News? What news? It’s just an election, isn’t it?
This has got to be one of the darkest moments in American journalistic history. I’m sure by now most of you know that the big 3 national networks will be only offering up 1hr per night of convention coverage. And in a way you can’t blame them, conventions in presidential years have become bland, boring and about as far from the interests of the average American as you can get. But as it was pointed out by PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, at a Harvard University panel discussion on Sunday, exciting isn’t the point.
“We’re about to elect a president of the United States at a time when we have young people dying in our name overseas, we just had a report from the 9/11 commission which says we are not safe as a nation, and one of these two groups of people is going to run our country,” Mr. Lehrer said. “The fact that you three networks decided it was not important enough to run in prime time, the message that gives the American people is huge.”
You really have to wonder who is to blame here though. Do Americans not care about politics any more? Do politicians care about politics anymore? It seems that what was once a business of well thought out, logical attacks aimed at your opponent’s positions, has transformed into a game of spin aimed at your opponent’s moral fortitude. The game is tired, I think we’re tired and both we as citizens and the politicians we look to for guidance should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing survivor to take precedent over an election year convention.
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