The Republican race for their presidential nomination has been pretty volatile. There have been several different leaders in the polls. The current flavor of the month is Donald Trump, and he may or may not remain the leader. This is the kind of thing the media loves, because it gets viewers to tune in to see what is happening now in the race.
The Democratic race is far different. Hillary Clinton started out with a huge lead, and she has maintained that huge lead over all her competitors (still with double the national support over her nearest competitor, Bernie Sanders). So why is all we seem to hear from the news networks, especially the cable networks, that Clinton is losing support?
The answer is that the truth (that Clinton maintains a huge lead) is not exciting to them. They don't think it will get them viewers. They don't think people will tune in to hear that a race is static -- and that there has been no real change for several months. And they might be right. But does that give them the right to give viewers an impression that is simply not true?
There was a time in this country when networks didn't expect their news shows to be money-makers. They made their money off their entertainment shows, and considered their news shows to be a community service -- happy if they just came fairly close to breaking even. But that time is gone. Now the networks, both cable and broadcast, expect to make money from every minute of air time.
That is the reason we get less real news and more "fluff" pieces, and it is the reason they are willing to give a false impression to their viewers -- because that is what they think will increase their viewership, and more viewers equals more money.
The truth is that the Democratic race has changed very little over the past few months. Clinton still has around 50% support, while her closest competitor has around 25% -- and if that changes by a point or two from poll to poll, that's not real news. But the networks will jump on every little change, whether it is significant or not, because profits is more important than truth to them (and especially to the giant corporations that own them).
That is not a good thing, but it is a sad reality of how low our news networks have fallen.
While I agree 100% with your article, this latest Iowa poll is a bit of an eye opener: Clinton 37% to Sanders 30%
ReplyDeletehttp://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2015/08/29/iowa-poll-democrats-august/71387664/
This should be no surprise all of Sanders positions are extremely popular. On CNN yesterday he listed the issues he's running on: Income inequality (65% support), Campaign Finance (85%), Climate Change (69%), and College Tuition relief (63%). Sanders has found a sweet spot of issues that reflect the will of the people.
And so has Donald Trump. Lee Drutman gets it: What Donald Trump gets about the electorate
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/18/9172653/trump-populism-immigration
"Put simply: While most elite-funded and elite-supported Republicans want to increase immigration and decrease Social Security, a significant number of voters (across both parties) want precisely the opposite — to increase Social Security and decrease immigration. So when Trump speaks out both against immigration and against fellow Republicans who want to cut Social Security, he's speaking out for a lot people.... No wonder folks are flocking to Trump — and to Bernie Sanders, who holds similar positions, though with more emphasis on the expanding Social Security part and less aggression on immigration.
Check out his grid, it shows how issues can be linked to carve out a sizable portion of voters and provide a true differentiator vs other candidates. Given how political data analysts have been deified after our President's two election victories I am surprised more politicians haven't figured this out.
1. Hillary supports those same four issues.
Delete2. A Suffolk Poll was issued on Iowa at the same time, and has Hillary ahead by some 30 points. One of them has to be wrong.
1. Then her team needs to ask themselves - why haven't we reached Racer X - because that is news to me. Perhaps it is because she would never say something like "The business model of Wall Street is fraud' - CNN ...
ReplyDelete2. Technically they are both wrong. One is more wrong than the other.