Presidential Election News – Not!

There is no doubt that the 2012 United States presidential race between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney will be hard fought.  Is this an election that requires close scrutiny and a careful combing through the facts? Absolutely. However, it doesn’t take a lot of time looking at the statics and state polls to figure out that the election is not as close at the American news media would have us believe.

I am currently working on a documentary series that explains the American election process for Al Hurra viewers in the Middle East.  I have had the opportunity to interview politicians, voters, pollsters and various other political pundits.  The vast majority of these people say that the numbers favor President Obama no matter how you slice them and have since this summer.

But let’s face it.  A story in which Obama looks to be leading continuously just isn’t that sexy.  Where’s the tension?  Where’s the drama?  Where does that leave the bottom line for the news outlets? The conventional wisdom in news seems to be that drama sells better than truth. Newspapers and news shows are ultimately about turning a profit.  With the inundation of outlets in print, broadcast 24 hours a day on cable channels and available all the time online, journalists and their bosses work extra hard to entice news consumers to spend time (and money) in their camp.

Visit statistic star Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com political forecast where he calculates that President Obama currently (as of November 2) has a 79% chance of winning. At no point since June has Romney led.  Serious gamblers are betting big bucks based on Silver’s number crunching. Why? In the 2008 elections, he correctly predicted how 49 out of 50 states would vote in the presidential races. He nailed all of the senate race calculations.  Princeton Election Consortium gives Obama a 90% change to win. I see no reason to disagree with Silver or the other statisticians out there.

The candidates also benefit from faux close polls because they can both claim a slight edge (read “join us, the winning team”).  A close race gives supporters on both sides hope but not so much hope as to keep them from voting on Election Day.

And the closeness of the race is not the only element of the presidential elections that is being sensationalized.  News outlets comb through every single thing the candidates or anyone remotely connected to them say and so.  While I agree that the electorate does need to know enough about the candidate to understand their character as well as their thoughts on policy, we do not need to hear countless news reports on who wore their American flag on their lapel or not.

The American public loses out when elections are sensationalized for the sake of news.  The horserace ends up taking center stage forcing candidates to rely on on-line jabs to cut through the clutter.  Three months of back-and-forth zingers do nothing to expand the political dialogue or educate voters on the actual stances of those running.  Because the candidates don’t have to articulate their policy stances, they are less likely to take a clear path when it comes time to lead.

During this last week before elections, I now read, watch and listen to the news with my hand ready to turn the page or change the station at the first mention of the elections.  Perhaps the very valuable undecided voters find the hype of the election informative somehow.  I don’t. But then again, I’m not undecided. As a producer, I’m sure glad I got out of the news business a long time ago.

 

For more opinions, visit the Opinion category.

One Good Thing About Weinergate

I am well aware that the ongoing saga of Anthony Weiner’s sexting has been over-covered by every type of news and entertainment media imaginable.  I figure that my two cents can’t hurt.

As of this writing, Weiner has not done anything illegal so all of the coverage is mostly a big waste of time.  However, there has been one good thing to come out of Weinergate and I hope that men are paying close attention.

Women do not, I repeat DO NOT, want to see your private parts.  There is a reason that they are called “private parts.”  I am pleasantly surprised by how many media outlets have written in-depth articles on that point particularly after Weinergate.  The likes of Joel Stein of Time Magazine, Monica Hesse of the Washington Post and Bill Maher of HBO have reporters that have spent time trying to explain this to the plethora of men around the world who need to be enlightened.

What happens to Weiner at this point his between him and his wife; and him and his constituents.  I only hope that his plight has in some way curbed the number of unwanted and unrequested penis pictures sent through cyber pace.

NPR’s Documentary Fellowship For Journalists

“The Above the Fray fellowship is designed to give a promising journalist the opportunity to cover important but under-reported stories from a location abroad. The fellow will be selected based on a winning proposal to report from a region lacking significant mainstream media attention. The selected individual will spend three months filing on-air and online stories for NPR.”

Click here to find out more.

Comedians and Docs

Comedians seem to be the supermodels of the millennium.  They are hosting radio shows, presenting the news and even winning seats in congress.  Recently, some comedians have even wandered into the realm of documentary production.  And I don’t mean documentaries about themselves working as comedians.  They are producing documentaries tackling serious subjects.

In 2008, Bill Maher produced Religulous, a documentary starring himself travelling around the world asking people about their religious views in an effort to understand why people believe in a higher power.  He clearly had an agenda: prove through comedy that people who believe in God are stupid. While the movie was funny and thought provoking, his obvious bias was sometimes distracting.  Michael Moore is also no fan of objective film-making. And while I enjoy his movies as well, I don’t always trust so-called facts presented in such a staunch one-sided view. You can view the Religulous trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdkyLrDpaUg.

Chris Rock’s soon to be released Good Hair, takes a look at black women’s quest for straight , long hair and the internationally multi-billion dollar industry that supports it.  The movie will hit theaters in about a week but the trailer has already created a national discussion about African-American hair.  Perhaps Rock’s appearance on Oprah had something to do with it.  At any rate, the subject matter is both touchy and niche specific – two adjectives that can often keep films from being made.  Rock’s daughter motivated him to make the documentary when she called a friend’s hair “good.”  As a black American with natural hair, I can only hope Rock’s documentary is eye-opening and insightful and doesn’t just go for the cheap laugh.  Take a look at the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So.

I hope more comedians make documentaries.  It could be good for the genre.  My thinking is, if the big name stars bring people out to theaters to see one documentary, perhaps those same people will come back to see more.  Perhaps they will watch different types of documentaries.