Top Troubling Tropes of Campaign '08
The media-created narratives that derail election coverage
Not only do journalists organize the election story around the question--not terribly helpful to voters--of who's up and who's down, they largely base their evaluation of the race on shallow image-based narratives that the media construct themselves: Barack Obama is an "elitist" who might not "get the way we live" (Extra!, 7=8/08), while John McCain is a straight-talking "maverick" (Extra!, 5=6/08). Though these tropes are treated by establishment news ... Full Story »
Posted by Dwight Rousu
I did not click boxes on any of your questions ("Is it fair?", etc.), as there was little to indicate which end of the row was Yes Indeed and which end was Nohow, Contrariwise. Maybe the faint grey X is supposed to tell me?