This Is What the Media Cares About?

Tara and I were working downstairs with the TV on in the background when we saw a familiar face flash across the screen. Thank God for TiVo, or we'd have missed this entirely.

Channel 6 in Albany teased tonight's newscast with the "Dion's changing his name to Kennedy" story that Jack Dew of the Eagle had published last week. And they did it with that grating little vocal smirk that news anchors are really good at--the same one that they use to tell stories that end with "Fortunately, no one was injured."

This is probably the only non-local access TV coverage the Berkshire, Hampshire, and Franklin state senate race is going to get apart from the micro-scroll across the bottom of the screen on the Boston stations come Nov. 7th. Is our seat that pointless that the only time anyone even notices is during the publicity stunts? Should I even be glad that they even pay attention to THOSE?

Perspective is everything when it comes to a lot of things, and politics isn't usually one of those things. But say for a second we tried to apply some perspective to this situation. There are forty senators in the General Court, and our conservative administration would like nothing better than to see control of major issues stripped from [Clinton-era liberal activist] federal judges right back to the states (except for equal marriage, for which they want to amend the Constitution, but that's another post entirely). This means that if the federal government washes its hands of some very pressing cultural and political legislation, the determination of how we live our lives here could very well be placed in the hands of forty senators--one for each 153,000 residents. The rights we have regarding abortion, flag burning, gambling, gun ownership, marriage, civil rights, telecommunications--all hot-button issues currently in federal stewardship--could rest on the shoulders of a bunch of people in Boston who get virtually no non-biased press before they go off to vote on what we can or can't do without getting thrown in jail.

Does it seem unimportant now?

This election is getting less coverage in both Boston and Albany than, for instance, Deion Branch signing with the Seahawks. Not just at this level, either. The only serious coverage the Governor's race is getting concerns the negative media advertising. You couldn't even watch a lot of the Governor's debates in Berkshire County! EVEN on local access!

It's a common trick for politicians to blame the media for personal shortcomings. But the media is doing such a terrible job keeping the public informed and involved that it's just shameful. It wouldn't even be so bad if they just ignored the entire thing completely, so long as they didn't just focus on the non-issues that confuse and cloud the real importance of the process.

And there's no solution in sight apart from getting involved personally. And that goes to hell as soon as the new fall episodes of the TV shows start up. No excuse now, though--another reason to thank God for TiVo.