Media Coverage of the Andromeda Strain

I agree with Lewis Black. Every four years the presidential electoral process gets more ludicrous. It is difficult to make heads or tails of the extravaganza that is media coverage of this presidential election process. We no longer can call it a presidential election, because it has grown like the Andromeda Strain into a looming, killing, eating machine. It seems not to acknowledge anything other than its own veracious appetite for fame and glory. It is not interested in its hosts. It came from another planet with mass murder in mind, until a team of well-educated, liberal, democratic doctors took the wind out of its sails. That is why the recent primary coverage is like the Andromeda Strain. It seems daunting. It seems unfathomable until one sits down and makes it his own. “What is this thing, the presidential primaries?” Seeing that the presidential election is not until November 4, 2008 all of this precursory vaudeville is only a microscopic look at how the cards may fall come November. “Enquiring minds want to know.” The Republicans have a reputation for cold, calculated, legislative manipulation of the electoral system. Remember Florida in 2000? Bush won the electoral vote, one of the only four times in American history a President was elected circumventing the popular vote. As a result some states decided to change their electoral system mandating the electoral votes be determined by the popular vote. Now we have “Super delegates” in the democratic primary, a loose unofficial term by the democratic party to designate undecided delegates not chosen by the popular vote or caucuses in specific states. These could be seen as the primary “wild cards,” the electoral votes of the real election on November 4th. The media among others, notably special interest groups (better called what they really are) are putting pressure on the states to cough up a candidate. Still over six months to go and they want to know who the candidate is. Doesn’t this preempt the entire process of the Democratic National Convention in August? It used to until the process was changed. It used to be a party’s candidate was chosen at the convention by party caucuses. A large group of politically active delegates would gather and like a huge Flower Power Love In would hash out decision. Harking back to pre-internet days when people had to leave their computers, go into public, and socialize, the process was one of human interaction. The decision was made to let state primary races determine the candidates, opening up a can of worms for the media. It seems television coverage just can’t keep up with the immediacy of the internet. The candidates themselves do not seem to be enjoying the process. The national conventions now are but tightly-scripted media presentations. The state primary processes are trying to become the same, being driven by media. This should not be possible, because the function of the process is democratic driven by the unknown desires of the people voting. It should not be possible to influence the decisions of the voters by a media induced spin. If the media still were neutral then this process could be effective. It is not. Seeing as a decade of unruly and unsuccessful corporate mergers have plagued an unbiased media with arbitrary views, media itself is unqualified at the moment to justly and fairly cover the presidential election process. This is symptomatic of America as a whole as a misguided, self-serving, and nihilist media scurries to air its skewed message. There is a simple answer. Turn off the TV.