Election '08: Rating Television Network Coverage

CNN.com: Obama In, McCain Out

2008-11-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

by: Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

Walking into a bar in Athens filled with "Students For Obama", College Democrats, and numerous Democrat supporters, I saw tears, laughter, fist pumps, and utter awe. They had worked so hard and so long, and finally got the result they wanted.

Obama's victory last night isn't just one for him. It's one for our entire country because it represents a huge leap into the future. His electoral landslide victory was shocking to me, and I'm sure to those McCain supporters who thought it was going to be a lot closer.

According to politico.com, the popular vote was also a pretty decisive result. Obama got 52-percent, and McCain 46-percent.

I must admit, as a journalist, I was THRILLED when the election was pretty much decided at 11PM. Remember just four years ago? Coming into the night fearing a repeat of what happened, I was ecstatic when McCain decided to make his concession speech as soon as the polls closed on the West Coast.

And all of this was largely in part to Ohio's role as a swing state. Looking at the popular vote map of Ohio early in the night, it looked like it would be a shoe-in for McCain. But once only a third of the results were in, all of the major news networks were calling Obama's victory in this key state which almost always predicts the winner of the White House.

ABC.COM: Finale

2008-11-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu

Election day has finally come. The campaigns are almost over and now they wait and see what their two years of work was worth. And that's true not only for the campaigns, but also the media. The voter is going to make his or her decision based on different factors, including how well the media informed him. So how did the media do their job? Did they answer the important questions (who stands for what, why is this happening,...)? Were they unbiased?

Biden not Present
If you take a look at abc.com, you'll only find pro Obama ads, McCain bought no space for ads. And if you look at the editorial content, mostly it's about Obama or Sarah Palin, followed by McCain and Joe Biden is hard to find. Since the beginning, articles about the democratic Vice-presidential candidate were rare. Why? Is it, because the democratic camp already gets enough coverage by all the attention Obama draws, or is it, because Biden is not interesting enough (especially in comparison to newcomer Palin)? So the media covers the one who offers them more to talk about?

After the Election
After the election two will have won, and two will have lost. The losers might go back to where they came from, which would mean for example, Palin will go back to Alaska. But, what if she doesn't go back to Alaska, but tries to stay visible – for example with a tv-show of her own? After this experience it will be interesting to see if she feels Alaska is too small for her.

Write a Book
If so, and it doesn't work out with the tv-show, she can still write a book. Just like Joe the Plumber, aka Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. Something from behind the scenes...how did she get the ticket? How did she get prepared for the national and international stage? And how was talking to Nicholas Sarkozy?

CNN-TV: Wait, other people are running for president?

2008-11-03T20:27:00.001-08:00

by Christina London
christinalondon1@gmail.com

Well, the bus stops here. After what seems like an endless campaign, I cannot believe that we (God-willing) will have a new president tomorrow. Many people I’ve talked to are plain sick of election coverage. But you have to admit, it’s going to be strange putting on CNN and not hearing the latest on Barack Obama and John McCain. So with mere hours remaining until the votes are tallied, what does CNN chose to cover? The surprising answer: third-party candidates.

Barr and Nader: Revealed
Last week on CNN’s American Morning, anchor Kiran Chetry did a double interview with Libertarian Bob Barr and Independent Ralph Nader. (According to the latest CNN Poll of Polls, Nader currently has 3% of the vote, and Barr is holding steady with 2%.)

Now, I've been following CNN's election coverage for two months and hadn't heard a single mention about Nader or Barr until this week. In my opinion, we should have been hearing more. In a race with states "too close to call," two or three percentage points are a big deal. Regardless, I say better late than never. This interview was a refreshing break from the wall-to-wall coverage of political rallies.

Don’t know much about the “major” third-party candidates for president? Here are some quick facts:

Bob Barr (Libertarian Party)

Vice President: Wayne Allyn Root

Wants to cut every area of government spending

Supports "consumer-oriented" health care

Thinks the federal government shouldn't decide can and cannot marry

Ralph Nader (Independent)

Vice President: Matt Gonzales

Wants to stop the bailout

Supports universal health care

Supports equal rights for same-sex couples

One Vote for Barr
Over the past seven days, CNN has covered more than its fair share of polls and the horse race. However, I've also seen some outstanding stories about real people and real voters. This is by far my favorite from the campaign season:

MSNBC-TV: Last minute coverage...before the BIG day

2008-11-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

by Brooks Jarosz
bj186905@ohio.edu

People are heading to the polls! Even before November 4th, voters have turned out in swarms to make their voices heard early. Since I knew I would be covering local elections, I was one of those people. I headed into the board of election in Athens on Friday morning and was out within twenty minutes! Of course by midday the line was out the door and down the street.

The news networks were building up for the big day. Both NBC and MSNBC took time out of their broadcasts to promote thier election coverage. The most interesting I heard about was ABC's use of all the Times Square jumbotrons to broadcast election results. MSNBC has an interactive dashboard to keep up with all of the results. They also explain how many people are taking part in activities on the web this election.

Covering the states to watch
Brian Williams checked in with a number of reporters covering the key swing states. I thought this was effective not only in coverage, but also in promoting NBC as a worthwhile election resource. He started with a reporter in Florida who spoke of the varied support in that state. I never knew the northern part of Florida is primarily conservative whereas the southern tip is mostly liberal. The candidates are fighting for independents who usually reside in the middle part of the state. Interesting facts!

Another swing state covered was Virginia, where no democrat has won since 1964, before electing Lyndon B. Johnson. The late Tim Russert's son covered Indiana and mentioned the youth vote, where of some 300,000 new voters, 125,000 are under age 25. My overall impression of the coverage was fast-paced and engaging, making it an exciting atmosphere all over the country.

Polls and targets...are they matching up?
Over 150 national polls have been taken over this past week. Most of them show Obama ahead by two to 12 percentage points. My question always is how reliable and accurate are these polls? MSNBC must be pretty confident, as they constantly talk polls and run state polls at the bottom of the screen. One recent Quinnapiac Poll says Obama is ahead 52 percent to McCain's 42 percent. While it might be ok to predict, I would be careful in what I was saying or observing.

Two political analysts, Peter Hart and Neil Newhouse commented on the overall campaigns. Hart mentioned Obama has been attracting independents, blue collar workers, suburban people and those between the age of 18 and 34. They both agree that having the legend lower will help keep things away from the top.

Since the economy is so important, many independents have been turning to Obama and his platform to learn more.

It should be an exciting election. Other than the eight calls I received from political campaigns I got today, it was an enjoyable day. Tomorrow, preparation will take place for cut ins on WOUB-TV with coverage of the state and local issues. Now, it's all up to the battleground states. It is proving to be a well covered contest!

CBSNews.com: The Final Countdown

2008-11-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

by Cristina Mutchler
cm306704@ohio.edu

Barack Obama Up Close and Personal
Just one day before the election, CBSNews.com posted this article and video about Obama's feelings regarding his wife, Michelle, as a campaign target, as well as his Kenyan aunt who is an illegal immigrant in this country. I thought this was a particularly interesting twist to the interview, because throughout the campaign I have not heard much about this aunt and I don't think it has been made a big deal. When people in this country hear the word illegal immigrant, they immediately think of Mexicans, and I think that this part of the article could be potentially used to educate others, if nothing else. I also believe that had this "illegal immigrant" family member been of Mexican descent, the story would have taken a different turn and portrayed more negatively. Watch and decide for yourself!

New Poll Findings
The longest, most expensive presidential campaign in U.S. history is coming to an end, and a CBSNews.com poll shows that Republican candidate John McCain has gained some ground in the poll numbers. However, at this point, Obama is staying steady with a nine-point advantage among likely voters. The Democratic ticket leads the Republican ticket with 51 percent to 42 percent of likely U.S. voters. Just on Sunday, another CBS News poll showed that Obama and Biden's ticket had a 13-point lead, which has now been narrowed.

Presidential Questions

In the last "Presidential Questions" section for this campaign season, CBS News anchor Katie Couric asks the candidates several interesting questions, including what they would like to have on their tombstone. I thought that seemed a bit menacing with the election one day away and with the passing of Obama's grandmother.

Another question that I found interesting had to do with campaign management. Couric asked the candidates when was the last time they fired someone who has worked for them. McCain answered that it was when his campaign had serious problems and was going in the wrong direction. He said that he had to make a change in the campaign. Obama's response was more ambigous, as he says that he has had to fire people during the course of the campaign due to people making mistakes or causing drama. He did not, however, want to name these folks, as he "didn't want to embarass them."

Blogger's Note
With Tuesday being the end to this race, I hope that you found this blog interesting and/or were enticed to check out CBSNews.com or other network outlets to form your own opinions. I've had fun analyzing the coverage and by this time next week, we will officially have a new president to blog about. Thanks!

NBC News.com Final Spurt: Mainstream Media Buffet With Some Deli Stuff

2008-11-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu
For this blog I concentrate on NBC News.com's videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics section as well as on the First Read blog, which is part of MSNBC.

Staring at this stage for two months: the NBC Nightly News online video player. Sometimes confusing and redundant, this is a neat set-up to watch current and archived videos. This is the last blog post as our project ends with election day on November 4, 2008.

THE election
Of course a week before THE election on planet earth users could find in NBC Nightly News' online video player oodles of tidbits about THE election: snafus in early voting, Laura Bush stumping in Kentucky, the candidates fight against illness, interpretation of polls, campaign trail coverage of Pennsylvania and Ohio... NBC's online election buffet offered a little bit for everyone who likes a mainstream media diet. Among the deluge of videos I just picked a handful of worthwhile clips and point out a couple of bad apples in the batch.

NBC made some interesting attempts to cover the right stuff: issues like green energy, science, and education, another third candidate, questioning the power of polls, the heated issue of homosexuality on the Californian ballot, and even a peak beyond its own nose – at least sort of – into Israel (U.S. ally), Turkey (U.S. ally), and Kenya (Obama’s family origin). However, most stories stopped short when it became more interesting such as the nitty-gritty details of going green or a comprehensive summary of third parties.

Information goulash – NBC’s Obama interviews
My week of observation started off with the discovery of an interview of Obama by Brian Williams. In the second seven minutes dated October 30, 2008 Obama talks about why Bill Clinton was better off campaigning by himself, how much the auto industry means to him, and the trickiness of appointing the right Supreme Court justice

Unfortunately I couldn’t find an extended interview version but only a number of clips on individual topics such as “talking to Taliban”, “being a recession president”, “America’s aging infrastructure”, and “on Afghanistan, terrorism” as well as other chopped up pieces. While this might help users who are interested in only one topic it should not be too hard to also upload the whole interview in one piece. After all, this is one of the Internet’s great strengths, to give space to a long piece that tells the audience in its coherence and development, more than just the obvious. How an interview is conducted from start to finish provides additional information for the user to judge the candidate (and the media). Besides, it is tedious to pick up all the shards of sound bites in five different video sections (Latest Program, Most Viewed, Web Only, Politics, Decision ‘08) to compose a full mirror of information and impression.

Keeping a thin blanket of issue coverage: Where They Stand
NBC also continued with its series NBC’s Where They Stand this time concentrating on how "green" each candidate would be as president. The story gives only a brief summary still leaving the voter wondering what the candidate’s approach to some environmental issues are (e.g. geothermal and solar energy, how they will actually cut carbon emissions, how much money would go intto supporting green jobs). Both believe in the oxymoronic notion of clean coal and offshore oil drilling, which should make it hard for true green believers to decide for the lesser of two environmental evils: John McCain who wants to build 45 more nuclear power plants by 2030 or Barack Obama whose strategy toward nuclear energy we learn nothing about in NBC's visual attempt to throw some crumbs to tree huggers.

Briefing Book Issues 08
On the other hand NBC’s Briefing Book has filled up with more and important issues that are rather neglected in the general debate on television: comparative information on abortion, science, consumer issues, and education. A nice contribution to give voters background information, too bad some of these issues were not featured on Nightly News.

Better aggressive than nothing
Another rather rare third party piece showed up. However, similar to the interview with Ralph Nader, NBC’s Ron Allen interviews Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr rather aggressively with an attitude of doubt or criticism that I don’t see when John McCain, Barack Obama and the like are questioned.

However, the short clip gives a wrap up of the Liberitarian Party and their presidential candidate Bob Barr. “The Liberitarian Party brings those things that the Republican Party used to stand for but no longer does.” The very conservative Barr entered Congress as a Republican in 1994 but lost his seat in 2002. According to NBC he currently polls at 2 or 3%.

It would have been a great service to the public if NBC would have produced a third party series introducing all their presidential candidates and so showing alternative choices – they are part of U.S. political landscape, too. If NBC wants to fulfill its function to provide its audience (i.e. the public) with information to help citizens make informed decisions in a democracy, it needs to pay more attention to what's happening outside the center. After all, providing information that no one else can get is its legitimization for existence.

The power of polls
Despite its own reliance on polls, NBC uploaded a two minutes video of October 30, 2008 dedicated to pointing out the flaws of surveys: landlines v cell phones, honesty, and intended lying to give the other camp false security. It's a nice piece behind the scenes for people don't think about where the numbers come from.

Proposition 8 – Same sex marriage in California ()
"As hot as the presidential race" the reporter calls it. An October 30, 2008 story sums up the passionate fights for and against same sex marriage in California. If Proposition 8 as its official ballot title reads passes, it would ban same sex marriage in California. Polls are close as gay and lesbian couples rush to tie the knot before something that goes without saying for heterosexuals and was won just six months ago might become a rainbow colored fairy tale of the past – an informative piece on a state issue at the sidelines of the national election.

Turkey for Obama -- and other exotic glimpses
An almost two minutes story of October 31, 2008 gives a glimpse into a country featuring a strong Muslim population. As much as many in Turkey wish for Obama to become U.S. president, they all also fear the hostile U.S. approach towards Islam.

An interesting three-minute kaleidoscope of U.S. voters in Israel dated October 30, 2008 starts off with ping-ponging between voices for Obama and McCain. Between 7.000 and 10.000 U.S. citizens are registered to vote from Israel. Many of them come from swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida – an unusual look behind the scenes of organizing the U.S. election overseas.

Two November 3, 2008 videos turn their attention to a continent most of the time neglected and forgotten by media but suddenly of interest because of the origin of Obama’s father: Kenya. The short clips feature the two sides of the Obama coin there: celebrating Obama in a musical as a son of the nation but also the serious consequences for his family who built a fence and are protected by guards from too much attention.

Thou shall not listen to rumors
This three minutes clip of October 31, 2008 speculates about rumors of Sarah Palin wanting to run for president in 2012, the McCain campaign’s tendency to paint her as scapegoat if McCain loses mixed with some of the disagreements on issues such as same-sex marriage.

However, the clip starts off with the anchor saying that now in the final week of the campaign “you would hope that voters would be focused on nothing but the issues but it’s rumors not issues grabbing some of the headlines.”

Hhhmmm, who is making these headlines? And who is thriving on them to catch and bind these fickle eyeballs to consume whatever the screen shows (probably also issues if they would be aired more)? Having said this, here’s a piece on some current juicy McCain/Palin gossip. But voter, please focus on the issues here, won't you!?

Predict your own election!
Finally, MSNBC offers a neat toy, an interactive map for the user to fill in toss-up states and see the outcome of your personal hunch.

On its Decision '08 home page MSNBC offers more interactive tools, photos, cartoons, polls...you name it.

This will be the last post for this blog since this media observation project stops with election day on November 4, 2008 (which as of this writing is roughly 12 hours away). Despite all the fun of sometimes checking NBC Nightly News online more often than my e-mail, no matter how the election will go, I and the country can concentrate again on some other important issues. Back to non-election mode of real life.

Fox News Channel: The Home Stretch

2008-11-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

By Allison Herman
AH215206@ohio.edu

In my opinion, this last week of election coverage has been the most exciting yet. Fox News Channel has had many different politicians on as live interviews, all talking about how they think the election will turn out. What’s great about these interviews is that nearly all of them are from very passionate people who genuinely seem like they mean and care about what they’re saying, and all are confident that they know how the election will turn out. The only problem is that they’re split about 50-50: half for McCain and half for Obama.

It’s also interesting to see how the national media is portraying the state of Ohio. We’re a swing state that means a lot in this election, but it also seems that no one really know definitively who will get the buckeye state. About twice an hour Fox has a different story about how Ohio’s going to be the state to watch on Election Day, which is exciting and it makes me glad that I get to participate in Ohio’s election this year.

What is also a continuing trend on Fox is the channel showing the last minute campaign stops by the presidential candidates across the country. As I said in my previous blog, I was surprised to see that they were showing the candidates speeches in their entirety. 20 minutes of a political speech isn’t the most exciting TV, especially when both of the candidates use the same speech every time. If you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it a thousand times. But again, I guess that’s the luxury and the curse of a 24 hour news network – lots of time to fill.

MSNBC-TV: Obama Wins! (We Think)

2008-10-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

by Brooks Jarosz
bj186905@ohio.edu

With only seven days left until the presidential election, the campaigns are continuing their promotional travels. Meanwhile, the news media, especially MSNBC, has been choosing a winner. They sight political polls showing Barack Obama is leading by numerous points. even if the polls are based on reliable sampling, I find it disturbing that different commentators are placing bets.

While I don't agree with many of these so-called journalists, I did get a kick out of what Keith Olbermann said last night. He said the best metaphor to describe the McCain campaign was that his car was running out of gas, which actually happened. That is in addition to the media bus covering Governor Sarah Palin, that broke down on the side of the road.

Rachel Maddow Says Polls Don't Tell the Whole Story
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow compared the two campaigns to football statistics. Quite creative AND dead-on in my opinion. When a person has a candidate he or she likes, they fail to realize what the rhetoric means. As a result, both sides think their campaign is doing the best. Looking at both campaigns from a different perspective only helps my understanding of the candidates. Later in Maddow's segment, she talks with Democratic Pennsylvania Governor, Ed Rendell, about Barcak Obama's campaign strategies.

Just Serve the People Honestly!
MSNBC likes to debate and discuss issues that should not matter to the average Americans. "Hardball" first brought up a number of comments by other publications talking down Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. Then, Chris Matthews brought up reasons to believe why the McCain campaign could be crumbling. Two other people spoke with Matthews regearding the issues, but included more of their own opinions than the facts. I feel like the lines have been tremendously blurred, causing journalists to give their opinions. I wish we could spend more time on producing a well-balanced and honest show with the facts.

ABC.COM: What if...?

2008-10-28T14:37:00.001-07:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu

...Barack Obama moves into the White House? What if he doesn't? What will be the consequences for the people in the United States and its image in the world, for the economy, health care, immigration, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.?

Over the last several months we've gotten an idea of what each candidate would do if he was elected, but which of these goals are actually doable? Which depend too much on lobbies, money and other relations so that they can only be done with major changes, if at all? Which suggestions are more retorical promises than seriously meant to be realized?

This, of course, we won't get to know until after the election, but the general 'What if...?' game can already be played.

Celebrity Relations...

How did he do that? In all, Obama could raise more than $600M, while John McCain only achieved $358M. And so many celebrities endorsed Obama, that his opponents already describe him as a celebrity as well. Sometimes they paid as much as $30,000 at one of those fundraiser parties. And in this recent article called "Stars speak out about the Hudson tragedy" he is even pictured next to Fergie...

But, it's not just Obama, Sarah Palin also got a lot of 'celebrity' type coverage during the last few weeks. Some even want to have her hosting a show of her own.

Politics and showbiz - a relationship founded on money and publicity, what does that do to the credibility of those who govern the people?

Not Present
Especially in comparison to the media attention Sarah Palin got, Joe Biden is not just underrepresented, he's ignored. It's really astonishing how little coverage there was on him on abc.com. Why? Is he not controversial enough? Doesn't he look good enough? Or are his clothes not expensive enough?

Palin was praised, and then bashed by the media, while Biden got really very little attention.

Who'll Go?
That's a good question, but this one won't be answered before next week. How will the youth vote turn out? Will all the young people who have registered make the effort to go and vote? What about the rarely mentioned issue of racism? Will this play a role?

Not from abc.com, but from cnnbcvideo.com is this video...a scenario from the democratic perspective about what might happen, when people stay home. :)

NBC-TV: T-minus Seven Days

2008-10-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

by Samantha Pompeo
sp306305@ohio.edu

A few days ago, I was reading an article about how news media will react to the end of the elections. The question was posed about what networks like NBC will talk about when the president-elect is decided. It made me think about how much of a news program's rundown is based on the election. Looking at any "Nightly News," it's obvious that multiple minutes are devoted to what's going on on the campaign trail. And with only a few short days until voters head to the polls, NBC is making last minute attempts to help undecided voters decide.

