News Media As Part Of The Political And Governance Process

In this discussion of politics as applied to governance it must be keep in the back of ones mind that the news media is part of the process.   Some times they out right lie other times they just misquotes and or misrepresents the office holders and candidates views.  It is a mistake to think that the news media is unbiased; they call it slanting, or incapable of affecting their views on this process.  On occasion this causes or can cause the entire nation to go to war, remember the Main?

On a day in Havana harbor a visiting United States battle ship’s boiler safety value malfunctioned and sailors lost their lives.  Newspapers pressured public opinion and the president of the United States of America was forced, coursed actually, by the new media to go to war.

Marshaling public opinion is what the media does, newspapers, television, radio and Internet media can totally force polices coupled with actions.  Actions that when proved unpopular not only shape the political debate but the process of governance as well.  Truth can be ignored, misinterpreted, or made to be something other than what it is. 

The news media can also force persons to become candidates when those persons are not ready or fit for the office that they are running for.  After two years of sniping at elected officials from the comfort of my home via letters to the editor a local newspaper editor suggested it was time to “put up or shut up”.  I ran for office in an attempt to defeat an incumbent and I lost – big time.  My big lesion was to be wary of the “news” media, at the same time I also noticed that very few newspaper reporters I spoke to actually quoted me accurately

What this has to do with the political arena is that one should remember that the very news media that puts a candidate forward seeks to control that candidate.  Case in point is the current governor of Oregon as he relates to the population while making nice with the various forms of the media.  After winning his last election, being elated at having done so, he wanted to crow about it at a news conference.  The weeks prior to the election saw the weather turn sour and rivers flooded property, driving people from their homes, business and farms.  At the news conference a reporter cut him off in mid speech to inquire about the conditions and loss of property.  The governor’s response came off as callous and the media lost no time in making whatever headlines they could.

So when making political decisions it remains important to define the debate as you see it.  Take reporters and others to task when they misquote one and correct the image that somehow a newspaper or other media person or persons knows more about governance than you do.  The media is not elected to your position and the elected official actually owes no legal or constructional responsibility to it.

If this becomes forgotten then, as we have seen, it is a small step to go down the sewer pipe!

Sherman

The Sad Awful Truth

Now that you all know the  “Sad Awful Truth” of being elected to public office, which is not dependant on smarts but the number of votes.  It seems odd that so many elected persons think that somehow they became elected on the value of their own personal brain matter.  Such is not the case because even a monkey could get elected if they had one more vote than the current office holder.

Thy will often give clues about their understanding of the job that they are running for.  Claims of being in business an amount of years so running a government ought to able simple, a real wake up call to the electorate that this one is a rube.  Others will state that since they have planning department experience they are qualified for elected office.  Watch out for that one because those of them that do that are wanting to insure that their land use and planning department decisions are carried forward.

Be wary for the loud and long incumbent screaming at the top of their lungs that what is needed is more non-partisan cross party decisions.  What they are telling you is they cannot get everything they want and they refuse to compromise.

The reason that all of this is important is because “The Sad Awful Truth” is that elected persons, in general, only represent themselves and their friends.  You would not force your neighbor to do a thing, like keep a vegetable garden, then demand that they pay your water bill.  After all you are more deserving and while you may laugh at this idea for its simplicity it is actually done by holders of elected office every day of the week.

“The Sad Awful Truth” is that almost no one understands the value of using politics in relation to governance.  What they do understand is how to use politics to enforce their own narrow minded views which enrich their friends and rob everyone else of their Constitutional rights as defined in the preamble to said constitution.  That preamble sits just above Article I in what we now call the Bill of Rights.

Sherman