The End of an Era

When I picked that little piece of paper of the hat and read "Fox News. McCain" I knew I would be spending a lot of time yelling at the TV this quarter. I think it is very true that people watch shows and gather information that reinforce their views. I do not think that this is a bad thing, but it was interesting to watch news from the opposite side of the spectrum. Watching Fox news during a time where little faith was left in the Republican Party was very interesting, it was fun to watch what story they would run with and what story's would only be talked about in passing. I saw that Fox liked to cling to story's about Barack Obama's character and any slight scandal such as ACRON. Fox would report these events but bring it to another level of investigation and ask outlandish questions or make innuendo's what made the story worse. Most stations have talk show host such that are outright in saying they support a political party, but most stations are relatively balanced when doing a newscast. I feel Fox News has a problem with this, a news station should not be objective when giving the facts. I obviously have to bring up John Stewart in my last post, two days after the election he showed a montage of story's the Fox News network was talking about in the days leading up to the election. All of the story were about ACRON or Bill Ayers or Barack Obama's illegal Aunt. I feel this is bad for America and news, with days until the American people are casting their ballot real news should be reported about policy issues and how these two men will effect you life if they are names President.
In conclusion, I did enjoy getting the perspective of the election from Fox News. I learned a lot about journalism and the way campaigns are showed in the news. It is said people watch shows and gather information that reinforces their views. However, I feel, if you really want to reinforce your liberal views- watch Fox News.

Fox News- not as excited about historical win

Early in the morning on Nov. 5th, I searched the online news world to check out headlines about Barack Obama's historical win over John McCain. Most news sources had inspiring pictures of Obama making his victory speech, with headlines such as "History is Made" "The World Rejoices" "Mr. President", and so on. I was dissapointed to read the somber headline from Fox News stating "Obama Campaign Promises could Become a Burden in his Presidentcy" and "Many Troubles Inherited by New President." These headlines made me feel that Fox News did not share the excitement that the world was feeling about this historical win. It makes me wonder what the headlines would have been in John McCain was elected President. Would they focus on the negative? Despite Fox New's political tendencies, Obama's winning was a defining moment, and it should have been treated as such by all news sources.

Religon in the Campaign

I read a foxnews.com article titled Campaign Volunteers Scour Churches for Votes. The article highlights efforts being made in Catholic Churches around the country to pass out literature marked as "bipartisan." The pieces of literature speak about abortion and gay marriage, asking the question "who shares out values, you decide." The pieces clearly advocating views from the right about these issues but staying bipartisan by not directly endorsing a candidate. I was upset by the lack of concern for the rights of separation of church and state in the article. The article was not advocating these events but did not seem to point out any problems except for tax exemption problems. I think that this is violating the sacredness of church as a place to come together and worship, not as a place to be told how and who to vote for. I also think it is counterproductive to assume that all church goers will vote for a particular political party because of a few social issues. I wish that foxnews.com would have taken a firmer stances on this behavior and really discussed why this is not good for the country. It makes me wonder how much of this is advocated by the McCain campaign. Passing out literature with two men on top of a wedding cake and dead babies are not ways to gain support from the middle, but it is good way to energize the base. I see this as kind of a covert operation, not indented to gain national attention but to energize the base by scaring them with exaggerated literature pieces.

The Real America

This week Sarah Palin has made many references to the "real America" and people being "pro-America"which I think is an interesting card to be played. The McCain camp is playing on the American people's emotions and the fears that they are not good citizens. Saying "pro-America" is just another buzz word that is targeting middle class small town Americans. Obama has been playing up to the middle class, because- well that who all of his policy's will benefit. The McCain camp is trying to steal some of those voters by making them think that they need to be part of the pro-American society that needs to vote for the good ol' boy and his lovely side kick. Fox News has been playing up on this idea by repeating the buzz words over and over in their news casts and talk shows. Hannity even went on to say that the real America is the small towns and encompasses the hard working middle class people. People that live in America's big cities aren't "pro-America," they aren't part of the real America? Small town hard working citizens can't vote for a liberal man? The small mill town I come from is full of very hard working Union men and women who are informed enough to know that Republican policies do not favor them economically and usually are not in line with their values. When Joe Biden toured Ohio last week he visited many small Ohio towns with people who seemed pretty "pro-America" to me. The American Postal Workers I spoke with at the rally in Athens and the students I talked to who are paying their way through school seemed pretty real to me.

