Sometimes polls reveal interesting, unexpected tangential information. A friend and former coworker was hired to work on a survey gathering information about the emergency room services that are used by undocumented aliens. Doing the work, he was exposed to tuberculosis and that prompted this columnist to do a spate of google-news searches which indicate that a disease which had been on the decline is experiencing a resurgence. A columnist can mention the coincidence of what happened to a friend, but a report about the growing number of tuberculosis cases would have to be done by a major member of the news media with both a staff and budget large enough to be able to gather the diverse elements needed for a legitimate news story on that topic. The best a columnist/blogger can hope for is that someone at a major news publication points out the online item to his (or her) assignment editor at the next story conference.When it suits conservative talk radio, the revival of tuberculosis will provide them with the talking point that illegal immigrants are possibly the carriers who are spreading the disease. The mainstream media might want to avoid the topic because just mentioning it leaves them vulnerable to some unscrupulous (conservative?) allegations that they are racists.
Polls are regarded as being as close to infallible as it is possible to be, until they are shown to be completely skewed as was the case in the New Hampshire primaries. (That assumes that the election results were as close to perfect as is mathematically possible.) The possibility that a poll could be “slanted” is not considered by most citizens. How could just asking a question make a difference in a poll? Aren’t the answers what reveal the information?
Suppose a survey worker had a willing respondent and could ask about the person’s views on racism in the Presidential elections. One way to phrase the question would be: “Would you vote for Senator Obama?” Another way to test for prejudice in the election process would be to ask: “Is the United States ready to elect an African-American President?" The one question hints that the respondent is racist, the other opens up the possibility that even though the respondent isn’t a racist, there are enough racists in the country to affect the election results.It seems that recent polls have asked about the respondent voting for the Senator from Illinois, but not covered the generic possibility of prejudice existing in others.
We’d like to suggest that a media expert do a story about that anomaly in the media’s election coverage, but our hopes about making such a suggestion to a major media critic were dashed when we learned that KCRW’s program, “Minding the Media,” has suspended operations because reporter Nick Madigan is now covering a new beat.
One thing which hasn’t changed at KCRW is the fact that blogger Kevin Roderick has a weekly segment which is broadcast on Fridays at 4:44 p.m. His blog, L. A. Observed, is undergoing a upgrade and the extensive list of L. A. oriented links will be moved from the homepage to its own page.
According to information found online, the folks who are facing foreclosure on their homes will at least have the distraction of “America’s Royal Wedding,” when Jenna Bush gets married on May 10 on the ranch in Crawford. Media access to the event will, in the traditional Bush style, be limited.
Are there term limits for Vice Presidents or could John McCain show his commitment to the war in Iraq by selecting Dick Cheney to be his running mate this Fall?
There was an online commotion this week when conservative talk radio personality Tom Sullivan took a call from a 65 year old caller who said that Senator Obama’s speeches reminded the caller of hearing Hitler speak. Sullivan (reportedly) immediately played some appropriate sound bytes of Hitler speaking. Did he just happen to have that cued-up or could it have been a set-up? If the caller was 65 years old, he would have been 2 years old when Hitler died and that means that the guy was an exceptionally intelligent and perceptive toddler when he heard the German leader or the bloke was lying about his age, which calls the rest of the statement into question. Conservative talk radio hosts are only skeptical when it liberals who are on the line.
Chris Matthews was also excited by hearing an Obama speech. Did any pundits mention the Matthews quote and then refer to an appropriately similar one from Mae West; “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”
If the majority of the mainstream media spends a great amount of time and effort during the Spring and Summer to report on the Obama phenomenon and if he just happens (no this isn’t going to be another “rigged elections” conspiracy item) to lose the election in the Fall, won’t it be rather suspicious if the media meets that development with a vast array of “America just wasn’t ready to elect an African-American” evaluations the next day? The governor of Pennsylvania seems to be ready to believe that contention, now. Does he have access to polls that the journalists don’t or could they be purposely ignoring that possibility?
If a Republican strategist thought that Senator Clinton would be the toughest Democratic candidate to defeat and that Senator Obama would be relatively easy to beat, which one do you think the best advisor (Karl Rove?) would suggest be the one that Conservative Talk Radio hosts say they dread most? Wouldn’t listening to them saying that they thought that Senator Obama was the most formidable candidate, be reminiscent of hearing B’rer Rabbit saying “Don’t throw me into the briar patch!”?
Pundits are never at a loss for words or explanations. Here’s a prediction: If Senator Obama loses the election to John McCain, the mainstream media will have an analysis, ready on election nigh, comparing the Obama campaign to the 1972 efforts of Senator George McGovern.
There is very little mention online about Donald J. Henderson’s novel "Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper." It was written during WWII and contains this line (Mercury Mystery No. 101 page 48): “ . . . People are being murdered all over the world this very moment in a revolting and often brutal fashion – but we can only hope that there’s a Scheme Of Things behind it all. . . . .”
Now, in honor of what would be Ansel Adam’s 106th birthday, the disk jockey will play Paul Simon’s song “Kodachrome” and we will be out of here at the speed of a strobe light. Have a "Clearing Winter Storm” type week.