There may not be a lot of time left before the end of the campaign, but a lot has happened in the meantime. On the Today Show, there was a wonderful long package about the road to the White House. It seems to focus more on Obama than McCain, but that could be because Obama had to fight for his spot as the Democratic candidate.

And then today, the Matt Lauer talked to NBC's chief political director about polls.

But with so little time left, why are we focusing on polls? With so little time left, shouldn't the focus be on where the candidates are, what they're saying, and how the campaigns are wrapping up? I feel like I'm repeatedly asking the same question: where are the issues? But as a journalist, I have to remember the bottom line: ratings. Will the issues bring in ratings? Maybe not, but they're what the campaign is and should be about. And networks like NBC should do their best to help inform and educate the viewer, regardless of how the ratings may fair.

T-minus seven days until the historic decision. This is when the fun begins.

ABC-TV: Campaigns Coming to a Close

2008-10-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Monique Ozanne
meozanne@gmail.com

Ted Stevens
Convicted on seven felony counts for not reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in unreported gifts, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is asking his colleagues, as well as Alaska voters to stand by his side as he appeals the charges. We know for sure that one Republican senator will not be supporting Stevens. Republican presidential nominee John McCain is asking Stevens to resign. The 84-year old Stevens is up for re-election in next week's November 4th elections and if re-elected he could be expelled by the Senate. McCain calls for Stevens resignation because he says Stevens has "broken his trust with the people." McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has not called for Stevens resignation, but says that she "is confident he will do what is right for the people of Alaska."

My question is, what about the Republican party? Something else that must be considered is what does this dismissal mean for the Democratic party? Does this allow for Democrats to campaign against the GOP like they did in 2006? ABC's George Stephanopuolos asks this question in his blog, and finds that if Stevens loses Alaska that it means one seat lost for the Republicans, and possibly one gained on the other side.

Early Voting
What an astonishing concept. One in ten registered voters has taken advantage of the opportunity to vote early and avoid the long lines on election day. Along with the surprising number of voters who have voted early, these same people are showing strong support for Obama. For those skeptics who need the "hard facts" on this statement, ABC News has teamed up with The Washington Post to produce an updated document with charts, and questions -- something that I will be checking daily from now until the 4th.

Until one of the candidates shows a strong lead on November 4th, the media will be very hesitant, and should be wary of calling the election. It is important to continue to be a good citizen and keep reading articles, blogs, reports, and keep track of polls. Polls are something Americans should treasure, and look to as another form of democracy and form of representation from their fellow citizens. We are lucky in this country to have polls as a resource to gather information. Although they have high significance, and are what many news outlets are basing their stories off of these last few days, we must still treat them as what they are.

Alleged Plot
Since May 3, the secret service has followed Obama on his campaign trail, which is the earliest the service service has been with any presidential candidate. We now understand why. Federal authorities have reported that they foiled a plot that involved an assassination plan to kill Barack Obama. The plot involved two men with reported links to the white supremacist movement.

The last time I was home, I spent a little bit of time with my mother in a salon while she got a haircut. While I was waiting I began talking to a woman who was waiting next to me. For whatever reason she felt comfortable enough with me to begin discussing the upcoming presidential election. Timidly, she told me that she is afraid to vote for Obama because she is afraid she will contribute to his "eventual assassination". I was pretty perplexed by her response, until I realized that she was from the same generation of voters who loved and supported JFK before his assassination. And she began to tell me that she is so afraid to get her hopes ups, and have something tragic happen like it did with JFK.

I did not have a response for her, but I did come to my own conclusions about this election. This election is truly historic, and especially for those who have seen and heard so many over the past decades; I now understand how important this election is for so many. Obama is finishing his campaign with soaring speeches, while McCain is adamant about his attacks on liberal v. conservative and safe v. risky. In these last few days we might see the campaigns coming down to these small, "little things that may wind up to be big things," which is what ABC talks about in the latest article of The Note. For now we can just track the polls, follow the trails, and anticipate the results on November 4th.

MSNBC.com: Problems in the Spotlight

2008-10-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Jaime Baker
jb220705@ohio.edu

As the election looms closer, bad press is coming out of the closet for everyone involved. The big news of the week was Alaska Senator Ted Stevens being convicted on seven counts of corruption. Now John McCain is asking him to step down, saying Stevens has broken his trust with the people. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has also chastised Stevens, saying he needs to step down from his position.

Another bit of bad news came out of Tennessee this week. Two Neo-Nazis had a plan to murder Barack Obama that was foiled by police. They also had a plan to massacre about 88 people, beheading 14 of them. 88 and 14 are symbolic numbers in white supremacy.

This really highlights an major issue in the campaign--how many people are silently voting against Barack Obama because of his race? One question this raises is how skewed are the poll numbers by people who say they will vote for Obama, or that race doesn't matter, but in actuality, when they get into the voting booth can't pull the lever for a black man.

Fox News Channel: Stepping up their game

2008-10-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

By Allison Herman
Ah215206@ohio.edu

I have been particularly impressed with what Fox News Channel has been doing with its election coverage this past week, and I believe this is because I’ve changed when I’m watching Fox News. Normally I watch in the evenings, but watching in the mornings is incredibly different. The anchors are anchors, not commentators throwing in their two cents all the time. And the way they were reading their stories and interacting with their guests was really great. So for great news coverage for the election, watch early.

That being said, I normally don’t care for polls. There are so many, they’re all different, and I hardly believe that they’re accurate or tell you much of anything 4 months before the election. But at this point in the game, one week before people are actually going to vote, I think they’re much more interesting and much more informative - even if the numbers are still fluctuating in these final days. So, I was pleased when Fox took half a minute out of their newscast to show the latest numbers in the key swing states.

What I also really liked was that while Barack Obama and John McCain were both campaigning in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Fox had live feeds from both of their speeches. I was a little surprised though when they showed both of the speeches nearly in their entirety. I figured they would show 5 minutes or so, but sure enough they showed the whole thing. I guess that’s a luxury of a 24 hour news network, but it's one they don't take advantage of often enough.

FoxNews.com: Countdown to Election Night

2008-10-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

by Alex Mazer
am158905@ohio.edu

Looking at the Fox News website this week, one particular article that caught my eye the most was "Government Foils Skinhead Plot to Assassinate Obama." This is a prime example of how elections get out of hand. People are crossing extreme boundaries.

The two young men who were plotting the Obama assassination not only planned to attack him but also more than 100 African American students. It's a little ridiculous that now innocent people are being threatened because of a presidential race.

Personally, I think the best man will will and it shouldn't matter what his skin color is or how old he is and it shouldn't even come down to his name. I think the man the country beleives will run our country best will be the one to win the race. And there is nothing anyone can do to change that, at least there shouldn't be.

This week I have also noticed that the Fox Elections page is getting a little more interactive. At the bottom of the page there is a tracker for all viewers of the website to view their own state elections. I think this is a good idea to get people to visit the site more often because they can now look at all election coverage on one site.

There is also an election countdown towards the bottom of the page, which I think is a good idea to have because it gets people excited about the election. Personally, I like to know the time left until an event is about to occur, I'm sure there are many other people who like this feature as well.

I also like the ads in the top right corner of the page. One of the ads that appears in that space encourages people to get an absentee ballot to vote and offers a link to click in order to get to the right place to request one.

CNN-TV: The "Magic Map" and Angry Joe

2008-10-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

by Christina London
christinalondon1@gmail.com

It seems like it's been going on forever, but can you believe that the presidential election is only one week away? CNN is ready...and the people there want you to know they're ready. This week, the Cable News Network has devoted quite a bit of airtime to explaining exactly how it plans to cover election results.

That Magical Map
In my opinion, CNN has always been the most innovative among the networks when it comes to covering Election Night. But next Tuesday, it will take interactive election coverage to new heights with what is being called the "Magic Map." It's basically an enormous touch-screen picture of the United States; whenever CNN's John King touches a particular state, the map zooms in and gives him all the important election information about that state.

Some people are giving CNN flak for the map, including those over at Saturday Night Live:

So is the "Magic Map" a useful tool for conveying information, or is it just overkill? Personally, I think the map will be effective, especially for visual learners. I also like the fact that viewers can "play along" at home. With the Electoral Calculator, people can update their maps after CNN calls each state and can even create "what if" scenarios by turning any state red or blue.

"Are you joking?"
It seemed like every CNN talk show this weekend was discussing Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden. It's because of an interview Biden did with Barbara West of WFTV in Florida on Saturday. During the Q and A, West quoted Karl Marx and asked, "How is Obama not being a Marxist if he plans to spread the wealth around?" To this, Biden laughed and asked, "Is that a real question?" Take a look:

Monday night on Anderson Cooper 360, Cooper posed the question, who was out of line: the politician or the news anchor? In my opinion, it was West. If you watch the whole interview, you'll see that she was trying to get Biden to argue. For instance, she asked, "Aren't you embarrassed by the blatant attempts to register phony voters by ACORN, an organization that Barack Obama has been tied to in the past?" The way she phrased this question really makes her appear biased. She should have asked, "What is your take on the ACORN situation?" or "I know Barack Obama has been tied to ACORN in the past...how do you feel about the current controversy?" In my view, she came into the interview with a "I'm gonna get him" attitude, not a neutral approach, as a journalist should.

What do you think? Do you think Biden or West or both acted inappropriately?

CNN.com: Early voting turnouts reach record; Small business owners need to decide

2008-10-27T20:43:00.001-07:00

by: Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

Early Voters Weigh In
It's just a week away, and early voting has already had record turnouts for this year's election.

In Georgia alone, nearly a fifth of all voters have already voted.
This year, 31 states are allowing their voters to either vote early in person. This all in an effort to avoid the massive issues we faced in 2004 in Ohio and other states.

In my opinion, early voting is the way to go. Election day is going to be total mayhem no matter how prepared the separate precincts are, so why not take a few minutes tomorrow to vote? I did it just this morning, and to be honest, it was the most fulfilling experience I could ever imagine having when voting. I simply walked into the Board of Elections, and 10 minutes later was on my merry way. So make your life...and the lives of those working at the polls...a little easier next Tuesday and get your vote in early!

Small Business Owners Still in Toss-up
But those who aren't quite ready to cast their vote are taking the extra time to consider what each candidate will do for them...and their country.

One targeted group of each candidates' latest campaign has been small business owners. And according to CNN.com, they're not quite sure who to vote for just yet. Barack Obama talks to Ohioans in Canton about the economic crisis and McCain's financial plan.

Even though Obama thinks McCain's financial plan is more of the same, McCain says Obama's plan is going to spread the wealth of those who've earned it their entire lives.

Now if you are a small business owner and are still in a toss-up about the election, CNNMoney offers an Election 2008 special about where each candidate stands on your money and the election.

CBSNews.com: The Last Few Days

2008-10-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

by Cristina Mutchler
cm306704@ohio.edu

Backing Barack
We've all heard reports that presidential candidate Barack Obama is the biggest fundraiser in this election. But I had no idea exactly how MUCH he was fundraising, and who he is getting this money from. In the beginning of their campaigns, both candidates promised to keep their fundraising to a minimum. But Obama broke the record of coming in as the greatest political fundraiser ever, with more than $603 million, as opposed to the $358 million that McCain has raised.

Another interesting tidbit on the Obama fundraising subject is that he has also gotten more money from unidentified donors than anyone in history, with people giving way over the federal limit amount! In a week, we will find out if all of that fundraising was enough to help Barack win the vote.

Breaking Off from Bush
John McCain announced that he would NOT be embarking on President Bush's economic policies, and instead, will be going another route. McCain promised to place strict controls over government spending, thus protecting savings, retirement accounts, and helping to raise the stock market once again. The candidate also promised to create millions of jobs through tax cuts that will in turn help the economy. Watch McCain's pledge to help U.S. citizens and the economy below.

Presidential Questions
This week, presidential candidates McCain and Obama answered questions about an issue that politicians sometimes face- infidelity. CBS News anchor Katie Couric wondered why so many politicians in the public eye risk not only their relationships but their credibility by being unfaithful to their spouse. Obama's answer? He's even cautious about picking his nose, because being in the public eye, you have to expect that every one's watching you. McCain, on the other hand, seemed more concerned with not judging past politicians who have cheated on their spouses, even quoting one of the biblical ideas of "judge not."

Watch the complete answers below and judge for yourself!

NBC News.com: Increased Quantity for Same Quality

2008-10-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu

For this blog I concentrate on NBC News.com's videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics section as well as on the First Read blog, which is part of MSNBC.

Similar to last week the number of video clips about the U.S. election campaign has been high in number: The politics section of the NBC Nightly News online player is currently featuring election campaign video only. If a Martian would look into the list, it would think there is nothing else happening in the country. Isn’t there a current administration still working? Ah, of course, it’s this Bush person who we only hear about in connection with...the election! In an October 24, 2008 video we briefly can see the President Bush voting for his successor.

For quality not a whole lot has changed, there is the detailed campaign trail coverage, who is where when saying what; the polls get their prominent share of attention and so do red-blue-yellow map;, issues are discussed marginally even the economy has moved somewhat to the back burner.

A Complete Trilogy -- McCain/Palin Interview on NBC
Finally the trilogy is complete and Sarah Palin has honored the third of the broadcast networks with a seven minute interview uploaded October 24, 2008. Brian Williams did a nice job in staying on the question of when she is going to release her medical records after she tried to evade the question for the first time. To his second direct question on this issue she replied: “I’m healthy, I’m happy, I had five children, that’s going to be in the medical records. I’ve never been seriously ill or hurt, you’ll see that in the medical records IF they’re released.” There you go, Brian.

The other part of the interview included John McCain who spoke about his underdog position. In the same joint interview session Sarah Palin defines who is a terrorist, and both voiced their reaction to Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama.

John McCain: “I know that if General Powell had wanted to meet Governor Palin, we could have arranged that easily. […]”
Sarah Palin: “You received the endorsement of four former secretaries of state…”
John McCain: ”Five former secretaries of state.”
Sarah Palin: “Five, and hundreds of top military brass.”

Early Voting Nationwide
This October 24 report wraps up the early voting movement nationwide. With programs such as “vote & vacs” people get flu shots while doing their duty as citizens in a participatory democracy overall boosting voting records. By the way, President Bush and his wife have already voted, too.

Why A Palm Tree in the Background Is Not Enough -- A Rather Useless Live Shot
By now most people following the campaign coverage know about Barack Obama's family. Surprisingly, even his grandmother got some coverage this week as the senator flew to Hawaii to pay her a visit because she is ill. But also NBC’s Lee Cowan hurried to Honolulu: with water, wind, and a palm tree in the background, he mainly commented on a bunch of photos and some short video of Barack Obama boarding a plane. It is interesting to see how travel budgets for journalists are allocated for a few seconds of live scenes that say nothing but “I was here.”

Where They Stand On Free Trade & Homeland Security
Two more pieces haven been added to NBC’s Where They Stand collection, an October 24 video on free trade and a comparison on the candidates stance toward homeland security of October 26.
NBC’s short clips of about 2 ½ minutes give brief overviews complete with bullet point lines. It’s good to see that issues still do play a role.

Voting in Nevada – A Republican State Gone Toss-Up

The Daily Nightly blog added some interesting background information about Latino voters in Nevada and other states ending on the note that Latin Americans feel if Obama wins, a Latino might, too in the future.

Another state in the focuse... a four minute report examined the swing-y state Colorado, which just as NBC’s toss up report was over seemed have decided for Obama (as according to the same sources has Virginia reducing the number of undecided states from eight to six).

But like NBC’s anchor Lester Holt put it: “Of course all of this could change between now and election day.” That’s another reason why concentrating on the issues is more useful to voters (i.e. serving the public) than clicking the refresh button every second on polls and maps.

Sideline Issues -- Ted Stevens and International Attention
At the sidelines Republican Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens has been found guilty on all seven accounts of giving false information about free gifts worth $250,000 he received, most of it connected to renovating Stevens’ house.

Looking into the international mirror: Foreign journalists report about the U.S. election including France and Al-Jazeera.

Confusing Dates
Especially with the McCain/Palin interview I noticed an annoying feature of online video clips. Albeit the NBC Nightly News player is kind enough to give a summary of the video and a date when mousing over the thumbnail (unlike undated CBS Evening News clips) I've always wondered what the date stands for: the time of uploading or the time the event took place (that didn't seem to work out some clips). Video clips sometimes lack meta information about when an event happened if it is not mentioned within the video. Occasionally no date is listed at all and there is no anchor to guide you.

ABC.COM: Palin, Nails, and Pumpkins

2008-10-21T17:36:00.001-07:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@web.de

Carve, Baby, Carve
My nose froze immediately as I stepped out of the door into the ice cold morning air. Sunlight still hadn't touched anything and besides a chipmunk – which is actually THE chipmunk as I see it every day at the same place – there was no one to hear or to see. Until I turned around to take the steps downstairs...I moved my head but my still tired eyes were glued to a shining orange pumpkin in front of my neighbor's door. The motive they chose to carve into this little fruit tells more about them than just their artistic skills. It's Obama's campaign-for-change-sign.

Express Yourself
Besides pumpkins people found other creative ways to express their political feelings. Some paint the image of their favourite candidate on their nails or trash cans...

Persistent Campaigning
Perhaps they saw the pumpkin the other day when the people campaigning for the democratic candidate knocked on my appartment door – not for the first time. Once they want you to register, then to volunteer in their campaign. Engagement is good, but can't there also be too much?

The Numbers Mark the Difference

You can't have too much money or polling points, and John McCain could use both. In recent polls he is 9 points behind his rival and also in money raising he is not doing as well as Obama is. It's really remarkable how many stars back Obama and raise money for him and support him.

ABC-TV: Final Debate - McCain, Obama, and Joe the Plumber

2008-10-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Monique Ozanne
meozanne@gmail.com

He has given a visual to the term 'overnight celebrity'. Just days after ABC traveled to Holland, Ohio to follow Obama as he talked to local residents, Joe the Plumber, more correctly known as Sam Joe Wurzelbacher, became the focal point of the last presidential debate.

I take special interest in the Joe story because I remember watching the conversation on ABC last week as they traveled through Ohio. I remember seeing Obama talk with this man who expressed his uncertainty about Obama's campaign. At the time I did not think too much of the interview, except that this man was the only interviewee to question Obama and express his concern about what Obama's possible presidency would do for him.

Within days this man went from an interview to an important topic in the final debate. October surprise? Probably not. But Joe the plumber being mentioned 23 times during the debate did come as a surprise to many viewers and journalists. Following the debate ABC's Diane Sawyer brought Joe back into the spotlight to interview him about his reaction to being such a hot topic.

During his interview with Sawyer, Wurzelbacher did not reveal who he was going to vote for, but encouraged people to remain educated and listen during these remaining few weeks. As far as being known as Joe the Plumber, Wurzelbacher said that his son was into the title, and he himself thought it was kind of neat.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama
On Sunday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president during his appearance on Meet the Press.

Powell sees Obama as a transformational figure and new generation. Powell is concerned about McCain's choice of Sara Palin for VP, and said over the past few weeks he has seen that she is not ready to be Vice President. He said over the past weeks watching Obama, he has seen excitement and vigor, and sees Biden as a vice president that is ready to serve in office on day one.

Powell also criticized McCain for his ads, and sees the negative campaigning addressing problems that are not central to the American people, and becoming too narrow. It was obvious Powell thought out and had prepared his reasons for endorsing Obama. On the issue of race, Powell also expressed how upset he was to see the attacks on Obama stemming from the Ayers scandal, and the claims of Obama being a Muslim. Powell defends Obama by saying he is and has always been a Christian, but what would be the problem if he was in fact a Muslim. Powell later goes on to answer the question of race in choosing Obama as his endorsement, and defends himself by saying that if he were choosing Obama solely based on race, he would have made his decision six to eight months ago.

Two Weeks and Counting...
With exactly two weeks left until the election, my thoughts are filled with stress and emotion. I find myself staying up late into the night reading articles that are published hourly about what the candidates are doing and where they are. I continue to keep track of the updates on the latest scandals and claims made against each party. The closer November 4 gets, the hungrier I get for information and my excitement grows. But then I turn on my TV, and see negative ads and find myself once again frustrated and disappointed, and think that all the reading and researching I have done is a waste. No matter how much we try to educate ourselves and rise above the negativity, something will find us and try to bring us down. So today, and hopefully for the next two weeks, I will take Joe's advice and just listen, remain educated, and keep my head above the sewage.

