligence. That this is the kind of man we have leading us now. That this is the kind of jackassery we are going to face day in and day out. That this is George W. Bush’s America, one that squanders its powers and material and most precious of all, its young people on stupid wars, stupidly executed. He has to tie Iraq like an albatross to Bush’s throat. He also has to say these are the priorities of Bush: healthcare for the wealthy, but not for you; jobs for the fat cats, but not for you; tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but not for you. For you he has debts and fiscal calamity. Your children can die for his mistakes. You get job insecurity while profits jump. You get economic stagnation and job shrinkage while his friends get dividend tax cuts. This is George W. Bush’s America. Where no child gets left behind because they’re all sent to the unemployment line.

Sharp-eyed readers will probably recognize Dileep’s name from his work on this site. His last review of Sky Captain was particularly astute. (Mainly because his opinion was the same as mine?) Having seen the movie, I have to agree--the CGI looked phony. Instead of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film came across more like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Back to politics. “Chris” writes:

Don’t despair! The best quality polls show the same tie as before the RNC. The only polls showing big leads for Bush showed big leads for him back in April too! I’m telling you, we are one random event away from having Bush over a barrel!

The word I hear is that Kerry still leads among independents and moderates. He has a 10 point lead among that group nationwide and a 12 point lead among that group in the so-called “Battle Ground” states. So why the Bush lead? Several of the polls that show a Bush lead have “normalized” their samples by over-representing Republicans. TIME magazine was roundly criticized for this.

Also Kerry has shown leads in polls that look at registered voters. If turnout is as big people expect, the “likely voter” polls could be significantly underestimating support for Kerry.

Don’t let the idiot journalists tell you what to think, man!

Chris blogs for a website called The Citizens, which gives excellent informed opinions (a rarity these days). It features insightful commentary on the current election by a host of political mavens. I really like this site; you should check it out.

Chris makes an excellent point about how the media is “mangling” the election. Why do I feel that the media is behaving like a headless chicken? Two reasons: first, the polls. The esteemed pollster John Zogby was the only one who got the disputed 2000 election right, and here’s how he sees the current election: Bush--46 %, Kerry--43 %. Those figures fall within a margin of error that makes it a statistical tie. An article by Zogby debunks polls taken by Gallup, TIME and Newsweek, showing that they employed a flawed methodology that resulted in Bush registering a double-digit lead.

What I can’t figure out is why the idiotic mainstream media doesn’t cover this story; instead, they stupidly keep reporting the results of these polls. Why? Do they want to create a bandwagon effect? TIME, Newsweek and Gallup are all part of major corporations. Do they want Bush to win? I would sincerely doubt it, but it certainly appears that way. By blindly going along with these polls, the media could have a negative impact on the election.

Second reason: CBS (now known as Can’t Broadcast Shit). I’m sure all of us by now are familiar with the “Tiffany Network’s” fiasco with forged documents showing Bush’s “bad behavior” in the Texas National Guard. This is a catastrophe for CBS and the mass media. It plays right into the hands of the right-wing, who maintain the media is biased against conservatives, and in this instance, it looks like they’re right. (How would Kerry supporters feel if CBS aired forged documents detrimental to their candidate?) When you air assertions that grave, you need empirical evidence to back it up. CBS totally screwed up in that regard. A red flag should have gone up when it was revealed that the source of these documents was Jayson Blair. (I’m kidding.)

All this displays Dan Rather’s liberal bias against the Bushes, as evidenced by Rather’s combative interview with GWB’s daddy in 1988. This was the final straw for me. I was a viewer of CBS Evening News, but now I'm switching to Tom Brokaw on NBC, where I’ll be inundated by the same 25 minutes of Viagra commercials.

My feeling is that Dan Rather should resign NOW. Not only for the shoddy journalistic standards he displayed, but because this sorry affair could energize Republicans, sending them to the polls in droves. Worst-case scenario, Democratic turnout could also be depressed by the bogus poll numbers, leading to a victory for Bush. And we don’t want that, now do we?

See ya soon.

Steve can be reached at steve@babblog.com.