The Chronicle needs to have an editor overseeing whoever is writing headlines. This L.A. Times story that the Chronicle runs today, about Rock the Vote, has an unbelievable sub-head:
Fake draft cards urge youth to vote
A nonpartisan group sends the e-mails to thousands
Yes, the first paragraph of the L.A. Times story uses the word nonpartisan to describe Rock the Vote, but that’s no excuse for the Chronicle to echo it. Here is the L.A. Times headline:
Rumor of a Draft Touches a Nerve
Bush and Kerry deny conscription plans, but Rock the Vote raises the specter.
That headline writer apparently didn’t go by the first paragraph of the story, and one look at the Rock the Vote website makes clear the group is anything but nonpartisan. Its list of partners is a roll call of liberal groups and people including Michael Moore, ACORN, Planned Parenthood, NAACP, Ben and Jerry’s, and lots more.
This story is a good example of what the media is being bombarded with (press releases), and is in turn bombarding us with, which ties in with a couple of columns. The first is from the reader advocate at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Here we arrive at an old problem in covering politics and campaigns: How much truth must we do without?
Because of brilliant spin, transparent lies and unobtainable documents, we’re given a view that’s typically distorted and limited. We may know a lot about a little, but never enough to create a deeply informed electorate.
Consider the complaints of members of the press corps that’s following the presidential candidates. They resent being reduced to wallflower stenographers, because the candidates ignore their requests for news conferences and interviews in order to stay “on message” with brief statements.
Voter education pales as a priority in the face of such political arrogance. Why isn’t the electorate as outraged about that as the press corps and demanding that the candidates answer “off-message” questions?
Let me suggest that campaigns expect to get away with press-release journalism because the media lets them get away with it. All too often stories that are passed off as news are nothing more than campaign talking points. If the press would quit printing up those stories, maybe the campaigns would be forced to hold press conferences and interviews. Reporters have the bully pulpit; they need to use it and ask the tough questions, on both sides. If reporters are going to insist on asking President Bush, over and over, what mistakes he’s made, how about asking Senator Kerry the same thing? Ask him some tough questions about his twenty years in the senate. Quit lobbing fluffy marshmallows, and we’ll probably get more substantive stories.
The second column is in today’s Chronicle, penned by the editorial cartoonist:
As for step two, committing to vote and being prepared to vote intelligently can be more problematic than you might think, especially if you mean to encourage others to do the same.
A superinformed acquaintance of years back shared her concern more than once that a lot of get-out-the-vote efforts must surely herd a number of people into the polls who have but a limited grasp of the issues and candidates.
It’s good to see the Chronicle doing its part to help prepare voters by highlighting a liberal group’s talking points.