NBC News.com: Finally Some Third Party Flavor

2008-10-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu

For this blog I concentrate on NBC News.com's videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics sections as well as on the First Read blog, which is part of MSNBC.

Surprise, Surprise (This Time a Real One) – 16 minute Ralph Nader Interview
After Senator Joe Biden’s suprising visit in Athens, OH – where this blog project is located – sparked lots of local and some national reports, one of my wishes for election coverage was somewhat fulfilled. (Of course one can always wish for more consistency.)

But on Tuesday, October 20, 2008 I was really stunned to find a 16 minute interview with independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader in NBC’s Nightly News web only section. Even better it was not just some interview but NBC's Ron Allen’s questioning starts off pointedly: “You can’t win the presidency, why do you keep doing this?” Allen follows his rather aggressive path throughout the whole interview on corporate politics, tipping the election in 2000, his chances to win any state, on mass media treatment of him, election results, and what it takes to convince him to drop out of the current race. I kept thinking what axe does Allen have to grind with the old man? Seldomly, I have seen an interview in which the attitude of the journalist is so palpable. But see for yourself.

Here’s the 16 minute expanded interview (which is really worth watching):

For a short time brush up on Nader, here’s a typical 2 minutes television clip:

By the way, did you know that Ralph Nader’s native language is Arabic, his parents came from Lebannon, he graduated from Princeton University and Havard Law School and served in the U.S. army? For some more Ralph Nader 101 (a la Wikipedia)please click here. By the way his running mate Matt Gonzalez's biography is presented in English and Spanish on their campaign’s website.

How about a follow up featuring other third party candidates and a background piece on the obstacles they face in general in U.S. politics and elections?

Suprise No. 2 -- Colin Powell endorses Obama and NBC Presents a Great Soundbite
That’s the stuff I want to see on the Internet, a great extended interview with Colin Powell. For seven minutes he shares in a very intelligent and articulate way his fresh thoughts on how he weighed Sens. McCain and Obama against each other as well as the development of the Republican party to come to the conclusion that Obama is the best man for the U.S. Don’t miss out on this well spoken endorsement by Republican former Secretary of State General Colin Powell.

Last, but not least...
...to make this surprise party complete, a piece about the Republican side, an October 16, 2008 portrait of Todd Palin and his tentacles in Alaskan politics beyond just serving tea as a spouse of a state official.

When will we hear more about Jill Biden?

Back to Business as Usual - Last Debate Coverage
An incredible flurry of at least two dozen videos surrounded THE debate on NBC.com. In addition to a clip featuring the whole 90 minutes of the event, NBC broke the debate into topical sections such as abortion, “the real McCain”, and of course Joe, the (non)-plumber. Also among the plenty, an eleven minute interview with John McCain’s senior campaign advisor Brian Jones...

…and a five minute clip with six demographically-correct guinea pigs probed for their feelings and thoughts after the debate. However, NBC’s Ann Curry cuts a little bit of a teacher figure hovering awkwardly above them on a high chair in an artificial living room stage set. She first roll calls them, asks for hands on such questions as: “Who thinks John McCain was stronger on the economy tonight?” and then follows up by calling individual names. By the way, all six pupils swiftly raised their hands when Ann Curry asked if they believe that some people might not vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin.

Mingling with the Youth - Sequel IV
Sure enough Luke Russert mingled again with the future of the country to collect their ten cents in another pop journalism video with jolly background tunes that give such a bright feeling to the debates that one is prone to forget about the dark drowning economy for about four minutes.

His final piece of college visits led him to Hofstra University, the epicenter of U.S. politics on Wednesday night (October 15, 2008). The youth were already sick of Joe the (non) plumber and the extended time spent on campaign evaluation. One woman who previously had favored Obama switched to McCain because of the Republican's fancy for nuclear energy, a conservatively socialized woman was converted to Obama’s side because of his health care approach, a third woman was still “on edge”.

While this is the logical conclusion of his series of university visits during debates, it's probably among the weaker reports I've seen because it doesn't offer anything new.

The Good Stuff - A Lawsuit and Being "Other"
At the sidelines of the election frenzy the lawsuit of the Ohio Republicans has been crushed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Here’s a neat wrap up by NBC’s justice correspondent Pete Williams who puts law language into understandable talk.

An almost four minute piece told from a first person perspective shows an interesting approach to a topic that affects millions of U.S. Americans--being of two or more races, being the other. A topic I hadn’t heard about much before was made into a touching piece about the population’s future not only in the USA but worldwide.

And it is complimented by a very useful, informative, and well-designed feature: an interactive map that shows you the population of each state in terms of two or more races. Data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau which is indicated in a little credit button. More maps of that sort please!

Left Over Criticism
The only complaint that is left for me this week is the absence of Jill Biden and the usual suspects, issues such as science, communication and Internet policy. Plus, an article in the German prestigious political weekly magazine Spiegel hinted at the fact that Sarah Palin is the only one in the major candidate quartet who has not showed her health records yet to the public or journalists. Wouldn’t this be a helpful piece in the otherwise extensive Palin coverage?

Interviews seem to be the strength of mass media online these days at least when it comes to NBC News.com: NBC will air an interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin on Wednesday and Thursday (October 22 and 23, 2008).

MSNBC-TV: Comparing Campaigns & Politics

2008-10-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

by Brooks Jarosz
bj186905@ohio.edu

The third and final debate was...well, interesting to say the least. Of course, the name most discussed was "Joe the Plumber," mentioned 25 times. I was happy to see suburban Toledo, Ohio, my hometown, get so much publicity!

Reacting to the debate, I thought it was a valid representation of what each campaign stood for. Picking a winner and a losser seems to be a popular thing to do after a debate, so I'll give my opinion as well. While many opinions commended Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, I felt he was too laid back. On the other hand, Republican presidential candidate, John McCain was on the attack. Right off the top, he didn't seem to miss a beat. He was prepared to win and in many respects, did. Some critics say McCain's shifty eyes and intense movements made him seem angry and erratic. I think this spoke to the ultra conservatives who believe McCain will bring change.

Obama was laid back and relaxed trying to focus on the issues and trying to avoid major attacks. Many Obama supporters say they want to hear about the issues, mentioned many times on MSNBC. Either way, both candidates had a strategy for gaining more support to win the presidency.

"Hardball" Picks Apart Campaigns
Chris Matthews, host of "Hardball" had an interesting segment last week. He interviewed two strategists: one republican and one democrat. He asked Republican Strategist, Todd Harris why some states changed from 'for' McCain to 'lean' McCain in the state projections. Harris mentioned that much of it has to do with the unlimited amounts of money the Obama campaign has raised and how it's choosing to spend those funds. I have to agree and it's a good point to bring up that Obama's campaign is spending unprecedented amounts of green stuff while also giving millions of dollars away to local and state democratic parties. The Obama campaign just doesn't know what to do with all of their campaign contributions it's receiving. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is to be determined, but I can think of numerous other things the money could be used for to benefit American citizens... the economy maybe?

Harris also mentioned that Obama should be winning by double digits with the amount of spending that occurs day in and day out and that Independents are still in favor of the Republican candidate. Another good question raised, is Obama's race playing into some people's decision? I would say, unfortunately, yes, that plays a big role in many Americans' minds.

In projecting a winner, Democratic Strategist, Steve McMahon says some votes aren't even accounted for in the polls, thanks to the number of Obama supporters trying to get new voters to register. I can certainly attest to that as it was very prominent here in Athens. Every time I turned around, someone was there asking me to register. While Matthews, discounted McMahon's point of the electoral college, I agree with McMahon. Obama is projected to lead the electoral college count by 100 votes and I don't see McCain gaining that many states in two weeks, despite what has happened in history. Matthews always gets his opinions in here and there, but overall I enjoyed this dual.

Anti-Americanism...What is That?
Sometimes I don't get it. There are some stupid people out there and yes, they're in the political world too. MSNBC-TV spoke with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann about her views on Barack Obama. She said we need an investigation into Anti-Americanism in Congress. She also mentioned the media should be looking into this as well. Are you kidding me? Does she not think the vows taken as a Senator matter? All of this negative campaigning and comparing Obama to a terrorist makes me sick. Let's get to the issues!

MSNBC should be focusing more on things that actually matter and less on sensationalism. I did, however, enjoy the response they got on this issue from Colin Powell. He said if you're an American, that's what you are and Americans get strength through unity and diversity. It's just too bad the campaigns cause the nation to be divided. Let's hope we all come together...November 5th!

NBC-TV: Obama v Palin

2008-10-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

by Samantha Pompeo
sp306305@ohio.edu

Anyone who has some knowledge of the national election can tell you that it's coming quick. It seems that just yesterday we were trying to determine who would be facing John McCain in the election. But thankfully, we're only 14 days away. In two weeks, voters will head to the polls to decide the next president of the United States. So, if you've been living underneath a rock, you may ask who are the running mates? If you watched some of NBC, it'd seem as if the race was Obama vs. Palin. Where's John McCain? In a Nightly News story, McCain isn't the first Republican you see. Why, it's Sarah Palin! And look how funny she is, appearing on Saturday Night Live. But where is McCain? Oh, here he is.. let's show him complaining about Obama again.

It's hard for the "liberal media" to rid itself of that title when the focus seems to be primarily on the liberals. The following sit-down interview with Barack Obama appeared on the Today Show this week, but where was the sit-down with John McCain?

In the piece, there's no mention of Matt Lauer visiting McCain on the campaign trail. But, there is mention of Sarah Palin's competence. Whenever Barack Obama is interviewed, the abilities of Sarah Palin are discovered. The same is apparent with Joe Biden. Lauer makes a big point of questioning Obama, and he responds eloquently. But, when is McCain questioned about Biden's ability to run the White House? He isn't. And the same should be said about Sarah Palin. America should be able to make a responsible decision about Palin's capability without the constant badgering of political analysts. I'll say it again, for the umpteenth time... where are the issues? When will networks such as NBC go back to the basics of what the election is really about... the issues. Lets hope that, with the election in sight, the networks will switch its focus to the real election.

FoxNews.com: All Obama?

2008-10-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

by Alex Mazer
am158905@ohio.edu

I was looking at the Foxnews.com site when I came across an article that was about the democratic vice presidential candidate. The title of the piece was Biden: Obama Will be 'Tested' by World in First 6 Months of Administration. In this article, Biden is depicted as being a little apprehensive of Obama being elected.

The article starts off with Biden saying that if or when elected, within the first six months of his presidency, Obama will be "tested" with an international crisis. To me, I think this statement was a bad idea on Biden's part. In my opinion it shows a lack of confidence in the candidate.

A lot of the articles on the site recently have been highlighting more of the negatives on both campaigns. I don't like to hear about all the bad things going on in the campaigns. Personally, I would much rather hear about the issues and campaign updates.

One of the problems I found with the Fox election website is the fact that all of the headlines have Obama's name in them. There is no diversity with the stories. It almost looks like Fox is a cheerleader for Obama right now. So where are the stories about McCain? Is Fox avoiding the Republican party?

Fox has almost gone to the other extreme and is now over-covering the Democratic race. Maybe they are trying to protect McCain and Palin from further scrutiny.

Fox News Channel: Plumbers, Debates and October Surprises

2008-10-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

By Allison Herman
AH215206@ohio.edu

Holy Joe! Ohioan Joe the Plumber is everywhere this week after the final presidential debate brought his small business concerns to the national stage. I turned on Fox News several different times, and it seemed that if Joe Wurzelbacher wasn’t in the story, he was on various news shows doing interviews. I can’t decide whether or not his 15 minutes of fame are worthy or not. I like that he’s a regular guy, trying to build a business for himself and he’s voicing his concerns to the presidential candidates. I just don’t know if it’s being taken too far.

One think I liked about this week’s Fox News Channel election coverage was some surprisingly intelligent debate between Fox News anchors and correspondents. They were commenting on a remark Joe Biden made about Barack Obama facing major international issues early in his presidency. The correspondents were discussing whether or not Barack Obama would be ready to deal with foreign policy issues if he is elected in November. I felt like one was playing devil’s advocate, but regardless, the rhetoric showed both sides of the fence quite well.

To me, the most interesting bit of information on Fox this week was the anticipation of an October Surprise. There were countless teases saying that Colin Powell could drop the October Surprise if he came out saying he supported Barack Obama. Now that Colin Powell has come out supporting Barack Obama, I think it's interesting but I don’t know how much weight it will have as far as an October Surprise. Typically, endorsements don’t mean too much, and I don’t know if anyone on the fence will sway to the Democratic side because of what Powell says, or any Republicans who would have voted for McCain before the endorsement won’t anymore.

CNN.com: Joe the Plumber Makes the A List

2008-10-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

by: Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

Three words I never thought would bother me now make me want to throw a glass at any TV that blares them. "Joe the Plumber." Joe the Plumber has accomplished a lot in his life. He's obviously, a successful plumber, he's established himself as a world figure, and he almost made me smash a TV during the final presidential debate on Wednesday.

I understand the importance of politicians relating to 'normal people', but there IS such a thing as a dead horse. And beating it. And that is exactly what McCain and Obama did during the presidential debate.

You can watch the full video of Joe Wulzerbacher questioning Obama's tax policy here, which is what prompted the hot topic for the debate:

Well, looking into the infamous Joe, I decided to investigate some articles about him. I was surprised to find that he makes about $250,000 or more a year. CNN got a chance to talk to him about the debate and his huge role in it.

But what kind of effect has this phenomenon had on McCain and Obama's campaigns? It's actually brought a whole different interest and participation in voters. At campaign rallies across the nation, attendees are now going by "Rose the Teacher", "Phil the Bricklayer", and so on and so forth.

CNN-TV: Colin Powell did what?!

2008-10-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

by Christina London
christinalondon1@gmail.com

Just in case you haven’t heard, Colin Powell is endorsing Barack Obama for president.

Last Sunday, the former Republican Secretary of State announced that he was supporting the Democratic candidate. Powell made his announcement to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press over on the peacock network. Even though CNN didn’t get the big announcement, it was ready for post-game coverage.

Now, I understand that Powell’s announcement didn’t exactly come as a surprise. CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger says the Obama camp has “courted” Powell for months, and there were Internet rumblings all last week. Still, as soon at Meet the Press was over, CNN was on the air with two hours of reaction and analysis. On Late Edition, Wolf Blitzer hosted two political figures: former New York City mayor and presidential hopeful for the GOP Rudy Giuliani and Congressman Artur Davis, a Democrat from Alabama. They were followed by a discussion panel made up of CNN political strategists.

This made me wonder, what if Powell hadn’t made the announcement? What if he endorsed McCain instead...or didn’t endorse anyone at all? Would they have still interviewed the same guests and just asked them different questions? Or did they have backup guests lined up to talk about the economy? Obviously, this raises a lot of questions about what it’s like to be a CNN producer; so much coordination is involved for even short segments. By any means, I was impressed by the immediacy of CNN’s coverage of the Colin Powell announcement.

So how big of an impact will Powell’s endorsement of Obama have on the election? Some political analysts say it could be substantial. Powell was classified as one of the “big gets” for the candidates. (The panel listed Al Gore and Ted Kennedy in the same category.) At a time when it’s all about undecided voters, CNN’s David Gergen says Powell gave a voice to moderate Republicans. For instance, Powell talked about how turned off he was by the Republicans dwelling on Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers. This might speak to moderates who are still undecided. While all of the CNN panelists agreed Powell could influence voters, Republican Strategist Leslie Sanchez points out that he's still only one person.

One person not pleased at all with Powell's endorsement is Stephen Colbert. Take a look:

What kind of impact (if any) do you think the Colin Powell endorsement will have?

CBSNews.com: A Few Small October Surprises

2008-10-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

by Cristina Mutchler
cm306704@ohio.edu

Colin Powell Endorsing...Obama?
A surprise for many, former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced over the weekend that he is endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president. Although Powell said that Obama and his competitor John McCain are both qualified to become the leader of our nation, he thinks that Obama is better suited to handle the current economic problems as well as our standing internationally. Powell described Obama as a "transformational figure" and said that we need a president who represents generational change. Next, Obama announced that Colin Powell will play a large role as a presidential advisor in his administration. The surprises just keep coming!

Middle Class McCain
Also over the weekend, Republican John McCain cast himself as the "guardian of middle-class workers and small-business owners who fuel the economy." During a rally at Otterbein College here in our home state, McCain said that he won't raise taxes on small businesses, unlike his opponent Barack Obama.

McCain went from the Columbus area to Toledo, near "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher's Holland home, and even mentioned him at the rallies after the plumber was taped questioning Obama's tax plan in regards to his two-man plumbing shop. McCain also got creative with names, saying that he was campaigning "on behalf of Joe the Plumber and Rose the Teacher and Phil the Bricklayer and Wendy the Waitress."

On another interesting note, while in Ohio McCain also held a conference call with Jewish leaders and was endorsed by The Columbus Dispatch.

Voter Mix Ups
A Washington Post story on the CBSNews.com website talked about the thousands of U.S. voters across the country that are required to now establish their eligibility in the next three weeks in order to be able to vote on November 4th. This mix-up was a result of new state registration systems that are rejecting the voters' eligibility by fluke. States are using new systems that are switching from locally managed lists to state-wide lists.

The result? A bunch of lawsuits, and arguments among Democratic/Republican state officials, including here in Ohio. All of this is just adding to confusion on Election Day, with no way of knowing how many voters are affected by this issue nationwide.

MSNBC.com: Endorsements and Underdogs

2008-10-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

Jaime Baker
jb220705@ohio.edu

This past week, MSNBC.com was all over Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama. Powell was secretary of state for George W. Bush, and a member of the Republican party. A major thought was that Powell was endorsing Obama because of his race, but Powell has denied it. It seems as though choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate was the final nail in the coffin for John McCain, according to Powell. Powell says his decision raises questions about McCain's judgment.

Another good part of last week for Obama was the announcement of the money raised for his campaign last month. Obama raked in over $150 million, which absolutely shatters records. Average donations were around $86. When put in context of just how bad the economy is, it's an even bigger deal. The money has shown that he has secured a foothold in many states that have not voted Democratic in the past.

John McCain, on the other hand, is busy playing the underdog--literally. McCain is casting himself as a middle-class guardian and at the same time taking over the role of underdog in the presidential race. Americans tend to root for the underdog, so McCain is trying to play it up to see if it will help get more votes.

McCain is also reeling a bit from comments Powell made about his judgments and decisions. Choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate seems to be something that has turned sour for McCain. McCain now also needs to defend his party and supporters, because Powell seems to be pushing that McCain is allowing people to make derogatory comments about Obama and his race. It sounds like McCain may have some serious work to do.

Smiling Through the Mockery
Sarah Palin finally made an in-the-flesh appearance on Saturday Night Live this past week. NBC scored it's highest ratings for late-night in 14 years. But Chevy Chase, who is one of the biggest names of SNL, said he thought Palin coming on was a terrible decision. He said people are totally unimpressed with Palin. Sounds like Palin just can't win.

MSNBC.com: Economic Plans and Picture Perfect Lives

2008-10-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

Jaime Baker
jb220705@ohio.edu

The last two days have produced big announcements of economic plans for the presidential candidates. Monday, Barack Obama proposed putting house foreclosures on hold and giving tax breaks to businesses to help creat jobs. These new proposals included a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures by some banks, a $3,000 tax credit for each new job created, and a plan to let voters withdraw without tax penalties up to a maximum of $10,000, from their retirement savings plans through the end of next year.

John McCain fired back on Tuesday with his own plan. McCain set out a $52.5 billion plan to help the economy. He called for the elimination of taxes on unemployment benefits, lowering what the government takes from seniors as they draw on retirement accounts and accelerating tax deductions for people forced to sell assets at a loss in the troubled market. McCain also said that if he is elected president, he would make sure the Treasury Department guarantees 100 percent of all savings over the next 6 months.

Candidates Lives in Pictures
One of my favorite new parts of MSNBC's website in their section that includes pictures of the candidates throughout their lives. Barack Obama's photos were more focused around his childhood and his family life. John McCain's photos had very few family pictures, but a lot of pictures from his time in the military.

I found this very interesting, because Obama has made a very big point of putting his family in the limelight to show how family-oriented he is. But McCain has used a lot of his military past as an argument as to why he should be elected. These pictures match almost perfectly to some of the campaigning tactics they've been using.

ABC - TV: Too Much Negativity, What Happened to Campaigning?

