Media Bias in FRONT OF MY EYES

Scene: Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT

Date & Time: 2/4/08: 10:30 AM

Players: 1.  Lisa Wexler, sitting with the press corps, no laptop, blackberry or other communicating device.  Holding a tiny Olympus recorder, realizing it has no battery.

2. Clinton’s traveling press corps, complete with every communication device known to man.

3. Clinton’s traveling press corps camerapeople, whose cameras I have come to realize are frequently used as a lethal weapon if you happen to be in the way of a good shot.

Act I:  Hillary Clinton walks into the room with a smile, sits down.  Hillary Clinton is introduced by a man who works at the Yale Child Study Center, who fondly remembers Hillary from her days as a Yale Law Student when she volunteered her time at the Center to help abused children.

After a heartfelt and warm introduction, Hillary says with a smile something to the effect of , I thought I wasn’t going to tear up, but now it seems like I might be on a different path…

The moment passes, it is clear there is real affection at the table, and the discussion begins.

Act II: Immediately, the person writing for the Daily News (not sure whose Daily News, incidentally ,but saw that by-line at top)- types on his laptop: “Hillary Clinton tears up again…”   

HELLO?  I was right there- this was a normal emotional moment, and a normal comment for someone to make after such a personal introduction.  What is this particular journalist trying to prove with his headline?  Why this headline? Is he trying to show that Hillary is on an emotional roller-coaster? That she cries all the time???

This is precisely the kind of slanted reporting that I despise.

These politicians simply can’t get a break.  Period.  No wonder why it’s so hard to get good people to run for office these days- the media must take some responsibility for this.

And here is another tidbit for good measure:

So I’m sitting next to a journalist who travels with Hillary’s campaign, who isn’t even voting tomorrow.  Why do I have the feeling that she isn’t the only one?

Did I tell you I have no respect for people who don’t vote???- especially if they are in the media, when they are, theoretically, more informed. Although, based on what I saw today, maybe it is just as well… 

 Tomorrow I get to vote- yeah! 

    

Hillary Clinton at Yale today

For me, a record. Two presidential candidates in person within 24 hours. Yesterday John McCain at Sacred Heart, today Hillary Clinton at Yale Child Study Center.

Naturally, I had no camera and my recorder’s battery wore out. Same old story for the non-tech Lisa.

The Yale visit was intimate and refreshing.  Less than 100 people in the room, including media, which took up almost half the seats. Sen. Clinton sat around a rectangle table with ordinary women, some more accomplished than others, talking about what matters to them in their everyday struggles of child care, health care, and managing to keep their heads above water economically.    Sen. Clinton looked splendid in a lovely yellow jacket; in person, she was attractive in every way.  

I was happy to hear a presidential candidate focus on children and health care, things we can and should improve.

Next post on media bias right in front of my eyes.     

Who Are You Voting For? Tell Me On-Air Saturday

This Saturday January 26th 2008 on the Live! with Lisa Radio Show on WSTC/WNLK AM (1400 and 1350) from 11:20 AM-11:55 AM I am asking my audience to tell me who they are voting for in the Connecticut primary and why.  Call-in number is 203-845-3044.  All registered voters who intend to vote are welcome to call. I’d like to get in as many calls as possible from supporters of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Ron Paul, John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. Did I forget anyone?  (Kucinich just dropped out)      

Please identify your first name and where you are calling from when you call. Thank you.   

Ron Paul Victory in Nevada

Ron Paul’s second place finish in Nevada as reported on the news tonight must be counted as a victory.  Now let’s see if the (rest of) the media finally wakes up and notices.  I say “rest of” for those of you who may not know I host a radio show, ”Live! with Lisa”. (www.livewithlisaradio.com).  Congrats to you Ron Paul supporters for getting the vote out.

Ron Paul Attention

If the number of telephone calls to my show today and website hits on my site tonight are an indicator of votes, then Ron Paul will be tallying up serious votes in the coming primaries. He has definitely tapped into a segment of the electorate who is fed up with excessive taxation and government interference.  Phil Maymin was a guest on the show today and we took calls asking people to explain why they support Ron Paul for president.

I am not persuaded that Ron Paul should be president because some of his ideas, taken to their logical conclusions, trouble me. For example, I believe that the environment is like national defense- we have to pool our resources and make some tough decisions because as individuals we simply cannot make enough of a difference to protect our habitat and our wildlife. I am less optimistic than many libertarians who rely on the free forces of the market to cure all our ills. This philosophy hasn’t gotten us anywhere in the media business for example, where the corporate consolidation and consolidation of various media in the hands of a few people have led us to the current sorry state of  radio and television, where creativity is crushed and few alternative viewpoints are treated with respect.

On the other hand, I am totally in agreement with the sensitivity of libertarians to my freedom of thought, of movement, of speech and assembly.  Privacy in particular is on their agenda, and resistance to the build-up of the third arm of the military-industrial complex, which is the military /security-surveillance/ industrial complex. (See Naomi Wolf’s The End of America on that subject).  And it certainly is a nice daydream to dream of a world without the IRS, but think of all the accountants that would be put out of business…   There are special interests everywhere.

To you Ron Paul advocates , I say, go out and vote and make people pay attention to your concerns.

If someone out there can find me a candidate who will put the environment and solar energy as first on his or her agenda, let me know.  Al Gore doesn’t seem to be running.   

Media Bias

What gives? Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel excluded from the Democratic debate because of a poor showing in Iowa?  Iowa?? Ron Paul barely mentioned by the press even though he scored a 10 percent vote in that same Iowa which the press deems to be so important?   Something else is going on here, and I don’t like it one bit.

Is much of the media tired, lazy, corrupt or just playing favorites?  John McCain’s 13 percent finish in Iowa might as well have been a victory for all the press attention it got.   John Edwards is viewed as a disappearing phenomenon, while he continues to pull in substantial percentages of the vote.    

Barack Obama will soon be untouchable, if you believe the press. And the problem is that sometimes the story they report becomes the story.    

At least the conservative talk radio hosts are honest about what they are doing to Huckabee- eating their own young.  Better they should lose to the Democrats than have a Republican nominee who actually dares to disagree with them on issues like immigration.

I’m still one of the great mass of undecideds out here, and I like having a choice of candidates.  Do you agree with me that the media bias has been apparent this last week?

Huckabee Wins Iowa- Surprised? Dismayed?

I’m not surprised at all.  Huckabee is a Southern Baptist preacher. The majority of the voting Republicans in many states today, especially in the primaries, are people who identify themselves as evangelical Christians.  Personally, I prefer Huckabee to Romney, because at least Huckabee takes a compassionate view on the subject of immigration.

Dismayed?  Frankly, yes.  I have trouble with a candidate who is an avowed creationist. This is the 21st century. I thought we had already fought the Scopes trial, and that the teaching of evolutionary science had won. I was wrong.  Many people who believe that God created human beings, as humans, reject any teaching of evolutionary science.   My concern is that if a person is wedded to a literal view of the Bible, then that same thinking might extend to spheres of science, education, technology and women’s rights. Ethics and reason are the guiding influences I would like to see  in a leader.  I guess I have a built-in cynicism towards anyone who wears his faith on his sleeve, or on his campaign button.  To me, the identification of your religion does not, by virtue of itself, make you a better person- very often, it makes you a hypocrite.   Do you agree, or am I overreacting?