| February 26, 2004 -- It happened in 2000. It could happen in 2004. When it comes to flawed election procedures, why does the media wait to the last second to tell the tale?
This year, tens of millions of American voters are projected to use electronic voting systems to cast their vote for president. Many of these machines will get their first test on March 2, Super Tuesday, when voters head to the polls in ten states. ..."Journalists are the watchdogs of democracy," said Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based school of journalism. McBride is confident that as the 2004 presidential election approaches media coverage related to e-voting will increase. But since election reporting began last fall, network news coverage of the switch has been little more than a blip. According to data compiled for Media for Democracy by monitoring firm Media Tenor, between October 2003 and February 2004, ABC, NBC and CBS nightly news programs broadcast only four stories on e-voting machines. Half of the four reports were compiled by CBS. NBC opted for a story that filtered the issue through that of the California recall vote. A search for e-voting news stories on CNN.com and FoxNews.com yields an even smaller assortment: a total of three reports between September 2003 and February 20, 2004, all on CNN. Is this just more evidence of network news' obsession with campaign spectacle and "horse race" over voter issues and substance? Maybe, but the issues here could have particularly far-reaching consequences. ...This trend provides the lone sliver of good news in the story of mainstream broadcast media's failure to cover e-voting. Though print media's ability to lure fresh readers remains at an all-time low, the Internet has already demonstrated its power over the next generation of US news consumers . . . and voters. According to the Pew survey, 20 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 now get their campaign news from online sources. |
So, there is some reason to be encouraged that the old white male tradition is dying in America, and future generations will be better informed, and hopefully, demand more transparency and honesty in government.
That is if they haven't all been rounded up and thrown in the gulag. And if there's anything left of the country after BushCo get through raping and pillaging.
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