2008-10-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

Monique Ozanne
meozanne@gmail.com

Post debate results showed Presidential nominee Barack Obama pulling head of Republican nominee John McCain. Despite these results, and the McCain Campaign knowing they needed to change up their tactics, Obama still prevailed in last week's debate.

Over the weekend however, a different story surfaced. Both campaigns have spent most of the past week campaigning all over Ohio, but the McCain campaign has shown a change in direction in their campaign. Outside of rallies in the past week there have been several reports about opposition for Obama displayed in a more racist style. In response to these and the other negative campaign ads, polls are showing that this approach may be backfiring against the campaign. Traditional Republican states such as North Carolina, where ABC was last night, are showing that Obama is pulling ahead in the race.

ABC news highlighted that the McCain campaign has gone off track and McCain seems more concerned with attacking Obama then campaigning.

Here is an example of the type of advertisements McCain's campaign has been putting out.

In contrast, Obama's advertisements have been covering his campaigning and how he plans on dealing with major issues.

Continuing 50 States in 50 Days
Among the coverage last night in North Carolina, ABC seems to be getting a little obsessed with polls. I have found that news outlets find polls a safe way to be able to make predictions and keep the topics and debates lively and entertaining. Not that the polls may not be true, but a lot of the election packages that ABC is producing are packied with full screen graphics displaying polling results. Their polls show a 26%-59% ratio of campaign ads that are attack ads between Obama and McCain. They also show a 2:1 ratio that the economy is a winning issue for Obama compared to McCain.

What will be most interesting in these final weeks is what the outcome of the final debate will be, and which states the candidates will focus on other than Ohio. We have discussed, and I have read and heard a lot about the anticipation of an October surprise.

CNN-TV: "Race in this Race"

2008-10-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

by Christina London
christinalondon1@gmail.com

It’s the elephant in the room: the issue of race in the presidential election. Personally, I thought race would be a bigger issue in the media than it has been, especially for the 24-hour cable channels. However, I’ve been following CNN’s election coverage for more than a month now and haven’t seen much of a focus on race...until last weekend.

Last Sunday, CNN devoted several prime time slots to the issue of race. However, it was the race of the voters- not the candidates- that was the topic of discussion. Anchor Don Lemon did a live phone interview with radio host James Harris: an African-American man who supports John McCain. After Harris was made famous for a comment at a McCain rally, he said the hate mail started pouring in.

WWatch as Harris addresses McCain at a rally in Wisconsin.

I need to applaud Don Lemon, who is also
African-American, for how he handled the interview. He asked Harris the question, “What do you say to people who say, ‘What have Republicans done for black people?’” This caused Harris to erupt in an angry outburst, yelling, “Well, what have Democrats done for black people?!” Lemon kept his cool and simply responded that he would have to refer Harris’s question to a CNN political analyst. I was impressed by Lemon’s ability to keep his cool during a tense situation on live television (even if he had wanted to add his two cents.)

So how big of a role will race actually play in the election? A CNN poll from last month suggests that it could be pretty substantial. Here are the findings:

Barack Obama would receive six more percentage points of support if prejudice were not an issue.

A small group of Democrats polled (2.5%) say they may turn away from Obama because of his race.

Of the 8% of Democrats surveyed who are voting for McCain, half say race was a factor in making their decision.

The poll was conducted partly online in hopes people would be most honest about their attitudes about race. Still, the article points out that it’s difficult to quantify and trust these numbers. As we discussed in class, we’ll have to wait and see if those people who “just can’t vote for a black man” vote for McCain...or just stay home on Election Day.

NBC-TV: Equal Treatment for All?

2008-10-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

by Samantha Pompeo
sp306305@ohio.edu

As the election inches closer and closer and polls are more frequent than ever, I began to wonder if NBC was giving equal amounts of airtime to both candidates. So, once again, I watched an array of news clips on the network to see if that was the case.

In the following clip from Nightly News, there are essentially two packages in one. The first minute and a half talks about John McCain's rally in Virginia, and the second half describes Barack Obama's trip to Toledo, Ohio. But even though the candidates receive the same amount of airtime, are they getting the same treatment?

The package about John McCain is about his strategy of instilling words like fight into his campaign to appear stronger. He is only seen as a talking head behind a podium. The reporter even mentions that McCain was supposed to take questions at the end, but perhaps due to fear, decided not to. In contrast, Barack Obama is seen walking the streets of Toledo and talking to people suffering because of the economy. He is also shown as a talking head, but not to the extent of John McCain. Although it could seem that Obama is getting better treatment by the story, that may not be true. As a viewer, one has to think about the fact that a reporter can only create a story out of what is there. Digging deep will only go so far if the story is just a talking head at a rally.

Last week, I suggested the youth vote was nowhere to be found in the news. But this week, the Today Show proved me wrong.

As a child, it I read The Scholastic News every month. Now that I'm older, it's refreshing to see that Scholastic News is still taking every step to help educate the youth of America. Although the discussion between the Scholastic reporters and Today Show anchors is silly to say the least, it's a good reflection that people, even ones who can't vote for many years, have a great interest in this election. And looking at the statistics, that the students have only inaccurately predicted two of the last 13 elections, perhaps this is the only poll we should be focusing on.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love entertainment news. And it appears I'm not the only one. It seems the more salacious a story, the more interest it gets from viewers. That could be why The Today Show had a story on Bristol Palin's future husband.

Although the story was interesting, is it newsworthy? Some would say yes, but what was learned.. that Levi Johnston has a Bristol Palin tattoo? Cute, but what does that have to do with the politics of the campaign? In a time when this election is so monumental, so historic, does a 17-year-old's tattoo need to be discussed? Regardless of your feelings about the Palin family, I have to wonder if this story really matters. Typically, I would be the first to say yes, bring on the gossip. But, that doesn't help me learn about the McCain/Palin ticket's stance on social security. It doesn't give me any new information about the campaign itself, just about a 17-year-old Alaskan boy who is marrying a girl he impregnated. And it's not as if it was an exclusive interview with Levi Johnston. It was only a slideshow of pictures while the AP reporter who interviewed him described what happened. Newsworthy? I have my doubts. As teen pregnancy becomes less taboo than ever before, does this really matter? If Bristol Palin wasn't pregnant, if it was any Jane Smith from the midwest, there would not be a story about it on the Today Show. And maybe, at least until this election is decided, it should stay that way.

CBSNews.com: Things are getting interesting...

2008-10-14T06:13:00.001-07:00

by Cristina Mutchler
cm306704@ohio.edu

Palin Protestors?
At a Richmond, Virginia rally, a confused Sarah Palin mistakenly scolded her own supporters. Apparently it was hard to hear the Alaska governor speak at the outdoor event, so some of her fans shouted in unison, “We can’t hear you!” When that didn’t elicit a response, they came up with a new chant: “Louder!”

Palin then proceeded to stop reading the teleprompter cues, and directed these comments at what she thought were protestors,

“I would hope at least that these protestors have the courage and the honor of thanking our veterans for giving them the right to protest.”

The crowd was startled, and Palin’s husband Todd tried to stop confusion by telling his wife that they can’t hear her. Palin’s response? “OK. I’m doing that.” Then she continued with the rest of her speech. Who knew that fans could make things so confusing?

Race Matters

Another link of interest this week was the article "Time to Move Beyond the Bradley Effect?” It focused on race, although most Americans claimed that we have moved beyond race as a country…really?

There’s been some hush-hush (and not so hush-hush) discussion about race in this election particularly because Presidential candidate Barack Obama is half African-American. A recent CBS News Poll asked registered viewers if they knew anyone who supports Barack Obama because he is black? and also if they knew anyone who did not support him mainly because he is black? Apparently, 24 percent say that they know someone who supports Obama because of his race, and 22 percent say they know someone who will not be voting for Obama again because of his race.

The poll then compared the mostly white McCain voters, and 19 percent know someone voting against Obama because of race, while 32 percent know someone voting for him for that same reason.

Obviously, regardless of what some may say, race does has an impact on how Americans are voting. But only time will tell if, or how much, race will affect who will be running our country for the next four years.

More Presidential Questions

To me, this section is one of the most interesting because CBS News anchor Katie Couric is really able to get inside the candidates’ minds and find out what they’re thinking on “non-traditional” issues topics. This week, Couric asked both candidates to describe a situation they think it’s appropriate to lie to the American people.

Obama answered that he does not think it is appropriate to lie to the American people. He said instead of lying, one can simply say, “we’re not answering questions.” He talked about this being one of the things he wants to change about the culture of Washington, referring to the fudging and manipulation as the “soft lie.”

McCain answered that he “can’t imagine it” because as a president one must maintain his credibility. Couric prompted him to answer the question more thoroughly in a national security situation. McCain answered that if you deceive the American people and then want their support, they become disillusioned. Basically, his answer started to go all over the place and I couldn’t really tell what he was trying to say, and I’m not sure that he knew what he was trying to say himself. As he put it, “I’m thinking out loud here.” You can watch for yourself and decipher the candidates’ messages in the videos below.

Watch CBS Videos Online

FoxNews.com: Fighting words spark the most interest

2008-10-14T04:15:00.001-07:00

by Alex Mazer
am158905@ohio.edu

After poking around the site this past week I have noticed that the Fox News election webpage is very interested in covering the stories about the candidates and their attacks on one another. I also found that these articles showed no bias because there is equal coverage of the "fighting words" from both parties.

The verbal attacks are getting even worse and I believe are getting out of hand. The Democratic Party and it's members are focusing their attacks mainly on Sarah Palin. The article "With Election Day Nearing, Distasteful Rhetoric a Two-Party Problem" reports the company Cafe Press is selling political T-Shirts that have sayings on them such as "Sarah Palin Is a C--T" and "Barack Obama is a CAN'T"

Both campaigns say they are unable to prevent or control what their supporters are doing, but I disagree. I think they hold the most power to motivate their supporters to cease these distasteful comments. They can encourage their supporters to concentrate on their campaign and forget about the other party and candidates. It is embarrassing to me that the people of this country go so far as to throw disrespectful words and phrases around.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery?
People of this country, and not just voters, are becoming obsessed with the candidates. They are even dressing their children like the candidates or going as far as having them immitate the candidates.

There is even a new adult film that depicts a Sarah Palin look-a-like. Fox correspondents speak about this film in a video clip online.

I think everyone should just stick to the issues at hand, vote for whomever they want, and let the rest of the country do the same.

MSNBC-TV: Covering Campaign Mistakes and Mishaps

2008-10-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

by Brooks Jarosz
bj186905@ohio.edu

Why go negative?
I’ve really been getting tired of the negative political ads. Whenever I try to watch anything, news or entertainment, there is an advertisement telling me how bad a person is for the job. I’m talking about slogans like “not our values,” “not what we need,” or “not someone you can trust". Between the presidential candidates and the Columbus-funded commercials, I have had enough!

This past week, MSNBC-TV did a great job covering the McCain campaign, whose negative ads ended up backfiring during a series of events. In Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the smearing of Barack Obama’s campaign was well explained. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin lead the pack associating Obama with a terrorist. Multiple people stood up at rallies and commented on McCain’s campaign and Barack Obama. One women called Obama an “Arab” and McCain was forced to back-pedal. McCain then responded saying Obama was a good man, to which the crowd responded with multiple boos. Another younger man expressed fear in Obama, associating with terrorists and his future daughter being born into that kind of world. Again, McCain responded saying you should not fear him, that Barack is a “good family man” and “would make a good president”.

My opinion in all of this is that McCain deserved it. People were picking up on his false, negative messaging and it bit him in the butt. Good! It’s about time candidates are held responsible for the content their campaign produces. The race isn’t all about winning; it should be about representing the people and working to make things better.

MSNBC should have dialed down the graphics a bit. Having “breaking news” and “McCain: Obama a good family man” among others was a little over the top. Regardless, hearing some of the American people talk negatively about the Obama campaign only reinforced the power of the political commercials.

October Surprise?
Governor Palin hasn’t gotten off to easy lately. The report in the Troopergate case came out this past week. The question was whether or not Palin broke state law having her former brother-in-law kicked off the police squad. Palin’s response, according to MSNBC-TV, was she fired Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan because he refused to fire her brother-in-law. Palen says she fired Monegan because she wanted to take state law enforcement in a different direction. Monegan says he was fired for Palin’s personal interests, which would violate state law. So, is this an October surprise that the report came out less than a month before the election? Maybe.

The War Views
Finally, NBC Nightly News did some coverage on where the candidates stand on the issues. One of the major ones, the War in Iraq. Despite what you may think is best for the country, it is nice to see plans outlined in a balanced report. For this week, I'll leave you with that...

CNN.com: The Racial Race

2008-10-13T20:22:00.001-07:00

by: Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

It's been a subject matter lurking in the shadows of this entire election season...starting two years ago when the prospect of having a black president became a certain reality. Considering that a mere 50 years ago or so, the Civil Rights Movement was just getting started, many people thought it would be years, decades even, until we would see a black president in office.

Now CNN.com is exploring how this is affecting people's decisions come November 4th.

And the main place CNN is exploring regarding this issue? That's right...the Buckeye State. Home to many of the students and faculty of Ohio University. CNN's John King explores how, in the battleground state of Ohio, the candidates' skin color will effect this election.

Many people believe Obama will suffer from the "Bradley Effect". In 1982, Tom Bradley, an African American, ran for California governor and lost, even though polls showed he was way ahead in the race.

I've known throughout this election that there are people in this country who are still racially biased. I knew that even before this election. But the fact that the future of our country could be decided based on the color of a candidate's skin is beyond me. We have made some great accomplishments over the years becoming a strong and united nation.

But in terms of diversity in office, we are way behind the times. There are foreign countries with female presidents and minority leaders that have been that way for many years. I think it is about time America grows up and looks at every person, not just every candidate, as the person they are instead of the color skin you see.

NBC News.com: A Week of Surprises and Series

2008-10-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu

For this blog I concentrate on NBC News.com's videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics section as well as on the First Read blog, which is part of MSNBC.

NBC Nightly News online seems to deliver reports about the Democratic and the Republican campaign daily now – an interesting balance that is only disturbed by the absence of Senator Biden most of the time. I also got the impression that more time is spent on each single campaign package, which often runs at least three or four to five minutes if both campaigns are covered in one clip.

Spirits that I've cited, my commands ignored
The most surprising moment during this week was Senator John McCain's repeated defense of Senator Barack Obama. In an almost four minutes long clip, NBC detailed McCain's attempts to calm down a few of his most furious fans: “He’s a decent family man and citizen and you do not have to be scared of him as a president.”

In return, Obama praised McCain for calming the tone of the increasingly caustic Republican campaign...

...and Senator Palin was found to have violated state ethic laws.

Another couple of surprises on the Democratic side: On Sunday (Oct. 12, 2008) there was a rare report about Senator Joe Biden campaigning with Bill and Hillary Clinton in his home state Pennsylvania. And as the First Read blog author Mark Murray put it: “at times, one could confuse the affair for a Clinton rally.”

The user could also mistake NBC's video clip of for an old Clinton stump report because it said little about Senator Biden. But it indicated that Hillary Clinton seems to be a better loser than everyone thought with stumping for Senator Barack Obama at more than 50 events, raising about $10 million for campaigning despite her own campaign debt of about $20 million. NBC’s Ron Allen who interviewed Hillary Clinton said she has not quite gotten over the defeat by Obama but “she’s going to be the good soldier and be out there do what ever Barack Obama says he needs.”

Where They Stand on Oil Drilling and Appointing Surpreme Court Judges
NBC added two more pieces to its Where They Stand feature: juggling new Supreme Court judges and oil drilling.

The latter topic has been in the mainstream media long and often enough but this report of last Tuesday is a nice summary of the candidates’ approaches to oil drilling. It wraps up what mainstream media has been reporting before: McCain advocates more domestic oil production and Obama recently changed his mind on offshore drilling admitting it might be okay for a short-term solution, but he would combine it with a windfall tax on oil companies and seeks alternative energy sources for a long-term energy policy.

More interesting is an aspect that hasn’t been discussed that often yet. As the Supreme Court term has started recently, NBC looks at the next president’s opportunity to use his power to appoint new judges for the Supreme Court. NBC Chief Justice Correspondent Pete Williams gives an overview of McCain's potential picks (conservatives like John Roberts and Samuel Alito) and Obama’s would-be choice (someone with empathy for teenage moms, gay, poor, disabled or African-American). Judge John Paul Stevens (88) is likely to retire before the first term of the next president ends as no judge had ever worked after turning 90. An Obama pick would uphold the current balance of four conservatives, four liberals and Judge Anthony Kennedy’s swing vote, an appointment by McCain would shift the court toward conservatism. Experts say that both candidates would bend toward a young person, maybe a woman, or a Hispanic.

Guns for Obama and College Students Political Soul Searching
Plus, NBC added an episode about guns to its Briefing Book ’08 series solving the riddle how Senator Obama interprets the 2nd Amendment: “Both McCain and Obama agree with the Supreme Court's fundamental assertion in the Heller case that gun ownership is an ‘individual right’ – not a collective right associated with service in a militia – upheld by the Second Amendment.”

And Luke Russert delivered another long form feature in his series of visiting colleges to get a feel for the younger voter’s choice (again with nice background music). This time (Wednesday, October 8, 2008) Russert put his microphone in front of Wake Forest University students in North Carolina, which has turned into a swing state.

One girl says: “I support McCain.
Russert: “Are you steadfast in that support or could you lean back to Obama?”
Girl: “I think that I can be convinced by anyone. I’m just sticking to the topics that I’m looking at right now."

Albeit a little redundant, NBC might want to turn this consistent web only feature into a series with a name and place on the website as these pieces (before also from Georgetown University, D.C., and Bryn Mawr) build an interesting kaleidoscopic picture of college age voters who are as mobilized in this elections as probably seldom before. Where will Luke Russert go next to get reactions from the third and last of this season’s presidential debates?

The Usual Missing Suspects
Despite some pseudo Biden coverage, there was nothing about him, his approaches, and activies. Again, this week gave a full ladle of pure campaigning drama spiced with some polls but little meaty substance such as issues (except for the economy we breathe daily). And where are the third parties represented in U.S. democracy?

ABC.COM: Too stupid to vote?

2008-10-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu

The bad news first. Should Sarah Palin win, Tina Fey - the governor's most famous impersonator - will leave earth. We don't know if she only refers to her comical interpretation...

Why do we vote?

With this quote the comedian addresses an important and interesting question:
On what do voters base their decision for whom they're going to vote? Sympathy? Issues and contents? Gender? Class? Friends talking? Family traditions? Personal ties to the candidates? Who leads in the polls?
Is there a criteria that should be more important than the others and criteria that should be ignored (so called 'non-issues')? In general contents and issues should be the main reason to vote for or against a candidate - or not at all. But, as we're humans, can we really ask to ignore the rest? The president is a human being, a person as well, so shouldn't we know who this person is, if we can identify with him or her? So, are there 'non-issues'?

Are uninformed voters dangerous?
Allegedly three-fourth of Americans don't completely understand scientific issues. But, they're the voters. So would it be better if only people who have knowledge about different topics went to the polls? If the majority doesn't really have a clue on what they actually vote and base their decision on other things like which candidate they like more or whom friends and family vote for, should they better not vote and leave this decision to the few who seem to know what effect which candidate will have for the country?

A democracy of a knowledgeable elite doesn't really sound democratic. Does that mean we need more discussion and a more understandable discussion about the contents of such complicated issues as the financial and economic global crisis, the global warming or stem cell research?

Double digit lead

With a 10 point lead in some polls, Obama has history on his side: A candidate with this lead has never lost an election since 1936, the beginning of modern polling. The reason for this huge gap might be that economy is now the main issue in this election, but also, that McCain is negatively campaigning: He doesn't address the issues but focuses on attacking the other camp.

Finale
In only two days the candidates will meet for their last tv-debate - let's see if issues or attacks, the search for sympathy or the presenting of facts will dominate the duel.

Fox News Channel: The Week of Opposites

2008-10-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

By Allison Herman

During this week of watching Fox News, I found some interesting stuff. Normally, I can’t stand editorial commentary shows. I really can’t stand the O’Reilly Factor, and the few times I’ve watched Hannity’s America, it drove me crazy with its partisan rhetoric. But there was one thing that I feel Hannity’s America did right this week.

It was an interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin. Now I know that this interview wasn’t shown in its entirety, but it wasn’t just sound bites either. He was giving each of them minutes to answer his questions, mostly in regards to the debates and their opinions about Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Overall, I watched at least 30 minutes of interview. And for the most part, it was the candidates focusing on big ticket issues like the economy, the war in Iraq, government spending, domestic energy, and national security.

