@seairacdaniels
Many
news outlets have mentioned how important Ohio or Florida’s electoral votes
will be this election season.
Some have even simulated the outcome of November’s
election on their programs.
However, NPR created an interactive electorate
calculator that would make my Algebra teacher proud!
Featured
on its Election 2012 page, NPR’s “Swingstate Scorecard”
allows web browsers to try their hand combining all the possible combinations
leading to an Obama or Romney victory. The application presumes historically
one-party states, such as California (D) and Texas (R), and contains a
side-panel of eight “up for grabs” states, which can be assigned to either
candidate.
It
may have been a nice touch, however, to have a follow-up article exploring how
the pungency of ballots cast in swing states affects undecided voters in
vividly Red or Blue states. Do historically single-party states unintentionally
discourage voters?
What
Voters Want
In
a cubical topic slideshow nestled into the far right corner of npr.org lies a
link to a self-fact-checking blog by NPR’s Edward Schumacher-Matos.
The web
page contains pie graphs, line graphs, and several explicatory graphs of text analyzing
the fact checking skills of NPR itself. NPR’s online survey takers also
indicated the type of news important to them.
Fact-checking claims and information about each candidate’s platform were
at the very top of the list.
Along
Comes Birther—again
The
birthplace issue has bobbed and weaved itself back into the news on npr.org, but this time, by the Obama campaign itself.
The campaign has jabbed at skeptics doubting the
President’s U.S. citizenship by creating t-shirts and mugs with copies of the
President’s birth certificate on the back and a frontal image that reads “Made
in the USA.”
The article, which actually recognizes skepticism as an essential part
of Americana--is placed as the lead story on npr.org’s politics page. No retaliatory comments from Republicans or Governor Romney are listed.
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