Once more, a panel of reporters, editorialist, and analysts questioning the role media played in the last election aired their discussion. Once more, no clearly defined answer(s) was unveiled or even came close to an answer. The holier than thou media claims of fair and responsible coverage of candidates with as many testimonials claiming unfairness on one side as on the other; thus, patting themselves on the back for their objectivity; thus, missed the point of the question. As I like to believe, if you want to know the truth about a person do not depend on his or her autobiography; the obvious trap being that no one knows the truth better but no one could benefit more from not telling the truth. In other words, even though the integrity of the entire media is at stake, once again the debaters put aside the main question and collectively fell into the divisive rhetoric of, “he said, she said”, the tired old Republican/Democratic political debate.
Having said that, as a resident of North Carolina, I have questions for the media about what happened Nov. 4th. As a liberal, I have to admit conservatives beat our butts kicked; therefore, readers can rightfully question my bias and depth of bitterness. I ask questions because I truly want to know the answers. The standard question in political verbal sparing is asked because the interrogators think he or she can embarrass the person being asked the questions, or that the answer will be unacceptable to the voting public, thus harm the adversary. The point is that people who most often ask questions do not ask them to find answers. Therefore, because of self-aggrandizement and biases of the panel of reporters, editorialist, and analysts discussing the role media played in the last election was useless.
I want to know what part the collective corruption of the electoral process played in this election. What affect, if any, did the Supreme Court’s decisions to declare civil rights legislation unconstitutional? In direct opposition what we all know to be fair jurisprudence, we have seen a surge of Federal judge appointments and well funded political campaigns for election of judges. This stimulates the question of what part does the political orientation of judges actually have on our political process? The media extensively covered the moral Monday protests led by Rev. Barber; the number of arrest, the response of authorities to the protests, etc but what was missing was were specific questions concerning why they were protesting? It would appear that a large number of those arrested put themselves in the way of law enforcement; however, we cannot know why. Were they there to show solidarity with the minorities who were protesting or were they there to protest something else or what? Why and how often did judges dismiss the charges against protesters?
We know why the Republican candidates listed first on all ballots for all positions—it gave advantage to them—but how did this happen? What impact did it have on the election? Why do Republicans control all State Boards of Elections? We all know why but do not know how did this happen? We all know what gerrymandering means but we do not know what impact it has on the elections? We know that a big campaign donor to Gov. Pat McCrory, Art Pope, was appointed to the state budget committee, but we do not know what benefit he took of this position. Few voters seem to know there is a corporation composed of huge Republican donors, essentially Thom Tillis and Pat McCrory campaign committee, posed, or has already taken over the State Department of Commence. The media has to ask this question to find out. Not to ask is to assume the people in North Carolina are so naive they think he did not take advantage of his position. Of course, this begs the question, dealing with why the media did not ask the question. Is there a conflict of economic interest? Does this reflect on the integrity of the leading newspaper the News and Observer and Larry Stogner, the local TV talking newscaster?
Action taken by state government affects utility rates and environmental control but what actions have been taken and to whose advantage? The media asked no questions dealing with this subject. This was revealing in respect to the overall part media plays in politics. What was extremely interesting and revealing was the content of political ads. One party made it known that schools budgets were cut by $500 million; that seemed to be factual yet one candidate for the Federal Senate published ads claiming responsibility for appropriating one billion to the school system; the fact they a one and one half billion dollar discrepancy was over looked by the media is amazing. There was no other more blatant and provable lie than this yet the media failed to ask one question was to clarify or justify this discrepancy. My conclusion is simple; the media is failing us—big time.
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