What If Political Scientists Covered the News?
I’m going to know for absolute certain that there is really and truely a God if I could ever get news written like this:
Obama now faces some of the most difficult challenges of his young presidency: the ongoing oil spill, the Gaza flotilla disaster, and revelations about possibly inappropriate conversations between the White House and candidates for federal office. But while these narratives may affect fleeting public perceptions, Americans will ultimately judge Obama on the crude economic fundamentals of jobs numbers and GDP.
Chief among the criticisms of Obama was his response to the spill. Pundits argued that he needed to show more emotion. Their analysis, however, should be viewed in light of the economic pressures on the journalism industry combined with a 24-hour news environment and a lack of new information about the spill itself.
Poll numbers also confirmed that Americans are in an anti-incumbent mood. … Ha! Just kidding. The anti-Washington narrative was concocted by dominant media outlets based on the outcomes of a statistically insignificant handful of largely unrelated races. Sorry.
Just go read the whole thing. It was inspired by this really interesting Columbia Journalism Review article thinking about how political journalism might improve if it had more influence from political science than from the entertainment business.
Tags: Media
I wish journalism would re-look at how they do things. On the Sunday shows they only talk about the political outcomes of things but never explain anything. We’d all be a lot smarter if we had talked about what options are being pursued in controlling the oil spill instead whether Obama is mad enough.
President Obama: if you can’t figure out whose ass to kick – you’re the ass.
The media didn’t really cover Lincoln’s corporate relationships well, but there were plenty of paid ads that did.
The lack of media coverage of Lincoln’s record and corporate donors was what gave Obama cover to support her.
So yes, Obama missed a chance to kick some BP ass by supporting Lincoln.