What I didn’t care for this week actually goes against what I normally like about Fox News, which is the newscasts. There was a story regarding the report that came out this week stating that Sarah Palin did abuse her power as Alaska’s governor in trying to get her former brother-in-law fired. But while that was the headline, the story went further than that, with Sarah Palin saying that she did nothing unlawful, and the report stated that as well. That’s all well and good, and I saw nothing wrong with the story itself. What irked me was one phrase that the anchor used to toss to a correspondent. “That’s what we like to see.” You, anchorlady, aren’t allowed to have an opinion. I don’t care what you like to see. Just read me the news.

What I thought was interesting was the role that Ohio was playing in the national news. There were several stories I saw that dealt with Ohio: Ohio’s role in the election, how Ohio’s secretary of state is dealing with voter fraud, and a recent poll that shows John McCain leading Barack Obama across the state.

ABC-TV: Nice To Meet You, Can I Call You Joe?

2008-10-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

Monique Ozanne
meozanne@gmail.com

The greeting exchange between the Vice President candidates seemed to be a strong point of interest for ABC news anchors, perhaps in part because they didn't find strong support for either side winning the debate. Both candidates began the debate by not feeding into any of the emotional or personality characteristics that they have been so widely criticized for.

Although both candidates remained calm in their demeanor, they had two dramatically different debate strategies. Senator Joe Biden cited problems with McCain’s economic plans, and comparing his strategy to Obama. Palin on the other hand talked about what she and McCain would do to improve the economy, instead of attacking Obama and Biden’s strategies.

I also noticed Biden called for change in viewpoint in their campaign. As he continued to direct his points at McCain, Palin counterattacked saying the government needed mavericks and refuting Biden’s experience, although she said she respects his tenure. Her attention was focused on the audience and winning them over. Despite the back and forth banter, neither candidate talked too long.

Besides the Debate
Aside from keeping debate fervor alive, ABC continues its 50 states in 50 days tour. They began this week in Ohio - Monday night in Dayton and Tuesday night in Bowling Green. The selection of cities to travel to in Ohio I found interesting. It would have been obvious for ABC to travel to one of the big three cities in Ohio - Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati - however ABC picked rural areas that are offset by smaller cities and college environments.

In Dayton ABC traveled to the Wright brothers museum where Charles Gibson interviewed two descendants of the family. In Bowling Green, ABC focused on Gibson's interviewing students in classrooms about their major concerns that they want the candidates to address. Most students cited education as a top concern and how they would be able to pay back student loans. The majority of students appeared optimistic except for one African-American student who still felt that there are several problems here in the U.S., especially racism, that need to be solved before we can look to other issues.

Knowing that Ohio is a swing state, I think that spending two nights here and choosing conservative, yet progressive areas was a good choice for ABC. It will continue to be interesting to see what areas in other mid-western states ABC travels to and who they spend their time interviewing.

CNN-TV: Veep Debate--Same Coverage, Different People

2008-10-07T11:42:00.001-07:00

by Christina London
christinalondon1@gmail.com

If you’re like me, you may have experienced deja vu Thursday night while watching the vice presidential debate. As I mentioned in my last blog, it’s a challenge for each network to produce captivating debate coverage; there simply aren’t many ways to be creative with talking heads. Still, CNN covered the event practically the same way it did during the presidential debate a week ago.

Return of the Meter
It was back for a second week: the dreaded Audience Reaction Meter. However, CNN redeemed itself a bit this time around. Instead of showing political parties, the horizontal lines on the meter represented the sexes: a red line for women and a green line for men. They would rise or fall based on whether people were feeling positively or negatively about what was being said at any particular moment.

Overall, I didn’t notice much of a difference between men and women, although the red line would often hover above the green one. (Maybe this means women are more passionate about the issues?) Still, the meter indicated what was important to people in general. For instance:

Overwhelming, people favored Biden’s view on Iran and Pakistan over Palin's.

People actually care about the genocide in Darfur.

They dislike “No Child Left Behind.”

So how’d she do?
In the after show, the panelists set out to answer the question, “How did Sarah Palin perform?” They harped on it so much that if you were just tuning in, you might have wondered if Joe Biden was even there. Although one-sided, I understand why this was the focus. Last Thursday, that's exactly what people were talking about: is Palin going to sink, swim or just keep her head above water?

Watch the Commentators from CNN

As expected, the pundits basically just gushed about how well their respective candidate did. Here’s what a few had to say about Palin and the debate:

“This was the Sarah Palin from the beginning of the campaign, not the one who showed up to the Katie Couric interview…Joe Biden gave the best debate performance of his life.”
David Gergen, Political Commentator

“Conservatives never win debates on Iraq. Period.”
Alex Castellanos, Republican Media Consultant

“Not a major game changer.”
Campbell Brown, CNN News Anchor/Commentator

NBC-TV: Here's the Issue... But Who's Voting?

2008-10-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

by Samantha Pompeo
sp306305@ohio.edu

News programs on NBC, especially the Nightly News, are doing their best to make sure voters are informed about the issues. But at some point there has to be a deeper dive into what's the stance and how it can/will affect the future. For the first time on NBC, I saw them taking a real step toward doing just that. With the Supreme Court back in session, new focus is being put on the make-up of the justices. Of the nine justices on the court, four are considered liberal and four are considered conservative. Justice Kennedy is often the swing vote. But, as a piece on Nightly News points out, some of the justices are reaching retirement age. The next president will have a lot of influence over monumental cases when it would come time for him to nominate someone to take a place on the court.

One of the "hot topics" that would come before the Supreme Court is abortion. Each person on the ticket has a different view on the issue and NBC did its best in trying to show each candidate's opinion. The moment the story began, I had to wonder about the choice of using a woman. On one hand, was it a little sexist to assume that a woman would be the obvious choice to talk about abortion? Or, is it wrong to even think that because if a man would present the story, one could question how much a change in law would affect his rights? I'm torn on the subject of who should present a story like this, which hurts me (the viewer) the most because I'm then paying attention to who is presenting the story and not what it is about.

And then we get to the polls... It seems that every story, regardless of what program, includes a poll. But is a poll really representative of the nation's feelings? Personally, I've never been contacted to be involved in one of these "scientific" polls so how much can it reflect my feelings as a voter? It doesn't. It might display similar results but it isn't reflecting my feelings. So, what does NBC decide to do? They put together a story made only of polls.

As if one wasn't enough, let's include 15. Although it's semi-informative about the "general" beliefs of voters, it doesn't give the real results. But, I suppose the United States will never have the real results until everyone old enough to vote goes to vote on election day. Only then would America's real feelings about the candidates be known.

At the end of October, former MTV political correspondent Gideon Yago came to Ohio University to speak about voting. As expected, he talked a lot about the youth vote and getting our age group to get involved. According to Yago, 1 in 4 people in the United States lands in the 16-26 age group. I began to wonder if NBC tried to cater to this number. And, although I wasn’t shocked by my findings, I was disheartened by it. In all the coverage of NBC news I watched this past week, the youth vote was never mentioned. If our age group shows up to the polls in record numbers, as is highly expected, shouldn’t there be some type of spotlight on topics that matter to us?

ABC News.com: A Star is Born?

2008-10-06T20:09:00.001-07:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu

OK, Madonna doesn't want to have her in her show and Diddy and Matt Damon are scared by her, but some say she's a star anyway...a tv star!

Sarah Palin is back in the spotlight (if she was ever out of it) after the first and only Vice-Presidential debate last week.

And here's the really funny thing. The people I talked to about the debate told me that she was pathetic, that she didn't answer the questions, that she even told the moderator and Senator Biden she wouldn't answer their questions, but say what she wanted to say to 'the people of America' (which seemed to be her favorite catch phrase).

U.S. Media Paint Different Picture than People and Int'l Media
The news and articles I read the following day didn't reflect this negative picture, quite the contrary.
Here she is described, according to U.S media (e.g. here), as self-confident and safe in her answers, that there was no winner after the debate and that she didn't make any big mistakes, just like Senator Biden.
These international articles, however, describe Joe Biden as the winner and Palin as an 'advertisement fairy' for John McCain.

Fairy or Not – the Effect is Real
No matter how you might have seen the candidates doing during the discussion, the numbers changed in favor of the conservatives. 50% to 46% is how Obama and McCain run at the moment, according to the polls on abc.com.

Fact Check
Also after this debate ABC double checks the numbers and arguments the candidates brought up. In the fact check video users can see what was true and what was exaggerated.

MSNBC-TV: Palin Steals the Spotlight... Again

2008-10-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

By Brooks Jarosz
bj186905@ohio.edu

Since last Thursday's Vice Presidential Debate, Sarah Palin has made headlines. I was amazed to find out 55 million people tuned in to catch the nationally broadcast debate. Of course the question of who won and who lost is still being analyzed. Saturday Night Live had no trouble reinventing Thursday night through a skit with Tina Fey and Queen Latifah. It was discussed throughout the weekend, even on Meet the Press Sunday.

Which Debate Were YOU Watching?
I was shocked with the response from the debate. I know Sarah Palin was cramming and preparing for the big night just days before and I must say, I was surprised at how she was so well coached. Some of the reoccurring phrases often used included "ramp it up", "tap into that" and "maverick". On the other hand, Joe Biden liked to list things, "number one, number two..." or "deregulation". Regardless of what was said, I thought the questions asked by PBS's Gwen Ifill of "Washington Week" were rather broad and left an easy exit for either candidate.

Ifill and other journalists spoke of the debate saying that they each came with goals and agendas. As they noted, it is interesting to notice that Biden did not take Palin on, but focused on McCain instead. Some could read that as a statement from Biden arguing Palin isn't ready to be vice president. David Gregory said she was ignoring substance and focusing on appeals. Numerous times she avoided questions and even admitted that she wouldn't always answer the questions directly asked. So, was it a debate at all? That question could be debated for hours.

I watched some local newscasts where stations interviewed people to get reactions on the debate. I was shocked to hear people praising Palin and talking about how well she did. I felt most of her responses focussed on her and what she has done, rather than what she will do as V.P. in the future.

Palin did, however, mention she would like to expand the vice presidential role. Rachel Maddow in her "Talk Me Down" segment thought it was crazy for her to suggest expanding powers of the vice president beyond what Dick Cheney has already done. Jonathan Turley from George Washington University agreed with Maddow to a degree saying the V.P.'s job is in the constitution as breaking the ties in the Senate and any other flexability is simply wrong. Maddow cited expanding the powers was only Cheney's ploy to avoid oversight. Hmmm...why would that be? Some say the Iraq War and weapons of mass destruction may have something to do with it...you be the judge!

McCain's Assessment through MSNBC
Keith Olbermann asked Howard Fineman of Newsweek what he thought of the debate and showed a couple of McCain's remarks after the debate. McCain asked a crowd of supporters what they thought and was extremely complementary of her. Fineman said McCain was speaking to the Republican faithful and had to give them "up" news in order to keep them engaged. The McCain campaign refused to let Palin speak in television interviews since the debate. Fineman said the campaign is only keeping Palin as a "useful prop". Either way, there are mixed views on how each candidate did. Of course, I think more pointed questions would have helped distiguish one candidate from the other. We'll see if Tom Brokaw can do that this Tuesday in the second presidential debate at Belmont University in Tennessee.

CNN.com: The Youth Vote and the Internet

2008-10-06T20:05:00.001-07:00

by: Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

Record-breaking Registration
In an election that has already broken records for voter registration and involvement, many people are looking to the youth of our country to actively participate and make a difference. Let's be honest...we youth have not had the best turnout at the polls in the past. But with the economy in a crisis and young voters being more active than ever, the youth vote might actually have a major effect on the outcome of this election.

CNN took a trip to a nearby university-Ohio State-and did a special story on how the economy could have a huge effect on the youth and who they vote for. You can watch the video below:

CNN.com details how the failing economy will most likely have a very huge effect on the youth and who they vote for. With gas prices still up from last year, and loans becoming harder to get, students are facing difficult times.

In another CNN video,CNN's Ralitsa Vassileva interviews the co-founder of Scoop08.com, a website for young journalists to report on the election and to give information to young voters. The website boasts student-written stories and numerous blogs about the election. And it's all from a student's perspective, so what else would be easier to relate to?

With the popularity of the Internet on the rise, young voters can keep election blogs (much like we are) and read about the latest election news with the swiftest click of a button. And with all of this availability, why wouldn't the youth get involved? We are finally a generation who is realizing the difference we can make, and the media have clearly picked up on that.

Records are already being broken in Athens for voter registration, and the trend seems to be country-wide. The real difference will be if those voters actually leave their homes and make it to the polls for election day come November 4th.

CBSNews.com: This week, it's all about the VP candidates

2008-10-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

by Cristina Mutchler
cm306704@ohio.edu

Rate the Debate
The big question after presidential and vice presidential debates is always, "who won?" In this case, it depends who you ask and what polls you're reading. A CBS poll of voters who watched the VP debate last week shows that uncommitted voters say Joe Biden won. But it's not all bad news for Sarah Palin. These same participants did say, however, that Republican vice presidential nominee Sara Palin's performance improved their perceptions of her. One of the hot topics last Thursday was gay rights. If you missed it, you can watch both Biden and Palin's answers to this question here.

Questionable Donors
The Obama campaign gained almost $8000 in donations that appear to have been given under fake names There are no known records of Dahsudhu Hdusahfd of Df, Hawaii who is supposedly employed by CZXVC/ZXVZXV and Uadhshgu Hduad, listed as living in Dhff, Florida with the employer DASADA/SAFASF. The Obama campaign is actually in the process of taking precautions and returning these donated funds. The presidential candidate made headlines in the same topic over the summer when he declined public funds due to his record-breaking fundraising campaign.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Obama+Terrorists=Friends?
Over the weekend, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin accused Senator Barack Obama of associating with terrorists. She says, “Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who target their own country.” Specifically what is Palin referring to? Apparently Obama is associated with Bill Ayers, a 1960s anti-war radical who entered the Chicago scene as an activist. The two met in 1995, but Ayers actually committed domestic acts of terrorism forty years ago, when Obama was just eight years old. Curious about Obama's response to the criticism? See it for yourself (as well as more details on Ayers' interesting life) on the site.

Presidential Questions
This week, in Presidential Questions, CBS News anchor Katie Couric got down to business with VP candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, asking them what previous vice president impresses them the most and why? Palin first answered VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro, because she's the one who "first shattered part of that glass ceiling anyway in American politics." When Katie Couric prompted her to answer with an actual vice president, Palin responded that George Bush, Sr. would be the one that most impressed her. Joe Biden's response? Lyndon Johnson, because he "really knew how the system worked." So can we expect Biden and Palin to follow in the footsteps of their fave VP? Only time will tell...

FoxNews.com: Campaign "Dirty Work"

2008-10-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

by Alex Mazer
am158905@ohio.edu

Well it's getting to be about that time when the candidates have talked enough about their stances on issues and no longer have anything else to entice the viewing public; and so the "mudslinging" begins.

This week on FoxNews.Com an article that caught my eye was about the candidates basically bashing each other in the last month of the presidential race. I found this article to be very entertaining because it's a little ridiculous to see just how low the candidates will stoop to win this race. The article talks about the issues that both Obama and McCain are bringing out into the open about each others' pasts. It's almost like watching a boxing match just by reading this article. They each take jabs at each other.

First Obama says that McCain is associating with "questionable" people and then McCain comes back to say that Obama can't even answer questions he is asked and the slinging goes back and forth and back and forth. Don't they know the public is watching and reading about them fighting like children?

I don't like seeing an article such as this one published; no matter which news site it is. Articles such as this one show a degree of immaturity in each candidate; something I definitely don't want to read about or see in the man who will be the future president of my country.

Another one of my least favorite things to see during campaign season is the ads that are run by each party that attack each candidate.

I think that if each candidate stuck to their individual tickets it would maintain a greater level of repect in the public's eyes. I know mudslinging happens every year, but do continual wrongs eventually make a right?

NBC News.com: More of the Same with Few Fresh Sprinkles

2008-10-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu

For this blog I concentrate on NBC News.com's videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics section as well as on the First Read blog, which is part of MSNBC.

Interview Tradition -- Only One Gets Left Out
The week started with interviews of both presidential candidate (September 30, 2008) -- a good, consistent trend in NBC's reporting. The videos are both roughly six minutes long, keeping the balance of face time for McCain and Obama.

After we have heard from Governor Sarah Palin on ABC and CBS, maybe she wants to complete her network trilogy with a visit to NBC? And if she doesn't, can that be interpreted as network discrimination? And why does no one want to do an extended interview with Sen. Joe Biden?

Quantity and Quality on the Weekend
Rather an exception, NBC Nightly News churned out five videos online over the weekend, which is quantitatively an improvement for weekend coverage but qualitatively only offered more of the same detailing the new mudslinging between the campaigns and polling results poured into visual elections maps.

The most interesting report was uploaded on Saturday, October 4, 2008 -- a rare piece comparing the candidates on a specific issue surfaced online: It’s about abortion. The report as part of the Where They Stand ( series details John McCain’s intent to overturn Roe v Wade and Obama’s support for Roe v Wade and women’s “reproductive rights.” With the likelihood of one Supreme Court justice being replaced during the next president’s term this ruling might be at risk – depending on who wins.

Maybe NBC continues on this track of basic reporting to give the viewers concrete comparisons between the campaigns' approaches to issues like gun control, death penalty, technology policy, funding for science, environmental issues other than global warming, and communication law.

Sunday's best offering drew attention to local Republican incumbants' struggle to win their districts despite being Republican, a nice break from the federal fights.

More Hanoi Please
NBC took the user to Hanoi for about three minutes to highlight even part of what is probably the best know part of Senator John McCain's biography. In interviews with Vietnamese who helped McCain during the Vietnam war, this video reinforces McCain’s identity as POW but also gives a glimpse into current Vietnam.

It would have been great to expand this report into a longer feature about contemporary Vietnam and the young generation. Since foreign countries usually only enjoy attention in connection with something U.S. related, this opportunity should have been used to shed more light on a country which played a big role in U.S. history (and has been intermittently cited as a metaphor to the war in Iraq): What are the hopes of young Vietnamese, how is their economy doing, what are current politics, social trends, and concerns?

Female Kaleidoscope
In an interesting four minute video with up-beat background music, Luke Russert discusses the Palin effect with students from the all women’s liberal arts Bryn Mar College. The story was a varied kaleidoscope of half a dozen young voters’ opinions ranging from “Palin showed so much respect to Joe Biden” to “a lot of the ridicule she gets stem from the things she says.” So, when do we get a perspective on Joseph Biden from an all men’s college?

Unfortunately NBC didn’t detail a date for a couple debate related videos including the otherwise neat vox pop piece. What happened to one of the fundamental journalistic Ws? Sure, the debate videos were supposedly produced during the debate but for future reference it won't hurt to put Oct. 2, 2008 into the thumbnail pop-up window that otherwise gives only general information.

Plus, I still haven't seen any video on NBC during my watch with information about third party candidates. They belong to U.S. democracy, too and as long as they are not reported about by the networks, the networks aren't fulfilling the function of journalism to mirror reality.

Here's a start: Third-Party Candidates Gather In Show Of Unity

Fox News Channel: Newsworthy Character Jabs?

2008-10-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

By Allison Herman
AH215206@ohio.edu

During this week’s analysis of Fox News Channel, the economy and the recent Wall Street bailout was still a big ticket issue. A lot of time was spent on what this bailout means for the economy, voters, the upcoming election, and also the candidates. Fox says that while each of the candidates will have to change their economic plans if they were to become president, they believe that Obama has more work to do, since many of his plans require an increase in taxes.

I think these kinds of stories are good to do in a time like this, because that is something that really matters to people. Either John McCain or Barack Obama will be President in the next few months, and the American people need to know what each plans to do to help fix the economy, as well as how each of the candidates can react and adapt to situations like the dismal stock market that can and will arise during a presidency.

Also related to the bailout were some personal attacks from the candidates. Obama made the news when one of his campaign ads referred to McCain as “erratic” in dealing with the current economic situation. On the other side, Sarah Palin made headlines with her jabs at Barack Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, saying Obama has been “palling around with terrorists.”

I think political ads and personal jabs are probably the least important and most annoying part of the political game, but maybe in this instance it’s kind of appropriate. People are interested in how McCain will handle the economy, and people are also interested in Obama’s so-called relationship with a domestic terrorist. I think it will be interesting to see how the whole Obama/Ayers thing plays out in the coming month, I just hope that’s not the only thing that the Republicans have to say in the final few weeks before the election.

