Responsible Reporting
October 27th, 2008 by jay
As someone who isn’t very excited about BOTH candidates, I gotta say I LOVE watching this clip because I’m so sick of the interviews that fail to ask the hard questions. Even more so I’m getting tired of the reaction by Obama supporters when difficult questions are asked. Two examples where reporters are doing their job, and it’s worth noting I think this should happen on BOTH sides as we are talking about electing someone for a very important position here folks.
Here are some more examples by local WFTV anchor Barbara West who grills both McCain and Biden.
I don’t fault Biden or Obama for getting a little perturbed. It was obvious in that those interviews- the questions were either loaded questions or Barbara West has no idea what socialism really is. If we go by their definition of socialism, then we are already a socialist nation. We have a progressive tax system that redistributes wealth. Socialism encompasses national takeover of industries. The republicans have already caused the greatest move towards socialism in the history of the US with the $700 billion bail-out. The “redistribution of wealth” interview from 2001 was when Obama was a Law professor at the University of Chicago (one of the most conservative universities in the nation) and he was simple commenting on historical data. He wasn’t implying any personal view in the interview. When news stations resort to sound-bite journalism, it’s possible to make anyone look like anyone. Fox News and the Drudge Report are bastions for this yellow journalism and it’s quite unsettling that so many people would make a decision based on this type of stuff.
You make some good points. My point really was that it appeared to me that McCain/Palin seemed to get drilled in any interviews (whether it was a serious network anchor or entertainer- Letterman/The View) and Obama/Biden just appeared to get fawned over. There were some exceptions (ABC’s Stephanopoulos) but not many. With West’s interview I agree there were definitely loaded questions but I was at least happy to see someone ask a tough question to them.
Doesn’t matter now anyway. Time to unite under President Obama!