Re: Cognitive dissonance on youth vote & Obama

Emily — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:48:26 -0000

So, now that the election is over… whose vote was most important?
Throughout the election season, news organizations and political analysts talked non-stop about who would vote for whom. Would the black vote swing the election for Obama? Would woman that had supported Hillary Clinton be swayed by Sarah Palin’s presence on the Republican ticket? What about the youth vote?
On election night, CBS devoted a pretty long segment to working class white voters in Ohio and how they had swung the election there to Barack Obama.
But, no one seems to be able to agree on whose vote mattered most.
MSN says youth voters were non-essential. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27582147/)
U.S. News and World Report says they made all the difference. (http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-20...)
I called Project Vote, a youth voting initiative that works with organizations like Rock the Vote to organize youth voters, and the spokeswoman I talked to said she thought discussion about how much the youth vote had meant was silly.
“Of course I think the youth vote was important,” she said, “and the suggestion that it’s not is ridiculous. Every vote counts.”
And I agree. Maybe the black vote made a bigger difference than the youth vote. But if the youth hadn’t voted, would it have been enough? For the media to suggest that some votes are more important than others is not only foolish in a society where many people already complain that their votes are meaningless, it’s untrue.
Every opinion should matter, regardless of color, age or class. And each and every voting bloc contributed something to this election. According to the U.S. News and World Report article, 19 percent more young Americans voted than did in 2004. That percentage, whether or not it was the one that eventually tipped the election for Obama, is a remarkable one, and the media should treat it as such.

Re: McCain to ‘Suspend’ Campaign to focus on economy

Emily — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:09:10 -0000

So, the nation is going broke, banks are failing, jobs are disappearing, and if you ask the media, all the presidential campaigns are worried about is who's to blame.
What has McCain contributed to the bailout package? Most people don't know. But, I do know that he thinks Barack Obama deserves some of the blame for not acting earlier, and for refusing to reschedule the presidential debate to work on a solution for the economic crisis (as, apparently, does FOX News). And Obama? Well, no matter what he plans to do about the economy, at least we know he and the rest of the Democrats think the Republicans are at fault. Democrats are blaming Nancy Pelosi; Bill Clinton is blaming Democrats--but who is finding a solution?
Sure, there's been news coverage of what is happening as the government scrambles to find a solution--what legislation has been proposed, and how it will help. But, for the most part, that kind of writing has been short, sparse and unclear. As the government has scrambled to find a solution, the media has scrambled to find a scapegoat. I Googled the campaigns and their positions on the bailout. The first search result? "Campaigns assign bailout blame." Most of the stories that followed made a similar point.
Maybe it's like a University of Virginia business professor I spoke to said--the problem is that so many people don't understand the financial problem, or the implications of the bailout.
All people know is that the economy stinks, and maybe for the campaigns, and the media, it's easier to find someone to blame than to explain the intricacies of a solution.
I guess that makes sense, but if you ask me it's a cop-out. It doesn't really matter how we got IN to this mess--it's too late to do anything about it now. What matters is who can get us OUT. And the only way we're going to learn that is if the media starts focusing on what the candidates are doing to help the failing economy, instead of just on who they're blaming for the problem.

Disqus - Latest Comments for Emily

Re: Cognitive dissonance on youth vote & Obama

Re: McCain to ‘Suspend’ Campaign to focus on economy