Concerned Canadian
columnist: Carter Brown

Topic: Media
Paul, Huckabee and the the american people: how agency and the News media undermines political

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How our trust in our media undermines the interests of fair political discourse

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by Carter Brown
(Libertarian)
Thursday, January 31, 2008

I just finished watching the republican debate at the Reagan Library. A few things struck me as strange. One was the descriptions of the Democrat debate tomorrow, the other was the treatment of my favorite republican, Ron Paul.

Edwards dropped out of the race. The media loves this because there is only two of them, Obama and Clinton. It is the match up of the century, two contenders going toe to toe, tooth and nail. the message of change vs. the message of experience.

Those two are the ones american people want to watch. I have to admit they are rather entertaining. Who doesn't like to watch a good fight? What makes it so much better, is that there is only two of them, and they are so aggressive. It is going to be good TV and it is going to have high ratings, CNN is going to make some good cash off the debate.

This is all they are really after anyway isn't it. They are in the business of making money, not telling us what happened, or happening, or what is going to happen. The primary goal of the media is to make money, and they are doing a great job at it. Every business has the right to make money.

This becomes a problem when it effects our judgement or perceptions of the truth. We do not watch the news because on a conscious level because we want to be entertained, we watch because we want the truth. We want the facts. We don't want spin, we want it straight, like it is even if some people find it boring. Because we watch the news because make important decisions based on it. Decisions like who to vote for.

In business we call this the agency problem. A great example is when shareholders of a company hire a CEO who's goal it is to make money. The CEO wants his job and will work for the 2 million dollar bonus this year, cutting corners to the point that the company goes bankrupt in two years. We trust our media, our agents of truth, but they are not paid for the truth.

A subtle example is the fact that there are not two remaining democrats, there are three. The media has forgotten the fiery Alaskan Senator, Mike Gravel. They cut him off long ago, they don't even report on him. I don't think they really ever did. They were too interested in either a black president or a women. Mike is too boring. The thing is, Mike is as far left as it comes, and i think he has some really interesting ideas, that should be getting attention. They should be talked about. But the media doesn't like big new ideas.

The media likes negative attack ads. They like fights, and they like charisma. They like Hillary crying. They don't like the intricate mechanics of the economy. They like war because its good for ratings, peace is a great idea that everyone wants, but honestly watching peace is like watching paint dry.

Ron paul has been displayed as an eccentric, a man whose policies are out of the ordinary, and wacky. Most people "poo-poo" him. They write him off, because he comes off as a senile old man. The media completely ignores in this time of economic crisis that paul debates Ben Bernanke, They don't say he is an anti war republican who hates the patriot act.

From the beginning the media has been interested in a fight. It will be a fight between the republicans who want to continue the war, and the democrats who want to come home. They want a "fairytale" candidate from the democrats against a very charismatic republican and that is what it will probably come down to.

The sick part of all of this is the media also controls the questions being asked. Thankfully they have stopped asking paul "are you going to be a third party candidate?" and "are you out of touch with the republican party?", But i have noticed that now they don't even want him to talk.

Anderson Cooper didn't let him talk about "McCain's mainstream conservative record", and he only gave him ten seconds about Sandra Day O'Connor.

We often criticize the politicians about how they attack each other, but never the media who sets them up. The exchange we saw between Romney and McCain was disgraceful.But was it a mistake that they sat next to each other, or that Mrs. Hook asked "Governor Romney, you've spent the last several days warning voters that John McCain as president would follow, quote, "a liberal, Democratic course."

Nobody wanted to watch that exchange, but I think it was dramatic, and it kept people watching, it kept people excited.

I don't have any answers to the agency problem, but i have a suggestion. One of the issues was that those asking the questions were profiting from the answers, so maybe the candidates should come up with the questions themselves, because they should ultimately be in charge of the message that they bring to the table. That would be a debate i would love to see.

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2008 Carter Brown, all rights reserved.
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008
Last modified: Friday, February 1, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Carter Brown only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Carter Brown is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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