If you are planning to base your vote on the presidential debates and post-debate news coverage, I beg you to reconsider.
Both candidates have chocked their arguments full of outright lies and, perhaps more depressingly, major news channels have taken little action in bringing these lies to light. On every issue, from national security to lumber companies, our two presidential candidates have either blatantly lied or shown the American public that they are utterly clueless on some issues, all while our newscasters are too busy with sexual harassment suits or plastic surgery to be bothered with responsible journalism.
One of the more disturbing instances in the final debate involved Sen. John Kerry accusing President George W. Bush of publicly stating that Osama bin Laden didn't concern him. The president threw a stereotypical Bush-tizzy fit, asserting that Kerry was exaggerating. I guess it is almost amusing that the president would deny Kerry's allegations when he stated quite clearly "I just don't spend that much time on him...I'll repeat what I said. I am truly not that concerned by him," during a March 13, 2002 news conference. Maybe the president forgot people tend to tape those conferences?
Speaking of exaggerations, the Bush administration displays a tendency to exaggerate their "accomplishments." Kerry wrongfully accused the president of cutting Pell Grants, while the number of awarded Pell Grants rose by 1.3 million and the size of the grants has risen from $3,300 to $4,050 under Bush. However, Bush claimed that students were receiving "$5,100 as promised." Students were certainly promised $5,100 for first-year students, but like many other Bush proposals this "promise" has fallen short. The sum for a first-year Pell Grant has been stuck at $4,050 for two years and will remain frozen under Bush's 2005 budget plan.
Bush claimed responsibility for blocking shipments of contaminated flu vaccine imported from the U.K., when in reality it was the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency who blocked the shipment. The FDA did not begin investigating the vaccine for microbial contamination until five days after Chiron Corp., who manufactures the vaccine, informed the Centers for Disease Control on Oct. 5.
Finally, Bush tooted his own horn a bit too loudly when he claimed that his drug discount cards are "working." Of 7 million poor seniors who are eligible for the $600 subsidy provided by the card, 1.3 million have actually signed up. Total enrollment in the program, regardless of financial standing, is only 4.4 million - half of which were enrolled automatically by health care organizations. Millions of seniors still cannot get their prescriptions filled, making Bush's claim of success an outright lie.
Kerry has erroneously claimed that Gen. Shinseki was forced to retire by the Bush administration after testifying that it would require hundreds of thousands of troops to occupy Iraq, despite the fact the general had planned to retire before his 2003 testimony. Kerry also claimed that the Duelfer report concluded that United Nations sanctions and weapons inspections had kept Saddam Hussein's weapons programs frozen. While this situation is suggested by the report, and high likely, it is not conclusive whether or not sanctions and inspections were responsible for Iraq's lack of WMD.
A slew of "minor" distortions were present as well. Amongst Kerry's false claims are: a total 1.6 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office (the figure includes private sector jobs only) and that he has a plan to provide health care for all Americans. Bush's include: claiming that there will be 125,000 trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year, claiming that "defensive medicine" causes American taxpayers $60 to $100 billion a year and that Kerry has voted to raise taxes 98 times (a figure that includes 16 votes to kill one bill and 43 votes on budget measures that set targets but don't legislate tax increases).
So, where is news media during all of this? Tucker Carlson waltzes around "Spin Alley" asking campaign workers how they think their candidates did, as if there was a remote possibility that they would criticize their employers on CNN. Chris Matthews, et al evaluate the candidates' performance, not the content of their presentation. Tim Russert bends over to the Bush administration by sending his questions to the White House for approval before the president will agree to an interview. What has happened to corporate news media, that they are but a shadow of their former selves?
The answer: corporate news isn't interested in keeping the public informed, they are interested in keeping people entertained. A few decades ago, there wasn't a plethora of news channels to choose from, so there was little competition between them. Now, there are dozens of news networks and all of them are forsaking integrity to get higher ratings. Commercials for the MSNBC show "Hardball" boast the show's superior ratings, while commercials for CNN's "Crossfire" are filled with dramatic music and clips of men screaming at each other like petulant children. They are reminiscent of ads for reality TV. As long as news media's sole concern is high ratings, they will be devoid of journalistic integrity and everything that comes out of an anchor's mouth should be taken with a grain of salt.
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