Pine Belt Progressive

I am having a difficult time following the returns, because every channel covering the election is making me sort of ill. I get in about 7 minutes of viewing, and then they cut to someone who gives me a headache. So, here are a couple of election-night thoughts before I give up and go wash the dishes.

1. It bugs me when news organizations predict winners based on exit polls with only two percent of precincts reporting. It bugs me so much that, if I am accosted by an exit poll person after I finally get to vote, I’ll probably be very friendly and do my best to skew the results. I know this is nothing new, and everyone has to deal with it, but I thought the problems with this kind of political coverage were exposed in 2000 with the Florida fiasco and again in 2004 with the Ohio debacle. Even though I am deeply committed to defending civil liberties and am suspicious solving these sorts of problems with laws, I am wondering if it isn’t time for Congress to step in and make the media cut this out.

2. Over the last few years, I’ve read lots of theories which purported to explain why so many people lost interest in politics and/or developed a negative opinion of our democratic processes in the last quarter of the 20th century. I am wondering if the widespread stupidity and condescending attitudes of the people who do most of the nationwide political coverage might have something to do with this. I think it would be interesting to develop a way of measuring the decrease in the quality of political journalism since the mid-70s and then see if that decrease can be correlated with the increasingly negative attitude of citizens toward our political processes.

All this is not to say that I, personally, am cynical about the elections or political participation. I am actually pretty hopeful about this election, and I am more optimistic that we might actually make some positive changes once it’s done. I’m just frustrated because I want better coverage. I think there’s a huge difference between what people are actually saying about the elections and what the teevee is telling me people are saying. It’s beyond frustrating. It’s disorienting.