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| Politics and the Press |
The question is does reporting election results, as they happen, affect the outcome of an election. I personally believe it does.
The United States covers four time zones, Eastern, Midwest, Mountain and Pacific. As the polls close in one time zone, the media starts broadcasting their estimates and predictions of who they believe is ahead, in some cases with zero (0), or one (1), percent of the votes coming in.
The viewers in the more western states listen to these results and make decisions, “Will I even waste my time to vote if my candidate is that far behind?”, “Why vote for Joe if Frank is so far ahead already?” or “I only want to be on the winners side!”
There is a percentage of the population that think this way, even if that percentage is three to five percent, it may be enough to sway an election.
I believe a voter should be informed, clear on all the issues and decisive. I know people who vote and never read or watch the news until the week before an election.
I know the old joke about how do you know when a politician is lying, his lips are moving. Well sometimes that’s true, and rarely it’s not!
Watch the news channels, not just one, watch them all, at least an hour a night, switch around and watch them all. An hour with CBS one night, NBC another, FOX and ABC another and do it for a couple of months before each election. Meet the press on Sunday morning is also good. In this way you will see sides of your candidates that you have never seen before.
Then on election day when you have made up your mind, don’t watch the news and just go out and vote!
We need well informed and unbiased voters to keep America Strong.
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Posted by bobbrug on 2008-02-07 16:37:07 | Rating: | Views: 136
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