FoxNews.com: Bailout Bashing

2008-09-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

by Alex Mazer
am158905@ohio.edu

This week on the Fox Site I wanted to look at an article more specifically rather than just the website as a whole. The article I found interesting is Obama, McCain Play Politics With Bailout Failure. This article talked a lot about the plans that both candidates have to fix the economic problem.

I thought this article was some what biased because the majority if not all of the quotes within the article were quotes from McCain. On the other hand though, the quotes all seemed negative. Also one of the sentences said that Obama had no comment on the good or bad plans of his running opponent.

As I read further however, I found that each opponent was equally taking stabs at the other. I found this funny because this article makes both candidates sound like a bunch of old women bickering at eachother. It will be interesting to see how this next debate is reported on.

I also looked at some video of the infamous Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly. In my opinion I feel like there is no finger pointing going on by him in this clip. Instead he is blaming the government as a whole. Now this may be a rarity but this proves that he is cabable of being less biased.

So in conclusion for the blog of the week. I can see where there are biases sometimes but when we really listen and keep an open mind we can see that there are many things that are unbiased about the site.

ABC.COM: Yes? No? Yes? No?

2008-09-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu

Yes. Clay Aiken likes men. And another question is answered now: The presidential debate finally took place. In front of an audience kept in the dark and not allowed to applaud or to interfere in any other way, Barack Obama and John McCain discussed foreign policy issues and also the current financial and economic crisis. In the end, according to the media echo, neither candidate surprised people or stuck out.

This also was the impression of foreign media like El País or Le Monde.

What I wondered, while it wasn't clear whether or not the debate would take place, are the candidates now still working senators and should they act in this function (e.g. working on the bailout plan) or are they now in a new role and more asked as leaders and executives than legislators?

No game changer?

Though the debate didn't end with one of them clearly being better than the other, it had a strong effect on the numbers:
Polls show a strong swift towards Obama who leads now 52% to 43% over his rival in the ABC poll. Viewers said he offered better solutions to the mentioned topics.

But, what are his solutions worth? A fact check on abc's homepage shows that both candidates seem to turn the truth a little bit...

Not Enough Background
Especially as the average user and voter usually doesn't know too much about numbers such videos are quite important. But I missed an article explaining clearly which economic reforms Obama and McCain each support. What are the differences between them? What would be the outcome? How easy are these plans to realize?

Is that Fair?
On the front page (and also on other news-omepages) is an ad 'Paid for by Obama for America', but there is no ad for McCain. The user only always sees that he has to be registered to be able to vote for the democratic presidential candidate, McCain doesn't get any advertising space.

That's Fair
Another thing that I observed was that the skin color of the candidates isn't mentioned in any article. I think that's good, because it shouldn't be a criterium for a person's qualification for being president of the US. On the other hand, does this media tabu reflect voters' reality? Is it really not on people's minds?

Thursday there might be more 'Fuego'

And so we don't forget about the VP's - on Thursday it's their turn to show their rethorical skills and what they exactly stand for.

MSNBC.com-- Driving the Economy...and Saturday Night Live

2008-09-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

Jaime Baker
jb220705@ohio.edu

This week on MSNBC.com, all eyes were on the economy and the bailout plan. It even seemed to really overshadow the debates. I think that was mainly because no one knew if the debates would happen until that Friday. A main focus was on how each candidate countered the other's view on the bailout and the economy. A lot of blame is being thrown at both parties, because they both supported the bill. McCain will get a lot of grief for the failure of this bill because he was one of the people who went out on a limb to support the bill. His campaign needs to worry about inheriting some of the blame for the economy, plus try to support the plan.

Barack Obama is also catching some of the blame, with people saying that he did not do enough to try to help pass the bill. But he has less of a chance of taking a big hit in polls because of the bailout plan failing, mainly because he didn't put his head on the chopping block like McCain did.

There was some focus on the debate, but mainly about the fact that while more than 50-million people watched it, that was down 10-million from the first presidential debate four years ago, and less than the projected record breaking audience. According to a poll, most MSNBC viewers said Barack Obama came out on top in their views. Obviously, even the debates were driven by the bailout and economy issues.

One other big story on MSNBC.com this week was Saturday Night Live's use of Sarah Palin in a few of their skits. The skits have Tina Fey making fun of Sarah Palin, but have not focused on just the Republicans, but have been sticking it to both parties. But MSNBC.com seems to think it could sway voters opinions. I didn't realize SNL had that ability...I don't think they did either.

NBC-TV: Candidates are like Boxers...

2008-09-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

by Samantha Pompeo
sp306305@ohio.edu

As the date of the election inches closer and closer, the candidates are being pitted against each other more than ever. After the first presidential debate, where the candidates were treated like boxers sitting in their respective corners, everything on NBC has been John McCain versus Barack Obama. Each side is given a chance, as it should be, to prove how it can one-up the other. And it’s not a subtle tactic by the news organizations.

The presidential debate was the first bell that rang in the boxing match. At the very beginning of the debate, there was a certain invisible blanket that covered the candidates. They greeted each other with a handshake, trying to maintain the façade that they always treat each other with the utmost respect. But, if you go to approximately the 10 minute mark on the debate video below, even the moderator wants the candidates to go head-to-head. When Senator Obama is responding to a comment by Senator McCain, the moderator tells Obama he needs to say the response directly to his competitor. At this command, McCain quips “Are you afraid I couldn’t hear him?”

The jabs continued throughout the debate, as they should. The candidates shouldn't feel that, in order to maintain appearances, they need to pretend to be friendly with one another. It seems that NBC and the other news networks are finally realizing this.

The Today Show is a NBC program that tries to incorporate politics, health, entertainment, and other topics into its four hour time slot. At the beginning of the program on Monday, Matt Lauer introduces a package by Andrea Mitchell about the candidates. The title? "Obama vs. McCain."

The package, like the debate a few days before, pits the candidates against one another. But why now? Why does it seem that all of a sudden, NBC is trying to show that it's a real battle between the presidential nominees? Perhaps the interest in the debate lit a bulb in the cumulative heads of the news managers at the network.

Something I really liked about the package directly above was the fact that Mitchell incorporated the clips from Saturday Night Live into the story. The side-by-side video of the Sarah Palin/Katie Couric interview and the SNL video was genius in that it directly showed the correlation between the interview and the skit. At the end of the package, in Mitchell's live tag, she mentions that Obama VP candidate Joe Biden has had slip-ups as well. But, what are they, specifically? This is something Mitchell doesn't dive into.

Is this a form of candidate discrimination: putting Palin's mistakes for the world to see but only briefly mentioning Biden's? I'm not exactly sure, but no one can argue that the Sarah Palin presented in the Katie Couric interview was something that could not be ignored.

At the ungodly hour of 3:30 in the morning, a rerun of Meet the Press came on NBC. The show was hosted by Tom Brokaw and had the two chief strategists of the campaigns on the show. Like the debate before it, the strategists were given questions about the candidates' policies and told to respond. And, like the debate, the strategists tried to remain civil and friendly for a few minutes until the real issues were presented.

Once again, it was candidate against candidate. But, the strategists weren't trying to impress one another or remain graceful. They were trying to do what they do best: help their candidate win. It was interesting how, throughout the various topics the strategists touched on, the camera would quickly cut to a two-shot of them.

Fox News Channel: The Economy Remains Front and Center

2008-09-30T07:22:00.001-07:00

By Allison Herman
ah215206@ohio.edu

Fox spent a lot of time this week focusing on the economic situation on Wall Street and how both candidates are handling the situation. Fox talked about how McCain may have dropped the ball a bit when he tried to take credit for the bailout bill – which ultimately didn’t pass the House. At the same time, they were talking about the comments House speaker Nancy Pelosi gave before the House voted on the bailout bill. I felt they weren’t being particularly nice to either side – saying McCain should have done this or done that, and he may have hurt his campaign, and saying Pelosi’s speech probably swayed the Republicans in the House to vote the bill down.

Fox also spent a lot of time talking about the first presidential debate. Several different reporters and politicians weighed in about both candidates, but Fox did seem to focus more on John McCain than Barack Obama. At the same time, I felt that they weren’t letting McCain off the hook too easy. They kept talking about what he should have done and what he should have said. And while a majority of the time was focusing on the Republican candidate, I thought it was reasonable and logical criticism. Maybe McCain is the one who has more work to do after the first debate to help boost his popularity again. After all, the polls Fox was showing say that Obama’s ahead again after Friday’s debate.

What really irked me when I was watching Fox News Channel this week was that I happened to flip on a segment called “Hannity’s America.” It was just this one guy, Sean Hannity talking about politics, and mostly the first presidential debate. From start to finish it was a ridiculously right-wing stance. I don’t think ratings or money from advertisers should be any reason to show commentary shows like that on a news network. This just further proves to me that these commentators are the reason Fox News gets the criticism of being ultra-conservative. It’s not the nightly newscasts – it’s the entertainers posing as news commentators.

CNN-TV: How was the coverage? That’s debatable.

2008-09-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

by Christina London
christinalondon1@gmail.com

“You’re now looking at the back of Jim Lehrer’s head.”

That’s how Wolf Blitzer kicked off CNN’s coverage of the first presidential debate, and I knew I was in for a fun ride.

I think every network and cable channel faces the same basic challenge when it comes to debate coverage: how to make it different. All it is is essentially two hours of the same three talking heads. How do you set your coverage apart from the rest?

Interactivity?
CNN tried to do this with the “Audience Reaction Meter,” and, in my opinion, failed miserably. I couldn’t find a picture of the meter, so let me try to explain it. During the debate at the bottom of the screen, CNN displayed a graphic to gauge how the audience was feeling at any given time. Each group was represented by a thin horizontal line: blue for Democrats, red for Republicans and green for Independents. The lines would rise when people were feeling positive and fall when they were feeling negative.

My first question was, whom does that graph represent? After scavenging the CNN Web site, I realized the people in the studio audience were the ones being polled. I felt like this left out viewers at home and that they could have easily made it a national poll via the Web. More importantly though, the reaction meter was highly ineffective (especially on my little TV.) It reminded me of the lifeline I saw on “Grey’s Anatomy” the night before. The lines always fluctuated the same and never indicated who was doing better in the debate.

“Fact checking”
When the debate was said and done, Anderson Cooper and Blitzer hosted an additional 90minutes of post-debate reaction. They brought on panelists who were supposed to be fact checking what was said. However, this facade quickly came down: they were just pundits arguing how their candidate clearly did the better job.

However, I did learn some fun facts about the debate. Did you know:

3,000 journalists from around the world were expected to cover the debate?

By 11:15, both campaigns had already put out statements that their candidate had won the debate? (That’s only 15 minutes after it ended.)

Half of the time was devoted to finances and the economy, NOT foreign policy like it was supposed to be?

Vocabulary Lesson
"YouTube moment"- a video clip worthy of being played again and again on YouTube

I've heard the phrase "YouTube moment" before, but I've never heard it thrown around on network news like it was during the debate wrap-up. Many of the pundits agreed that there was only one "YouTube moment" from the debate. Take a look as Barack Obama tells John McCain "John, you're wrong" on the war in Iraq:

Do you think there were any other "YouTube moments" from the debate?

ABC - TV: "Pointing" Out the Differences in the Debate

2008-09-29T22:41:00.001-07:00

Monique Ozanne
mo724104@ohio.edu

It may have been called a debate, but Presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama spent a lot of time agreeing with one another on the bailout plan. However they were also quick to point the finger at one another on the war, taxes, and other apparent differences.

Sitting in my apartment with my roommates, and Homecoming guests for the weekend, we tried to relax and keep our personal political viewpoints to ourselves, while enjoying the debate. While waiting for foreign policy to be discussed, I could not help but notice the camera angles. While it was a pool camera feed, it seemed that there was a heavy focus on how Obama always pointed to McCain when referring to him or his campaign, but McCain would point to the audience and never look at Obama. With this undertone being the only striking difference between the candidates in the debate, my guests and I were puzzled as to who won the debate. When I looked for ABC commentary on the debate however, the network seemed to feel the same way about a winner.

Digging deeper to find the winner, I was surprised to find that ABC did not come forward to award either candidate with a win. Instead the network used their post-debate slot of time to lead a discussion with analysts, who were able to decide the winner. I think this was a good move for ABC because it will receive credit for not claiming a winner themselves. They left it up to the viewer to decide, and led very fair coverage of the debate. It was not until after the weekend that ABC decided to release polls that put Obama slightly ahead of McCain. I find this to be a strategic movie on ABC's behalf by inferring that Obama may be on top in these polls because of the debates.

MSNBC-TV: We MUST Have a Debate Winner

2008-09-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

by Brooks Jarosz
bj186905@ohio.edu

All of the chatter for this 24-hour news network centered around Friday night's debate. But even before the debate began, one presidential candidate wasn't even sure if he would even show up. Of course that candidate was John McCain and as you may have guessed, Keith Olbermann had no trouble talking him down. Olbermann wasn't at all afraid to say his man, Barack Obama had clearly won the debate. While I may agree in some respects, doesn't it come down to which candidate's policies you support? The answer to that question is 'no!' when it comes to political coverage on MSNBC-TV, said to be "the place for politics".

It's all in the chase!
The horse race is a big deal to the network as they analyze the punches thrown by the candidates and back them up with sound bites. Olbermann had no problem taking bits and pieces and using them in alternative context. It even got down to what the candidates were wearing. Olbermann sited Obama wearing an American flag pin and John McCain, the war hero, not wearing one. Why it may seem like something small, I know some people that were tuning in will instantly judge John McCain. By no means am I endorsing John McCain or advocating Barack Obama. I've just taken notice to the left-leaning attitudes expressed in overabundance on MSNBC-TV. Olbermann, who is many times on when I tune in, leads the pack of extreme liberals.

Rachel Maddow, an MSNBC host, was on Olbermann's show earlier one night last week. While she repeatedly gave her opinion on the debate saying "I think..." at least six times, she did say something I do agree with. Maddow explained that the winner of the debate is determined by the number of juicy sound bites produced by a candidate. She explained that it's those sound-bytes that get played over and over and can essentially determine who had the upper-hand on the situation. The issues are not discussed, rather the banter between candidates. This 'juiciness', is what the media goes after and replays constantly on the 24-hour networks. How does that serve the people? How are people becoming educated on issues? How are citizens able to understand where a candidate stands? Allegedly, they're not!

Politics...it can be fun to make fun!
Morning Joe had a segment called "News You Can't Use" that was just that, but funny! They talked about Tina Fey playing Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. Speaking of her, where did she go? I think she fell off the radar. Showing clips of the SNL broadcast made this segment even more amusing. The anchors couldn't stop laughing and begged for more clips which included Obama, McCain and Bill Clinton. While politics can get very serious, I enjoyed this lighter moment. Keith Olbermann even referred to David Letterman's show where McCain was supposed to make an appearance and didn't show up. Letterman whipped out jokes that pointed at McCain, giving him a hard time for not being there.

And while we're on the topic of humor, I have to leave you with a comment Hardball's Chris Matthews made to John Heilmann of New York Magazine. Matthews said it is important that you pick a president you don't mind listening to because it is someone you'll have to put up with for the next four years. Then he proceeds to ask Heilmann if McCain seemed troll-like to him. I thought to myself, troll-like? Matthews referred to a press conference where McCain seemed rather grumpy. I just couldn't stop laughing when I imagined John McCain under a bridge as a troll. Then, he described Obama as the college prof. I'll leave you with that clip below...

CNN.com: The (Not So) Beautiful Bailout Battle

2008-09-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

by: Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

Tune into any TV station or log onto any news website, and I can almost guarantee the top story will be the Big Bad Bailout. In an effort to further understand our huge financial crisis, I asked a family member recently what it all meant. Although it was a scary truth to face, it is a problem plaguing our country and we need to deal with it. I cannot say whether or not this Bailout Bill was the right legislation, but apparently the House didn't think so. You can read it for yourself and make your own decisions, but I warn you: it's very long.

I have to admit that with all this talk, I did expect the Bailout Bill to pass the House vote. We've heard over the past few weeks that the country needs to save these financial institutions and eventually the economy will bounce back. But when is eventually? Will our generation be paying for the mistakes that have occurred over the past decade well into our venture over the hill? These are all questions I still need answered.

But it has not taken the separate parties to start pointing fingers. Nancy Pelosi has been a huge target.

And of course, Democrats blame the Republicans and vice versa. CNN.com offers a refreshing alternative, however: They want YOU to share your opinions about our financial meltdown.

This way, bloggers can interact with one another and share their viewpoints. It's a safe, open way to put your opinions out there or learn from others. Whatever way you get involved with the financial crisis, I suggest you learn as much as possible. Our economy is clearly having a difficult time right now, and the more educated decisions you can make, the better. And remember: this doesn't mean you still can't have any fun! Just know what's going on in our world and our country.

CBSNews.com: Meet the Parents...and More

2008-09-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

by Cristina Mutchler
cm306704@ohio.edu
Palin's Parents
Sally and Chuck Heath, Governor Palin's parents, sat down exclusively with CBSNews.com to discuss topics such as Palin and John McCain's working chemistry and relationship, as well as the impact of running for VP on Palin's kids. This was the first I've seen of her parents, and I thought it was an interesting idea.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Just to clarify...
Did John McCain know where weapons of mass destruction were? Barack Obama seems to think so. But Reality Check clarifies exactly what he meant by this comment. On October 1, 2002 McCain said, “I think we know where there are at least some of these weapons stored and being developed. I think it would -- we have sufficient evidence, if we were allowed to go in, that we could uncover at least some of his capabilities, certainly not all.” Six months later McCain was asked about the same issue on NBC on April 9, 2003 and replied, “I think we'll find weapons of mass destruction." More of your unanswered questions can be found in this section of the site.

Rating the Debate
The hot question right now is, did either of these guys win? Minutes after the debate aired, CBS News conducted a nationally representative poll of around 500 uncommitted voters to gage their reactions. Thirty-nine percent of uncommitted voters polled thought Barack Obama was the winner, with twenty-four percent claiming John McCain won. Thirty-seven percent saw the debate as a draw. Forty-six percent of the people said their opinion of Obama got better tonight, while thirty-two percent said their opinion of McCain got better. Numbers of those polled seem to show that Senator Obama received better feedback from the uncommitted voters, but check the rest of the percentages to see the other poll results.

Presidential Questions
This week, Katie Couric asked the presidential candidates about their favorite movie of all time. McCain answered "Viva Zapata" starring Marlon Brando. Obama's answer? The Godfather One and Two. Interesting...never thought you'd find the potential President's favorite movie on CBSnews.com!

A College Town's Opinion
Here at Ohio University, students are actively involved in campaigning, and its quite common to see volunteers at every street corner trying to get more people to register to vote. But CBSNews.com had an interesting article this week about ANOTHER college town- this one, in Oxford, Mississippi. The blogger wrote that a quick glance at college campaign festivities at the University of Mississippi clearly indicate that John McCain was the slight favorite. What impression do you think visitors get of Ohio University?

NBC News.com: Extended, Historic, and No Videos

2008-09-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu

For this blog I concentrate on NBC News.com's videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics section as well as on the First Read blog, which is part of MSNBC.

Apart from the obvious: the first presidential debate and reactions from first-time, independent, and undecided voters, and continuing coverage about the candidates take on the economic crisis, and Sarah Palin's struggle to answer to Katie Couric's questions (coherently), there were a number of remarkable videos on NBC Nightly News online -- and one lemon.

Extended Videos
NBC provided another gem of online video journalism: a great video from Sept. 23, 2008 of an extended interview with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in which he details his views on all presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Here are some snippets of President Saakashvili tip-toeing around who is his favorite politician among the quartet:

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware):
“He is an old friend […] amazingly smart and competent on Georgia’s issue.”
Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska):
“I had a brief chat with her when she got nominated, she called me back to Georgia. [She is] very interactive, very amicable, […] she made a really good impression.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois):
He says Sen. Obama has showed the same competence and level of support as Sen. McCain: “When he called me [during the conflict with Russia] he was very well prepared. He really understood the issue and made some very good statements […]which supported my people morally.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona):
“Sen. McCain I first met many, many years ago in the mid-90s. I was a young parliamentarian; he was already an important senator and he was very much interested in our judiciary reforms, legal reforms and we kept in touch with them ever since then. He’s visited Georgia many times. […] Sen. McCain is someone who inspired me personally for many years.”

