MegaAwesome

Ars Technica ran an great article a few days ago, referencing an interesting study:

In all, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals (15%). And just 1% of stories examined the candidates’ records or past public performance, the study found.

The press’ focus on fundraising, tactics and polling is even more evident if one looks at how stories were framed rather than the topic of the story. Just 12% of stories examined were presented in a way that explained how citizens might be affected by the election, while nearly nine-out-of-ten stories (86%) focused on matters that largely impacted only the parties and the candidates. Those numbers, incidentally, match almost exactly the campaign-centric orientation of coverage found on the eve of the primaries eight years ago.

None of this comes as a surprise to someone who’s been following this election, but this is a topic that is important to me. The focus on personal issues and who is using what strategy, to the expense of issues and record, is tragic. The focus on strategy and tactics changes the question in many peoples’ mind from “Who should be elected and why?” to “Who will be elected, and isn’t that a shame?” Not to mention that it screws up the priorities of the candidates and magnifies silly campaign blunders (like Dean’s exuberant battle cry) and minimizes real policy blunders (like the commitment of the major Republican candidates to change absolutely nothing).

When a candidate puts forward a policy proposal what I want to know is:

• Is it realistic?
• How will it change existing policy?
• How does it compare with proposals from other candidates?
• How much will it cost?
• How does this stack up with other proposals the same candidate has made in the past?

What I don’t need is “X is trying to shore up support with men between the ages of 25 and 40 who spend most of their time working on a script for a Logan’s Run/Dr Who crossover.” Either I knew that already, or I don’t care.

The Ars Technica article has some other important points and is well worth checking out.

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