The Bi-Polar Media Narratives create their own Fantasy/Reality

[Armstead]

In their lust to inject drama and excitement into political coverage, the Big Media are destroying the electoral process.

A neutral analysis of the last two weeks would indicate that Obama scored an impressive upset in Iowa, while John Edwards and Hillary made respectable showings, with Edwards in second place. Richardson also survived the initial cut, and Kucinich was still in there fighting.

Thus, going into New Hampshire, Obama gained an advantage in the first round, and had momentum and excitement with him. But it was still close among the top three, with Edwards as the slight second-place finisher. Hillary was at a disadvantage because her front-runner status had been usurped, but she was still in there as a major contender.

So the race in New Hampshire was a tight three way race. Obama would obviously have benefitted from another win, Hillary would have been set back further, and Edwards could have further solidified his viability or had it weakened.

Had the media covered it with any sense of journalistic quality or sense of responsibility, New Hampshire would have been seen as the next opportunity to get a better handle on where the top three candidates were being placed by voters -- but not the be-all,end-all. It wasn't make-or-break time for any of them, barring an absolute blow-out or disaster for one of them.

But the media totally distorted it. They portrayed as a Titanic two-way Battle. Obama was an unstoppable train (a frequent metaphor) that transcended normal politics, Hillary was down for the count and going crazy, and they totally ignored Edwards despite his second place finish in Iowa.

And now, in the aftermath, we are subjected to equally unrealistic hyperbolie. Hillary has risen from the dead in an amazing Resurection, and is now back on her way to becoming the inevitable nominee. Obama is reeling and abut to fall to the canvas. Edwards is out of it.


And -- despite the totally erratic performance of the polls this year, and their failure in New Hampshire -- I guarantee the media is going to continue to trumpet the latest poll as proof that either Hillary is Unbeatable, Obama has Resurrected himself from the grave or whatever seems like the most dramatic switcherooo of the day.....Maybe the pundits will get bored with all three front-runners and concoct a Richardson Surge if he comes up a few points....Who knows?

I suppose there's nothing we can do about all of the excesses in the media. It would be funny if it didn't help to create self-fulfilling prophecies (such as the blackout of Edwards in coverage of New Hampshire).

But maybe the lesson is for us to significantly add to the grains of salt we take as we digest all of the coverage. We should all (myself included) not let ourselves lose perspective and get caught up in the totally whacky conventional wisdom of the media so much.

[Armstead]

1. kick

I like my post anyway :)