Monday, October 20, 2008

Fox News Channel: Plumbers, Debates and October Surprises

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.

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