Can __ Win? – Addressing media bias in the presidential elections
“Can ______ become the next President of the United States?” “_____ doesn’t have a chance.” ”Let us talk instead about our big two frontrunners!” This is common not only from our voices, but from the media on both sides. The media’s habit of picking frontrunners hurts not only the diversity of the field of candidates, but also discourages primary voters from voting for whom they think is right to become the next President of the United States. In order to prove this, we shall explore first what exactly being a “frontrunner” means. Next we will address how this hurts our choices as voters in primaries, and finally what can the common voter do to curb this media bias and encourage thoughtful and critical thinking when deciding the leader of the free world.
A frontrunner as defined by Merriam-Webster is “a leading contestant in or as if in a rivalry or competition.” This term is traditionally used late in primary seasons when it becomes abundantly clear who has a chance to win. Now, not one vote has yet been cast in this election, so why is the media using this term? The answer is quite simple: the media wants to pick our candidate before we can read into everyone and decide for ourselves who should lead. This from the New York Times illustrates this best: “Measured by national polling, media attention and millions in the bank, the Republican field appears to have come down to a bout between two heavyweights: Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, vs. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.” This was published Oct 10 2011, according to the October 10th Gallup Poll it has Romney with 20% and Perry with 15%, but there is no mention of Herman Cain, who in this Gallup poll had 18% of the vote. Based upon this it is clear that there is no frontrunner and we should not be picking the national candidate until after we begin going to the polls, which at this point is still 2 months out.
This frontrunner idea has also been proven false by the huge gains by Herman Cain after winning the Florida straw poll with a whopping 33.5% of the vote, and yet the media at first tried to spin this win as a fluke, which has since been proven otherwise. This utter belligerence is only the first of many examples: the total exclusion of Ron Paul, the implication of “hopeless” campaigns of the “bottom” runners, and that candidates have to “win” quick or they are done.
Now this frame of mind is not healthy. It is detrimental when we put on the blinders and say: “Nope, only he can win, no one else has a chance,” especially when perfectly good candidates are just as popular as the “frontrunner.” When someone is labeled a frontrunner it puts out a negative mindset that makes the actual prospects of a presidential field look as if we have to “settle” for less than stellar folk just because he is the anointed “frontrunner.” Settling for less when you haven’t even voted is such a tragedy that we may actually miss the diamond in the rough. As Americans our heritage is being able to make something greater out of ourselves, and it is actions like this that betray this value. For if you anoint a frontrunner before a single vote is cast, it creates that sense of hopelessness that can plague the hopes and dreams of not only the current candidates, but also people as a whole. This hopelessness can and will lead to a loss of American exceptionalism, the driving force that allows you to be something greater than you were told you could become. Such a loss would truly tarnish if not remove the American Dream from the minds of future Americans.
Now what can you do to combat this bias? There are three crucial things everyday Americans can do to combat this: First, do your own research. Pick someone you like, not who Chris Chrisite likes, and do not believe everything pundits say about candidates. Take all their comments with a grain of salt. Doing your own research is very easy to do. The internet is nearly perfect for this: do a Google search, read from each candidate’s website, figure out for yourself whom you would like to see most in the Oval Office of the White House. This will take away part of the media’s hold on how you think and will enable you to make choices that you decided were correct. The second point builds on the first: use your own mind when deciding who to vote for in the primaries. It’s your vote. Make it count! Voting based on your beliefs will show the glory of the American system of government, how the power flows down from “we, the people,” who in our interest decide who our representatives are.
The third by this point will be natural because when you have your own opinions based on your weighing of the facts, you will be able to catch when pundits are trying the frontrunner game. When the pundits hold less power over you their power weakens, as it does with every other American out there who does the same. Over time they will be rebuffed and the media in its staggering loss of power will shift back to becoming a source for fact, not partisan bias. “Frontrunners” would be a word rarely seen during election cycles, and future Americans can be assured that the American dream lives on and is still going strong.
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