- On a side note, Bill O'Reilly gave our Sherrod Brown a shout out on his show today- talking about a speech he made in Athens along with a few other Ohio cities, and then again at the Athens County Democratic dinner on Friday night. I found the story right on the money and very funny- Bill did not. http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/index.html

ACORN and Ayers

After reading all of Johm McCain's speeches this week, it is pretty clear that McCain has given up the message of the week approach. McCain's speeched are littered with policy issues that separate him from his opponent. McCain speaks about the housing crisis, health care, experience, the economy, alternative energy and a variety of other subjects in just one speech. In past weeks it has been relatively clear what McCain's message has been for that week, but now it has just come to a rattling off of issues and statements on why he is the better candidate. Fox News is still hocked on the Ayers scandal as well as other sexier topics like the Sarah Palin parody pornography that is set to be released. Fox has also been spending a good amount of time on the ACORN voter fraud scandal. Fox News has been harping on the left wing organization and interviewing real people who were asked to register by an ACORN employee in Ohio. This week McCain has put out advertisements linking Obama to both the Ayers and to the ACORN scandal.
These issues may not be what McCain is specifically talking about in his speeched but they are obviously messages he wants the American people to hear. Fox News is covering both of these events extensively.

Getting Dirty - Fox McCain

It has become evident this week that the McCain-Palin camp has decided that they need to pull out all the big guns and get dirty for the last few weeks of campaigning. Falling polls numbers, due to the big hit McCain took on economic issues, have made this weeks campaign message not about policy or reform but about putting doubt in people's minds about Barack Obama's character. It will not be John McCain you see doing the Obama bashing, it has been and will continue to be his sweet and folksy running mate, Sarah Palin. During the last few days it has become much more clear why Sarah Palin was chosen as McCain's potential VP. Palin has a very special way of attacking Barack Obama that makes it seem truthful and honorable. Her personality and manner of attacking makes one think she is really just looking out for the American people, she wants them to know the truth about out potential next President because gosh darn it she just loves America. Palin has been attacking Obama on his connections to radical Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers was the leader of a group responsible for many bombings during the Vietnam Era, when Obama was only a child. Obama and Ayers served on a charity board together in Illinois. Obama has denounced all of Ayer's radical views and has stated that they barely new one another, although the did live in the same neighborhood. In a speech over the weekend Palin made the extreme claim that Obama "paled around with terrorists." I was pleasantly surprised with the Fox News coverage on the comment, the program I watched had many commentators both Republican and Democrat discussing the comment and labeling it as a complete exaggeration.
Fox News also went on the criticize Palin for bringing up Jeremiah Wright in a campaign speech in Florida Monday morning. McCain has said in past interviews that he wants to " disassociate himself from that kind of campaigning," when it comes to bashing Obama on his pastor.
In a New York Times article released on Monday, when pressed about Wright, Palin stated,
"I don't know why that association isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country."

Fox News reporters went on to talk about Palin being used as a mudslinger when she should be trying to prove herself as a competent leader. Fox News has been spending a good amount of time discussing McCain's messages of the week, which by default gives the messages some form of legitimacy. However, the station has been rejecting many of the actions and messages of the campaign as rhetoric that is not needed at this stage of the game. I was pleasantly surprised by the journalistic integrity of the reports in exposing the truth and dismissing rumors for what they are worth.

Fox News- The Economic Crisis

I have been following the economic crisis on Foxnews.com. I have been reading article after article about McCain's campaign suspension, about Obama's phone calls to the Treasury Secretary, and still I am unclear on both of the candidates positions. The Fox News articles I have been reading are littered with one line zingers taking low blows at the other candidate for not participating enough in the negotiations, or not going to Washington DC soon enough. The headline for Monday morning's front page article was "Obama Hits McCain for 'Katrina Like' Response to Economic Crisis." Obama accused McCain of just sitting there and doing nothing when he heard about the crisis. It seems to me that the candidates are bickering over who did more and who did what rather then talking about the effect of this crisis on America and their position on the bill. Both candidates seem to have the same talking points about the effects on Main Street and protecting the tax payer.
After reading some of John McCain's speeches on the economy it is clear he is trying to drive home that he is not working for big business and the CEO's of American, but for the common people of the nation. He is trying to show his initiative in the crisis, that he is taking charge of the situation. In a Fox News article McCain stated that he is a "Teddy Rossevelt Republican" and the he will not "phone in" his advice, taking a jab at Obama saying he has spoke with the Treasury Secretary everyday on the phone.
I think FoxNews.com has been relatively fair with the coverage of both candidates. However, the articles harped on the jabs the candidates are taking at each other rather then the facts of the bill and the candidates stances.