Here’s some context:

President Saakashvili: “During the conflict [with Russia] I spoke almost every day with Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain […] On the second day of the conflict when everyone was expressing their solidarity Sen. Biden called: ’I know everyone is calling for solidarity but I’m not calling for that, I want to submit to the Senate Committee a, b, c, d.’ I hung up the phone and thought, wow, this is the first guy that means business. But Sen. McCain was also extremely supportive, extremely helpful. He had been talking for years that something like that would happen, it was not new for him, he had anticipated it and his worst expectations came true.”

The interview gives a fascinating insight into Georgian-U.S. relations. Saakashvili also talked about the recent warring between Georgia and Russia likening Russia’s claim that Georgia attacked first to the German Nazi Party’s excuse to start WW II because of an attack by Poland. Saakashvili went on to say that every politician bears some blame in this game.

Isn’t it amazingly great that broadband connections, server space, and online video journalism make it possible to bring the presidents of the world into our homes at our whim replaying answers as we wish?

It would be interesting to know who initiated the NBC interview, NBC or Georgia, other U.S. individuals to back up Georgia and show strong ties with the East European country?

By the way, NBC Nightly News online has a great collection of 40 extended interviews section in its web only section including talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi the Venezuelan ambassador to the USA Bernardo Alvarez, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan William Wood, former Columbian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt who got freed after six years in captivity by FARC rebels as well as Bill Gates, Al Gore, the Clintons, McCain, General Petraeus and other U.S. figures.

Historic Videos
NBC Nightly News provided several pleasant surprises. NBC provided eleven(!) historic videos of former debates including the very first ever televised debate in 1960 with Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon. The clip’s reporter talks about the importance of images as Kennedy’s “good looks” helped him triumph over a “pale” Nixon “without make-up”.

The other videos give impressions of the debates between 1976 and 2004.
One of the most interesting at the moment might be an exciting clip that runs for almost five-minutes and features a part of the first vice-presidential debate of October 15, 1976 in which Democrat Walter Mondale and Republican Bob Dole debate about Nixon’s Vietnam policy. The anchor announces that probably about 85 million viewers will watch this debate, which was broadcast from Houston, Texas. This video is again a great service to the public as a lead up the first presidential debate of this election season provided by NBC’s online editors who sometimes do use their archives and the Internet’s potential to provide such neat extras.

No Video
On Saturday (Sept. 27, 2008) there was unfortunately a video that promised “reactions from seven undecided voters to the first presidential debate” but upon clicking on the thumbnail and impatiently enduring the advertisement the suffers a disappointment: White on blue it read: “Due to usage restriction we are unable to provide this video.” Why didn’t NBC just take it from their video array? Please, don’t promise what you can’t deliver.

MSNBC.com: Debate and Kissing Skills

2008-09-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

by Jaime Baker
jb220705@ohio.edu

With the first debates just around the corner, MSNBC.com used a New York Times piece breaking down the past debates of each Presidential candidate. By reading the two articles, it would seem as though John McCain will be able to gain a few points in the race. McCain's track records in his 30-something national debates has been very good. After looking at most of his debates, the article says he used many of his insticts from when he was in the services. He is an aggressive competitor who is very good at seemingly scolding his opponents.

Barack Obama has always been a very good public speaker, so it surprised me to hear that the New York Times thought he would not fare as well in the debates. They make a good point in saying that one of his strengths may cause him problems in the debate. He is always very calm and cool and has good reasoning skills, but it may make him seem vulnerable and maybe a bit less in control. Another problem for Obama is that the first debate is about foreign policy, a subject in which McCain seems to excel in debates. I didn't realize that the debating past of the two would have such a huge role in this race.

The one thing that really bothered me this week is actually a little odd in my opinion. One of the head stories on MSNBC.com is about a former Brazilian model who used to date John McCain...or at least, she did for a week.
She talks all about how he was a "good kisser" and very romantic. Why is this a head story on MSNBC.com? This is something that would be a lead story in US Weekly, not on MSNBC. But, I mean, hey, great for John McCain. I'm sure a ton of people have wondered about his kissing skills.

NBC News.com: Background, Berettas, and Breaks

2008-09-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu

For this blog I concentrate on NBC News.com's videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics section as well as on the First Read blog, which is part of MSNBC.

Good NBC Online Background
Yesterday (Sept. 22) two long interviews with Sens. Barack Obama (19 minutes) and John McCain (10 minutes) were uploaded to provide more detailed background on their stances toward THE topic, the economy. So for everyone who has been sound bitten too often, here are the full version, a great boon to the public. Thanks NBC, that's part of the beauty of online journalism!

But Nightly News features more background on issues and the candidates’ takes on them in two series.

One of them is called Where They Stand, which is neatly archived online reaching back to the first issue comparing candidate’s approaches on education from Feb. 24, 2008. Currently 13 videos are available including their takes on the economy, health insurance, Iraq, environment, immigration, and providing change.

The other one is Briefing Book: Issues ’08 and not only gives the positions of the candidates but provides more background on why dealing with China, Iran, and Pakistan is so important to U.S. foreign policy. The series features text, sometimes video, and further links to articles concerning topics such as same-sex marriage, energy, immigration, taxes, globalization as well as medicare & social security. It replicates somewhat the Where They Stand series and is uploaded once a week.

The two series are a good start toward a more issue-oriented election coverage but it would be desirable to extend the topic list to more (detailed) issues including climate change, science & technology, abortion, gun control, crime, food regulation, Internet and communication laws, and government reform as well as U.S. foreign policy concerning Latin America, Africa (especially Darfur), Europe (especially Russia as a rising power and the E.U. as a major trading partner), Afghanistan and North Korea.

More Background Online
There are a couple a great websites for more background. Number one claims to sum up the stance of every candidate on every issue for not only federal positions: www.issue2000.org Another great website that the First Read blog referred to is www.factcheck.org. In the upper left hand side of their homepage, there is a link to a short videocast summing up all fact gaffes of the week.

‘Don’t Fool With My Beretta’
Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Sen. Joe Biden seems to be as gun toting as what is usually stereotypical Republican. So far the election campaign has not often mentioned weapon issues – except for the almost mantra-like repeated hunting habit of Gov. Sarah Palin – and it came as a surprise when Sen. Biden commented on the issue in front of coal miners as a post of the First Read blog reported on Sept. 20, 2008: “The Delaware senator predicted that Republicans would seek to sway voters by threatening that Obama would take away guns. Biden, claiming to be a gun-owner […] said: ‘Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don't buy that malarkey. […] If he tries to fool with my Beretta, he's got a problem.’

What is Sen. Obama’s stance on the 2nd Amendment?

There Are Breaks from Election Coverage -- For Better or For Worse
Sunday especially and the weekend in general seem to be a day without election coverage. It seems kind of odd that during the period in which many U.S. citizens would have more time to read and inform themselves about the election no current coverage is offered. But maybe this is not the worst thing I have discovered this week but a welcome break in the never ceasing blips about who is where with whom saying what when in what manner. For the sake of consistency and to use the Internet’s full potential for public service it would make more sense to continue coverage between Friday noon and Sunday night.

NBC-TV: Another Week but More of the Same

2008-09-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

Samantha Pompeo
sp306305@ohio.edu

It has been a week since the Wall Street crash of 2008 but the news programs on NBC are not letting you forget. Every mention of the candidates has to do with their economic plans, especially during the nightly programming. This makes it extremely difficult to get any other policy information from the station. While I understand that it’s a hard time financially for some people, there is more to the candidate’s plans than just how to solve this crisis.

One thing I really appreciated was that “Nightly News with Brian Williams” is doing its best to keep the public informed. On Monday night there was a segment titled “Where They Stand” which detailed a certain part of the candidates’ platforms. With all the discussion about “lipstick on a pig” it’s nice to finally get back to what the election should be about: the issues. The policy discussed was taxes but what else to expect with the way the station is talking about the economic crisis 24/7.

On two instances of “Nightly News” the reporter boasted about his “exclusive” interviews with both John McCain and Barack Obama. But, when time came for his package, the sit-down with Obama was the only video shown. When showing John McCain, the typical video of him standing on a stage, talking to a crowd was used. The one time this same type of video of Obama was shown, the crowd was heard clapping at the end. But this was not the case with McCain. It could have been how the speech was prepared but it also could have been deliberate.

Whenever the network uses graphics of the candidates, there’s always a subtle reminder of which side the candidate is on. Profile pictures of McCain and Obama were shown “staring” each other down with nice colorful borders. McCain was surround with red and Obama with blue. This was yet another stab at reminding voters that there are red states and blue states and we have to choose.

It’s difficult to say whether NBC is doing its best to remain unbiased on its coverage of the candidates. It seems that both McCain and Obama receive equal face time but are they presented the same? I’m sure it’s difficult to present a story without some of your personal feelings creeping in, regardless of how much you claim otherwise. I wouldn’t want the “liberal media” to continue to torture the voices of the right. No, that would be wrong. :)

CNN-TV: The Truth Squad is Out to Get You

2008-09-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

by Christina London
christinalondon1@gmail.com

“No bias and no bull.”

That’s just one of the many ways CNN has described its election coverage. Last Saturday, the channel set out to prove it. It devoted an hour-long time slot to the “Truth Squad”: reporters who examine if accusations one candidate makes about the other are true or false. Like we talked about in class, some local channels will perform “truth tests” on campaign advertising. They’ll pick a particular ad and dissect it, finding out if the statements are valid or not. Here, CNN does the same thing.

Let’s look at one story from Truth Squad member Alina Cho:

Barack Obama: The most liberal of the liberal?

Here, Cho examines a McCain ad comparing Sarah Palin to Barack Obama. It argues that Palin is a reformer who has stood up to Big Oil. It then accuses Obama of being the most liberal senator in Congress.

According to the National Journal, which claims to be a non-partisan magazine, Obama did rank as the most liberal senator last year. (He ranked 16th and 10th in previous years.) However, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action doesn’t buy it. It says if you look at Obama’s entire voting record, you’ll see that several other senators rank as more liberal.

Still, the only “non-biased” source Cho could find was the National Journal. So the verdict? TRUE.

Watch out, John McCain. The Truth Squad’s after you next…

MSNBC-TV: Wall Street Steers Campaign & News Coverage

2008-09-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

by Brooks Jarosz
bj186905@ohio.edu

As the Bush administration attempts to fix the economy by pumping in trillions of taxpayer dollars, eyes turn to the presidential candidates for approval or disapproval. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama say they fully support the current administration's plan, however, neither offers a clear solution. During NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, reporter John Harwood tries to round out the economy issue and the candidates' views. Harwood said the economy issue only helps Obama in his fight for change. Harwood also said it has caused McCain to quickly shift the economy argument to a few corrupt individuals.

The candidates had the chance to say a few things and that opened a recent episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews. McCain said Obama had no plan at all. Obama tries to link McCain to Bush asking who has been running the country the last eight years. And reporter Carl Quintanilla continued a series called Where They Stand, highlighting various political issues. This week it was taxes and specifically focusing on the government's proposal. While it was quite interesting, it still came off as a campaign commercial for Obama. You be the judge...

Palin is still making headlines
Like it or not, the news media, including MSNBC-TV, continue to seek out the "real" Sarah Palin. Rachel Maddow spent a good ten minutes discussing and commenting on some controversial issues. I'm of course talking about the troopergate scandal, the family issues and even political tensions. Maddow leaned left as she said Palin is getting caught in "more denials" and becoming rather secretive. She sets up the idea that Palin has had this bad streak within her and that she has turned to advisors that at one time or another worked on George W. Bush's campaign. Maddow went a step farther and had Alaska Senator Lyda Green on the program to question her about Palin. Palin and Green worked side by side at one time but a new approach to a political campaign and policy separated them. According to Green, Palin raised taxes, alluding that having her as Vice President or President would be a bad thing.

Figuring it all out
With the current government still thinking about what to do with the economy, the two presidential campaigns seem to be twiddling their thumbs. Both are said to fear losing support and remain careful in selecting the right wording. MSNBC was quick to point out the failures of the current presidency. Four major tragedies were blamed on President Bush including 9/11, Katrina, the Iraq War and now the economy.

Overall, it seems that MSNBC is constantly repeating old information to the viewer. This information is beat to the death. With the struggling economy it's hard to determine who's going to come out with the right plan. Lately, it appears both campaigns have had to act reactive to a couple different situations. I predict in the next couple of weeks both parties will have firm outlines on how the economy can be fixed and bail itself out.

ABC-TV: Another Day, Another Bailout

2008-09-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Monique Ozanne
mo724104@ohio.edu

With just six weeks left until the 2008 Presidential election, ABC News was focused on the state of the economy rather than the candidates. ABC News highlighted how Congress reacted to the proposed government bailouts, emphasizing the negativity coming from Capitol Hill. What is so interesting about ABC's coverage is when the first crises arose, ABC managed to keep coverage just to the facts, and questioning the outcome. Now that there are outcries of disdain and anger about the bailouts, ABC has a new focus for this story. They are also sparking discussions about how Obama and McCain are going to vote on this bailout bill and what the risk factors are involving which way these candidates vote.

But despite the economic crisis, ABC has allowed its separate shows to divert their attention to more hot button issues. Their new initiative for the next few weeks 50 states in 50 days will highlight where the candidates are going and where they will have their big battles. On World News Tonight, Charles Gibson will be busy with the candidates on the campaign trail. Monday night focused on Virginia, an important battleground state, especially for the Obama/Biden ticket, which ABC says is working very hard to make it a Democratic victory.

Senator Joe Biden in Woodbridge, VA

But what about Nightline and 20/20, shows that attract the prime time and late night audience. For some reason these programs still manage to be focused on news that might not be on people's minds. The 20/20 show that aired Friday centered around Diane Sawyer's interview with Alec Baldwin regarding his divorce and child custody battle.

In all fairness however, ABC has found ways to personalize a lot of stories regarding the disaster on Wall Street. Another story on 20/20 talked about who exactly this economic downfall was affecting, and how CEO's may not feel as much pain as some of the middle men.

ABC's Good Morning American anchor Robin Roberts interviewed FOX's Bill O'Reilly this morning and discussed his new book entitled "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity." O'Reilly was prompted by Roberts to talk about the current "economic mess" and bailout, and O'Reilly said that we need new people in Washington. He said the government's job is to protect citizens such as when there is a food recall, the government orders that food to be taken off the shelves. But when it comes to financial problems, the government is no help. He said the big companies, such as AIG and Lehman Brothers had no idea that they were being given "bogus paper", and people have a right to be furious. http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5864062

CNN.com: Jargon, Change and the Teleprompter

2008-09-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

by Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

This week on CNN online, I realized just how in-depth the election coverage has become based on how many different articles and sections there are online. There was one section that was particularly interesting to me, mainly because I have never seen this as an option before. The section was titled, Jargonbuster. Basically, it has a huge list of commonly used Election-related words, and their given meanings. It was quite easy to navigate, and for those who are new to the election extravaganza can now understand what all of those crazy words are spouting out of the candidates' mouths.

Example from Jargonbuster:
Wedge Issue: A key issue used by one or both parties to show clear differences between the two parties or candidates. Wedge issues are often raised to get each party's "base" supporters out to vote. The abortion issue is used to get out supporters of a woman's right to choose, and supporters of the unborn child's right to life. Gun control is a wedge issue generally separating Democrats who often support stricter gun control legislation from Republicans who are generally against gun-control legislation.

The best article that I saw this week on CNN online was one about 'change' and the election. The article details how, with McCain's choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, he has jumped on Obama's change-fueled campaigning efforts. It also talks about how both Obama and McCain's choices of running mates are purely political. But can you really blame them? It would be silly to have a choice that was not political, considering this IS a political race they're running in. Both Palin and Biden
pick up where their Presidential nominees leave off. Palin makes McCain a more social, appealing choice as president. Biden brings more experience, particularly overseas, to a candidate that has been criticized for being too young and new to Washington.

Another aspect of the article explores how the election has turned into a blame game, with both Obama and McCain accusing the other of falsehoods through biting, below-the-belt political ads. The election has become more about the candidates' mistakes and blunders rather than focus on their issues. It made me think about how our nation needs to look at the candidates for who they would be as President, and what they believe they can do for our country. No more nasty political ads. No more 'he said, he said'. Research each candidate's stance on what is really important to you and don't necessarily believe everything you see on TV.

The worst article I saw this week was this silly three-paragraph blurb about Senator Obama's teleprompter. The information in the article basically says just that he uses a teleprompter to give his speeches and now it's coming with him on the campaign trail. Who cares?? And, does that really merit an article on CNN online? I'm not sure if people were disappointed and upset about this, but I thought it was a trivial matter to focus on, and a waste of space.

Fox News.com: Changing it's Image?

2008-09-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

by Alex Mazer
am158905@ohio.edu

After discussion in a couple classes this week about media bias and which networks have biases and which do not, I wanted to look at Foxnews.com to see if I could find any biases and decide for myself. As soon as I entered the site, I scrolled down to see a link for a commercial. This commercial is promoting Fox News in general as a non-partisan source for all your election coverage. I found this to be very interesting because many people will argue that Fox News is a very conservative news channel. Fox is obviously aware it has this reputation and is taking steps to change that image. You can find the commercial at Foxnews.com elections page in a box in the right hand column.

Another Fox News Election promo

Another thing that I noticed on the site was that there was a link for 24-hour video streaming. This could go against Fox's attempt to make the channel known as a neutral channel. When there is 24-hour video streaming, some anchors tend to run out of things to talk about and begin to add their own opinions. Having both of those things on the same page not far from each other definitely surprised me.

Right below the 24-hour live streaming link there is a question of the day box. The question of the day today is "Which candidate has offered the strongest plan for fixing the economy?" The results of the poll say that McCain has the stronger plan. Is this a realistic opinion, or a reflection of Foxnews.com's more conservative audience.

In the right hand column there is a box that links to stories published by the Washington Times. I like that there are links to other sites for election coverage. This provides other sources for web users to find election coverage and not have to rely on the same site every time.

CBSNews.com: Presidential Questions, Palin and Preparation

2008-09-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

by Cristina Mutchler
cm306704@ohio.edu

The logo says it all- Campaign 2008 Horserace. Most media outlets are portraying the two most talked about guys right now as competitors in a race to the polls- focusing not so much on the larger, more important issues. But CBSnews.com did a good job, in my opinion, in covering and comparing not only the two candidates, but also other aspects of the campaigns, the elections, issues, and other fun-to-play-with political tools that can be found on their page. Many of the one-on-one stories with the two candidates do go in-depth and allow for personalization of Obama and McCain and their stories. The site didn’t include much of the election “gossip” that sometimes seems to sneak its way into election news coverage, but it did include somewhat lighter stories that are a brief and easy read for the . And the ’60 minutes’ section revealed an in-depth look at candidates for a special edition of the show.

Face-Off
CBS News anchor Katie Couric’s and other journalists’ contributions to the site add to the ongoing adrenaline rush before Election Day. Couric regularly grills the two presidential candidates on certain issues, and viewers are invited to watch the video or read the transcripts in the Presidential Questions section. The candidates answer everything from their character flaws to thoughts on terrorism at home.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Couric also spent last Thursday riding with Barack Obama’s running mate Joe Biden on his treck through Ohio. Viewers can watch as Biden talked taxes, investments and financial markets with Couric, and gave some valuable answers to those looking for answers to the money issues.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Biden's video shares the ever-important thoughts and positions as a potential VP, and this week there wasn’t a comparable story with McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, though there was still plenty of other buzz about her available on the site.

Hacker Attacker
Palin’s personal Yahoo! email account was hacked into recently, and sources say some fingers seem to be pointing at the son of Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell. His 20-year-old son, David Kernell’s, residence was searched by the FBI, and the investigation continues. On a very different note, Palin also made headlines on the site when she suggested ways that the McCain camp would allow citizens to have more public access with regards to financial matters at a rally in a Philadelphia suburb today. She noted previous tactics used as Alaska's governor that actually put the state's checkbook online. You can also read Couric's blog post titled 'What Would You Ask Sarah Palin?' as she prepares to interview the Alaska governer.

First Debate Prep
And the preparation doesn't stop there. The special 40th anniversary broadcast of 60 Minutes this week features McCain and Obama, again side-by-side, and their positions as they get ready for the first debate scheduled for this Friday night. Obama opens up about how race is affecting and could affect this extremely important election, while McCain let us in on his faith and his more “rebellious” years. Both interviews make for an informative focus prior to the big debate.

