The Media and Politics

This is not going to be a regular thing, me talking about politics, but this whole thing about Obama's aunt being an illegal alien struck a chord with me, considering where I am. This was the topic of discussion around the breakfast table this morning, seeing as how that's what we have been talking about all week, and some of my cohorts were quite gleeful about the situation.

The thing that bothers me is the way it is being handled by the media. If something like this had happened with Mccain, the media would have jumped all over it, declaring it to be the death knell of his campaign. But they are doing their best to justify this, or to push it under the rug, claiming it is a dirty trick being pulled by the Bush administration, and demanding to know who leaked it. Obama claims not to know about it, which I find hard to believe, how could he not know that his aunt was living off of the state and had been put in immigration proceedings? I'm sure she came to him for help when it happened, who wouldn't in that situation? He's a lawyer, and a Senator, he has pull. And if he didn't know, what does that say about his family values?

Something else that gets to me is the very angry comments made by some people that are simply hilarious. They are all complaining about how this is an attack of Obama's family, and family is supposed to be off limits, and while in the same breath, many are demanding to see Palin's medical records, implying, once again that her new son isn't hers, but is her daughter's. So, it's ok to attack Palin's family, but not ok to attack Obama's? Can we say double standard?

It concerns me that so many people seem to think of Obama as some kind of savior, and suggesting that he is the only possible candidate for them. So many are saying that if Obama doesn't win that it is because he is black. That is dangerous thinking, we still have the right to choose who we want to vote for, and not voting for Obama does not make one a racist, no matter what the news may suggest. There are people out there who won't vote for him simply because he is black, there is no denying that fact. But a great majority of voters are more open-minded, and many of them won't vote for Obama, because they don't agree with him, they don't see him as the savior so many people count him to be.

We need a truely unbiased media that will report both sides of the issue. Fox news seems the closest we have. Some people bash Fox for being republican, but since they have been seen to criticize both parties, they are obviously trying to show a balanced arguement, to give both sides equal coverage. And they get yelled at by the rest of the media for daring to say something bad about their favorite candidate. Is there something we can do to get the media to have more fair and balanced coverage of the issues? They seem to think that they can control the election: I think we only need to remember the Truman/Dewey election to see that they can't.