socio-politics

I turned on Fox News this morning right in time to see them discussing how Obama will be speaking about the “lipstick on a pig” comment; the commentators were all speculating on how he would justify it, and just in case you didn’t get the message, the sign on screen told the viewer how, in moments, he would be taking the stage to respond as if it were the only priority in the political world.

When he took the stage, he got the follow up to the comment out of the way early and designated it as a phony, fabricated issue.   He then went on to give the usual talk about education, the economy etc.

The commentator’s response to Obama’s talk was interesting to say the least.  They openly acknowledged that the “lipstick on a pig” comment was insignificant, yet would continue to be important to those voting for McCain, and that McCain would undoubtedly ride the negative aspect of the comment.  They also stated that it would surely get airtime for another day or two.

There are many possible conclusions to draw from this.  One possiblity is that Fox News did not want to follow up Obama attacking the reaction to his comment with disagreement, particularly because it’s hard to disagree with what Obama said.   The commentators stating that McCain supporters will get worked up about something that is insignificant shows their possible acknowledgment of the non-issues being the basis for Obama’s campaign.  The media networks also can be blatantly open about discussing non-issues and how they will affect the race.

I understand their viewpoint on my last statement, though that’s where the problem lies.  They’ll talk about things that they know people will want to hear about and relate it to how it will realistically affect the race, though that ignores any effort to educate voters on the issues.

I may be taken a small interchange too seriously (especially since some of this obviously opposes my last post), though I do believe that this explains the media’s behavior to a certain degree.  The main question I am left with is whether or not the media would be at all successful if it did speak about the actual issues.

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