CBSnews.com offers a plethora of information regarding Election 2008, and I didn’t even cover half of the week’s most interesting topics. Check out the page for yourself to get a diverse look at election coverage, and in the meantime, keep reading for the best, worst and most unique stories up until the big day!

CNN.com: The Blame Game

2008-09-22T17:40:00.001-07:00

by: Julie Hartz
jh101105@ohio.edu

As I began my virtual exploration of CNN.com this week, the first thing that popped out to me—even before I read any articles—were the titles. “GOP blamed for Wall Street Crisis”, “Palin Accuses ‘Obama-Biden Democrats’ of spreading ‘lies’”, “Bill Clinton says Dems shouldn’t attack Palin.”

As you can see, there’s a common thread between these titles: they are all about each party blaming one another. Well since these articles caught my attention, I decided to take a deeper look past the headlines to see what sort of substance was behind them. What I found was quite surprising.

In the interest of not wanting to repeat myself, I’ll just detail the article that affected me the most. In the article where Bill Clinton says the Democratic Party should not ridicule Sarah Palin’s skimpy resume,

Clinton says, “Why say, ever, anything bad about a person? Why don’t we like them and celebrate them and be happy for her elevation to the ticket?” Now this sounds like a really nice thing for a Democrat to say about a Republican... especially weeks before the election. Then I think back to the primary season, and remember how critical Bill Clinton was of Barack Obama before he was chosen as the Presidential Candidate.

Was Clinton not doing exactly that? It’s funny how someone’s attitude can change so quickly when his wife is off the ticket. I do agree that the accusations and digging into personal lives has gotten very old, very quickly. But that was the pot calling the kettle black.

Another story that caught my attention sends us back 8 years to the Florida recount catastrophe. In the article, “Florida Voting Issues Raise Fears of 2000-like debacle” problems with Florida’s local elections are creating a panic that the same thing is going to happen in November of ’08 that happened in ’00. Apparently Florida is using paper ballots that can be read by an “optical reading device”; however there have already been issues with the judicial race in Palm Beach County.

Election officials say the system should work, however skeptics will be left crossing their fingers election night that all works as planned.

ABC.COM: Obama, McCain and the economy

2008-09-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu

Finally: The candidates focus on (one) issues!
And it's not Sarah P. The selected topic is the US-economy. So, did Obama's campaign benefit from this focus on a domestic issue versus McCain's team, which intented to keep people's eyes on foreign policy problems, like Iraq or Afghanistan?

Lots of Background Available
In all of ABC's big online content categories the two candidates and the economy play the main role. The Vote 08, The Note,

and also the Political Radar offer background information, comments and current videos and news on the candidates referring to this issue, for example the (too short) Fact Check-video .

Quite funny but is the little countdown that reminds the user on how much time is left till the first Presidential Debate.

Ouch, My Ears!
One of the candidates, however, didn't really stand out on abc.com this week for statements on the economy, but for entertaining videos and tv-performances: Sarah Palin! Though, she wasn't really the one who was funny, it's some of the impersonators , among them especially Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey sticks out with her little Beauty Queen crown...and this ear-hurting voice.

Dossiers: If You're Looking for Someone Special
Besides this little fun stuff I think the many different categories in the political radar are really useful.
The user can find current news, videos and dossiers with articles about the candidates and other politicians. So, if you're only interested in stories concerning Hillary Clinton, click on her name and you'll find quite a bunch of recent articels published by the website.

Perhaps Too Many Categories
In all, however, the site might provide too many categories for an easy and quick overview over the recent events and latest developments. At the front page there are these three already mentioned rubrics, the headlines, watch video, ABC News Program, abc News To Go (a must-have for your coffee-to-go) – where do I find what? It's quite redundant sometimes and the user can't make a clear distinction between the different links.

Not Very Critical
It seems the media tries to establish a new favourite term – Troopergate . There still remain questions about the firing of Alaska's ex-Security Chief and the issue keeps on being covered. But, what about Palin's reproach against Iran and its nuclear program? Saying someone plans a second holocaust should not be said that easily – does she have any prove?

Anyway, I think that, especially in comparison to foreign media (e.g. this german website of one of the two big public tv stations), the coverage of those remarks is much less critical.

Surprise, surprise!
It seems everbody wanted to surprise me this week :)
George W. Bush, because he's back in the spotlight and still president (somehow it's easy to forget about that after last week's discussions...), Bill Clinton because Hillary wouldn't have liked to be VP, Joe Biden because Obama won't take his Beretta, Sarah Palin because she doesn't protect her e-mails, Barack Obama for the accusation of having anything to do with the KKK and finally John McCain because he locates Spain in South America.

Fox News Channel sure does love Sarah Palin

2008-09-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

By Allison Herman
ah215206@ohio.edu

On Friday, Fox News did a story about a college professor who offended conservative students when he allegedly gave an unfair writing assignment, telling his students to criticize Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Fox had an interview with one of the Republican students who said he was offended by the assignment. I thought the idea was good and viable, but the way it played out on the show was all wrong. The questions the anchor asked were clearly biased and leaned to the right. Also, I felt that the story didn’t have much credibility. The tease for the story was very misleading, as are most teases, but I think that it could have been much better written to more accurately portray the story. Also, the details from the student and the details from the anchor describing what actually happened with the assignment didn’t match up completely, which made me doubt the credibility of the whole situation. I felt that Fox News dropped the ball with that story.

However, they did do a good job of showing both sides of the story when the newscast went to the “Strategy Room.” Fox did an interview with two women who were discussing the importance of the Catholic vote in the November election. One guest was a former advisor for Hilary Clinton, while the other was a former GOP chair in Virginia. The segment was incredibly entertaining because both of the women were so obviously opposed in their opinions about who was going to win the Catholic vote and what each thought about the recent controversy over Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden’s pro-choice stance, despite being a Catholic. The same anchor who did the interview with the Republican student also did the interview with the two women, but the second interview was much better formatted and used fair and balanced questions.

I was also really impressed with the use of presidential polls during the dual segment. Several polls were referenced and used by the anchor and the guests, but it really worked because it was tied into good conversation and debate, which I felt made for pretty good TV. I thought this was the perfect instance where polls were used correctly and actually added something to a newscast.

ABC News.com: Lots of Palin, and Some Games!

2008-09-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu

'Does this woman have any friends?'
That was all the e-mail from Germany said. I got it after the exclusive interview Mrs. Palin gave abc's Charlie Gibson. Well, how many friends she really has, I can't say, but I can say that she gets a lot of attention these days on abcnews.go.com.

No News Balance
Sure, she's been a surprise for most Americans and now they want and need to get to know their possible future Vice President – and obviously also her family. But the current Palin-related explosion of news gives her simply too much spotlight. You might get the impression that she is running for president, not John McCain. For example the coverage of a comment Obama made about lipstick on a pig, which actually didn't even have anything to do with her.

And what about Joe Biden? On Wednesday, if ABC online payed any attention to him, then it was so hidden, that I couldn't find him. I think this whole hype might fade away within the next days, but still, the last week the Alaskan Governor didn't have to share the country's media attention with any of the other candidates. Especially as her first longer interview (...in which she allegedly lied to ABC-TV, according to Walt Monegam, former Public Safety Commissioner in Alaska...) took place last Thursday and Friday.

The 'Full Interview' wasn't that full...
Whoever didn't watch it live could find it on ABC's homepage. The full interview is there in a written format, but I couldn’t find a video of the whole interview. However, there are three newscasts, each of about 5 minutes long, claiming to be the full interview. Actually, they are only a cut-together of some of the statements she made.

...but full of surprising statements
„War with Russia may be necessary if Georgia were to join NATO and be invaded by Russia“, so says Palin. Yes, if a NATO member gets attacked, the other members help this country. That's what the treaty is about. But, besides the fact Georgia is not close to being a NATO member, and Russia, full of economic problems, is hardly so short-sighted to invade Georgia, mentioning a war with Russia, while the atmosphere between Washington DC and Moscow is far away from good, just shows that she lacks foreign policy experience.

Another, but less earthshaking statement came from the so far quite quiet Sen. Biden, posted on Thursday: Hillary might have been a better pick than he. Why so shy?

Good Presentation
With daily updated articles, the site offers a lot of different media: slide shows, lots of videos, articles, interviews and also some interaction. Viewers can not only comment on the articles, but also play the 'Match-O-Mat II'. This funny game gives you 13 quotes, either made by Obama or McCain. You have to click on the one you agree with more. In the end one of the two candidates sitting on a seesaw is going to be kicked from it up into the sky. This game provides you in an entertaining way not only with information on different political issues, like health care or the war in Iraq, but also allows the user to come to an opinion on these issues without any judgement on the persons.

Next to this game the section, „The Note“, is quite good. Here the users find comments on different aspects of the current debates.

One new woman in the White House already set
No matter who will finally wins the presidential election in November, one new woman for the White House has just been anounced according to the website's 'Entertainment' section, Barbra Streisand. She'll be honored there by the Kennedy Center in December.

CNN TV: The Media’s Latest Target: the Media?

2008-09-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

by Christina London
cl942905@ohio.edu

One guy dominated CNN’s airwaves this weekend. And no, his name wasn’t
Barack or John. It was all about Ike.

Last Saturday, CNN featured wall-to-wall hurricane coverage. Each time I
flipped to the station, I saw images of downed trees, high waters and
weather-beaten reporters. (This made it pretty difficult to critique
election coverage.) So I turned to an old standby: the Sunday morning
political talk shows.

Reliable Sources is a program that airs every Sunday at 10 a.m. ET on
CNN. Hosted by Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post, the show brings on a
panel of news people to sound off on how the media did covering this week
in politics. Honestly, until now, I wasn’t too familiar with Reliable
Sources, but I like the concept; considering CNN has to fill a 24-hour
news hole, I think it’s a fresh angle to take.

This week, Kurtz asked his guests two main questions:
(1) Did Charles Gibson grill Sarah Palin too hard?
(2) Did MSNBC make the right choice to remove Chris Matthews and Keith
Olbermann from Election Night coverage?

Let’s focus on the first.

Last week, ABC News scored the first television interview with GOP vice
presidential candidate Sarah Palin. After airing, critics complained that
anchor Charles Gibson was much too hard in his questioning of the Alaska
governor. Kurtz’s panel unanimously disagreed.

Sara Palin talks about God and war in ABC Interview

CNN Special Correspondent Frank Sesno went as far as to say that Gibson
actually let Palin off easy. At one point in the interview, Gibson asks
Palin about the “Bush Doctrine.” Palin clearly doesn’t understand
what Gibson means by this, and he calls her out on it. Sesno agrued Gibson
could have dug Palin an even deeper hole by asking follow-up questions, but
he didn’t. Gibson also asked Palin about her religious past and her role
as a mother/politician. The panel agreed that these issues were also fair
game.

Overall, I enjoyed my Sunday morning with Kurtz and his “Reliable
Sources.” My only complaint would be the lack of variety in the panel.
While I understand these guests aren’t political pundits, they agreed on
virtually everything. The hour was full of journalism lingo and even inside
jokes, and I see how that could be a turn-off to viewers. I plan to tune-in
in the future to see how the panelist lineup changes from week to week.

Until next week...you’re watching CNN.

Fox News Channel: Fair and Balanced, but Too Many Polls

2008-09-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Allison Herman
ah215206@ohio.edu

The Fox News Channel typically has a reputation of being ultra conservative. But I was surprised to see that the stories Fox was showing about the election were much more balanced than I had expected them to be.

One thing I particularly liked was the Special Report on Thursday night. At the very top of the show, there were two stories that pertained to the recent attack ads that both Republicans and Democrats have put out. I felt that both stories were balanced and fair, and gave about the same amount of time to both parties.

What I didn’t care for isn’t really particular to Fox News, but rather all election news. I don’t really see how important it is to show 5 different polls in one newscast. None of them are very accurate, and when two show that Obama is the favored candidate and two show that McCain is leading, that doesn’t really tell anybody anything. I think there are so many polls conducted so often that most people don’t even pay attention to them.

The most interesting thing I found while watching Fox News was the amount of time devoted to Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin. It almost seems like Sarah Palin is running against Barack Obama instead of John McCain. Obviously, I see why Palin is interesting. She’s largely unknown and she’s the first woman to be nominated as a VP on a major ticket.

But Palin isn’t the one running for President, and I honestly care less about her personal life and what her kids or her husband is doing. Tell me about her policy and what she stands for versus Joe Biden. And then there’s another thing – where’s Biden? No one’s talking about the Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee. I’d like to know a little more about who the Democrats have running, and I’m not seeing much of that from any news network.

Fox News.com: Something for Everyone?

2008-09-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

by Alex Mazer
am158905@ohio.edu

After reviewing the Fox News Channel website’s election ’08 coverage, there are defiantly some things that I like and dislike about the site. The page contains a lot of links, which is something that is very necessary to have in order to keep a reader’s interest. There are links to blogs, articles about the candidates, top stories about the election trail, videos and other media and polls. All these interactive media are key elements of a successful online news site. Having so many different elements to one webpage is very important in order to appeal to a wider audience. By offering videos as well as articles and blogs means there is something for everyone on this site no matter what your views may be.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with the set up of the site. I found the top of the site, before I scrolled down to be very plain, despite the colors and links, and had this not been an assignment to analyze the site it may not have kept my attention for much longer than a glance. However, when I did finally scroll down I found a lot more sections that interested me.

I was also surprised but really liked how this site did not appear, at least to me, to be biased. There are good and bad articles about everyone involved in the election, on either side. This shows that they truly are just an unbiased resource for the American voter to reference during the process of deciding who to vote for.

Overall I was more impressed with this site than disappointed. I personally will use it as a resource for most of the election coverage because of the diversity of links and medium.

CBS News.com: Build Your Own Campaign

2008-09-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

by Jessica Demczar
jd422505@ohio.edu

When first visiting cbsnews.com, I immediately noticed the "Campaign '08,
Complete Coverage" box. Upon clicking on the box, an entire page opens up,
with various stories, videos and little tools to help viewers learn as much
as they can. It has a "campaign toolkit" that has topics such as "Where
they Stand," "Campaign Ads," and "Poll Database." It's really nice that
these things are right at your fingertips and just a click away. It makes
it much easier for the viewer to find exactly what they need about each
candidate.

Something else that caught my eye was the "Ways to Win" box on the page.
This section allows you to "build your own presidential winner." It gives
you a map and then allows you to plot out which states will vote republican
and which will vote democratic. You can choose what you think will happen.
This is incredibly interactive which I think is great, especially for an
election. I'm not sure how many people will actually take the time to do
this, but it's a great thought.

Also on the website, there are blogs, videos, photos, and polling results.
Overall I feel like it's a pretty good website, though it's pretty Sarah
Palin heavy right now. I understand that she's an important part of this
campaign, but she seems to dominate the website. She's not necessarily the
top story, but there are a lot of little things, like picture slide shows
of her life, and there's lots of blogging about her. I'm curious to see
when this Palin "fever" will stop.

In the next few weeks, I'm anxious to see how the website changes, how
coverage of Sarah Palin changes, and how the network adjusts to this
historic election. I'm impressed with the interactivity of their website
and how it gets people thinking about the process and how they can affect
it.

CBS-TV: Going Beyond the Ads

2008-09-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

by Sean Balewski
sbalewski@gmail.com

In a week where Sarah Palin and the stock market have consumed network news coverage, it was interesting on Monday’s broadcast on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric when the final story of the night focused on the fallacies in the ads of both Obama and McCain.

Wyatt Andrews went beyond the television ads that both presidential campaigns have launched, and picked apart the specifics of each. It was interesting to see what parts of the claims that each candidate made were true, which ones were partially true, and which ones were just flat out false.

Wyatt Andrews campaign ad Fact Check report

It was the first time that I had seen or heard a report on an evening news broadcast that really honed in on the issues and plans that each candidate has proposed. So often we here about voting records or experience, but rarely do we actually focus on the specifics of a candidates’ proposal. This line of exploration actually can help voters see if a candidate’s plan is indeed feasible, and to what extent it will actually impact and affect our lives.

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric may be the lowest of the big three networks in ratings, but the piece they ran Monday night sure caught my eye. It will be interesting to see if CBS continues to give voters a little broader perspective and view into the cold hard facts of each campaign.

NBC-TV: 24 Hours Without Much Campaign News

2008-09-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Samantha Pompeo
sp306305@ohio.edu

With the popularity of the internet, a voter has many outlets for learning information about the candidates. Looking at the national television networks, that doesn’t seem to be a bad thing. NBC, a networ that at one time was (at least in my opinion) always showing election coverage, seems to be forgoing providing any information in a quest for higher ratings. I didn’t realize how much this was true until I decided that I would watch every national news piece in a twenty-four hour period, searching for election information.

On a half-hour newscast of Nightly News with Brian Williams, a package about the candidates’ economic policies lasted two minutes. The other twenty-eight minutes were split between newsworthy stories and commercials, the latter winning the time race. Nightly News is on at 6:30 in the evening, a time when many adults are getting home from work and preparing for dinner. With this the only information available on NBC at 6:30, I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratings were dismal and viewers switched to other news outlets for election coverage.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not as if the story presented during the two minute package was uninformative. Working around the Lehman bankruptcy, sound bites from each candidate told his take on the day’s economic situation. For someone involved in the stock market, this would be very helpful. Then, the reporter gave a quick overview of each candidate’s policy for fixing the country’s economic problems. The package had a good way of tying together a current news story with the economic strategies.

Both candidates were given equal face time and at the end, there was a split screen of McCain and Obama speaking. I thought this was interesting because it seemed to say that even though both candidates agree something needs to be done about the financial state of the country, there are different proposed ways to fix it. It was as if NBC was reminding viewers there are two sides and we need to pick one: Barack Obama, positioned on the left side of the screen and John McCain, positioned on the right. Left and right: was it a coincidence? I’d like to think the creator of the package wasn’t that obvious but I also doubt it wasn’t slightly intentional.

The next national NBC program to give any information about the election was the Today Show at seven in the morning. That means twelve hours passed without any political coverage. With the election less than fifty days away, stations should be doing everything possible to help inform the voters. But, one also has to question if stations like NBC are refraining from all-election all-the-time coverage because there could be a viewer burnout. How does a station find the line that says they’ve given too much time to the election? As voting inches closer, we’ll be able to see if NBC and its competitors are ignoring the line to make sure everyone is informed about who he or she wants to put into the highest office in the country.

NBC News.com: Palin Gets a Pass and What's Missing

2008-09-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

by Stine Eckert
ke343908@ohio.edu

During the last week of NBC Nightly News online coverage I concentrated on the videos in the Latest Program, Web Only, and Politics section as well as on the First Read blog , which is part of MSNBC. The Daily Nightly blog authored by NBC anchor Brian Williams and colleagues only offered short previews of the evening news but didn't add information.

Unfortunately barely new video was uploaded from Nightly News over the weekend. During the pre-election season NBC could step up their efforts to provide continued and consistent coverage online no matter if weekday or weekend.

The worst was the negligence of discussing issues by the NBC Nightly News since the focus almost was exclusively on Republican vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin (Alaska): her effect on McCain, the lipstick on a pig metaphor, her first interview and her first solo trip until news broke about the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Surprisingly Palin coverage did not include criticism by NBC. As the First Read blog put it, other than the Saturday Night Live skit and ABC's Charlie Gibson's stubborn style of interviewing her on uncomfortable issues there hasn't been a tough look at her. Some of her approaches to policies stay vague such as her stance on homosexuality and same-sex marriages. (In Germany where I am from, she is viewed more critically).

Another general disappointment is the ignorance of third party candidates by NBC Nightly News online. They are part of the political landscape and should be reflected in the news for instance the Green Party's all female ticket with black candidate Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente.

After the Palin hype died down, brutal reality brought back the most obvious issue to talk about, the economy. Other issues were neglected in favor of citing the latest polls, attacks, campaign ads. Other issues touched upon (in reference to Sarah Palin's ABC (mal)performance) health care and some vague foreign policy mentions.

What about a science debate? Science as a provider for hard facts is neglected by candidates,despite the fact that many decisions (sustainable energy, climate change, foreign policy strategy) depend on basic and applied research. There was also no discussion about education apart from the fact that Sarah Palin wants to teach what is called creationism in schools.

The best coverage came from the First Read blog which dared to speak out NBC's velvet glove approach to Saran Palin. This blog offered several detailed and extended posts a day picking up on issues that were neglected on the network' evening newscast website for instance Democratic vice presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden's (Delaware) tax returns or the mix up of absentee ballots in Ohio.