OK, Blame Us

I've come around to embrace the thinking both sides in this election actually share in common: the media has much to reflect on in the coverage of the most competitive election in generations.

My colleague Eric Mansfield takes McCain/Palin to task in his latest blog, upset that Palin's "visit" to Canton (note to Eric: she was there, so I think the use of quotes for visit is a bit overblown...she either visited Canton or she didn't) manipulated the media because the newspapers and TV stations showed her welcome by the mother of slain Pvt. Heath Warner.

Gee, I'm having a tough time remembering the outrage when Cindy Sheehan was still bankable and welcome by Bush critics...

Now I think Eric does a nice job of pointing out the absurdities of the process (especially when it's aimed at Republicans -- Eric does wear his stripes openly) but it strikes me the media rushed to Akron-Canton Airport so they could grab a couple seconds of lady-steps-off-the-plane video and photos to perpetuate and encourage the very manipulation Eric laments. It's a wonderful case of crying for help or we'll do it again!

Folks, if the cameras weren't there to chronicle the photo ops the candidates might actually have to refocus their campaigns on stuff that matters. Maybe it would help if we exercised a tad bit more editorial judgment when deciding what we present as news?

Is Palin's scripted appearance at CAK, with the mother of a slain warrior to welcome her, much different than the staged appearance of Obama pressing the flesh with troops during his most excellent trip overseas? How about that shooting-hoops-in-Baghdad, how'd that work for you?

Instead of holding the oversight we expected from a Democrat-in-control Congress since 2006 we've been graced by photo op, conference call and scripted outrage again and again and again. Let's be brutally honest: instead of the visionary leadership slightly more than half of the nation figured they would get out of the Bush White House we've been treated to the same story from 1600 Pennsylvania. None of this should be surprising; anyone who's ever covered or participated in politics at those levels knows the dirty secret is there really are few real differences between most of the Brahmin's of the ruling class, regardless of political label. The only difference in the election is the way the ad agencies posing as political consultants market the message.

This is what passes for news because the political class has figured out what media consultants figured out after the Nixon-Kennedy race eight presidents ago: packaged properly we'll treat the candidates and the issues exactly the same as we do our other consumer goods. Most Americans, I am convinced, already recognize this basic truth which is why we are following the race in much the same fashion as we watch Derby Week at Churchill Downs. The only difference is mint juleps aren't in season.

The local media will flock to Joe Biden's appearance in Wooster Wednesday; maybe they'll also hang on every word in Canton, Akron and Youngstown, too by the time the Delaware Senator heads off to his next stage mark. My friend Eric already tells me he has an "interview" with Joe; fact is he and the other local TV types will stand in line, get three or four minutes, get the predictable sound byte and dual shot to warrant an "exclusive one-on-one." That's not manipulation? That's what passes for an interview?

Last Sunday Karl Rove noted on Fox News Sunday that both sides were overwrought in their outrage and commercials, but watching the spin from the Obama side the day after missed the point: Rove correctly painted both with the same brush. Today there's a flap that McCain supporter Carly Fiorina (who ran Hewlett Packard as a CEO until dumped in an ugly corporate brawl) openly admitted that she didn't think either Palin or McCain -- OR Obama or Biden -- could run a major corporation. The McCain camp goes ballistic, the Obama camp makes hay of it without noting the full quote, and damn few in the media actually hold both sides to the absurdity of their limited and edited positions. Here's the fact: none of the candidates has ever run a major corporation. None of 'em. How can they charge what Fiorina said favors either side?

It is not surprising to see how politics has sunk to such levels, because we're more interested in portraying spin as substance, a substitute for real and challenging reporting. Regardless of which unlucky soul actually wins this race we've set the standard we complain about as if we can't change it. P.J. O'Rourke had it right when he described Washington and our political system as a Parliament of Whores.

This week we've let empty name calling masquerading as political debate sweep aside coverage of losing entire communities zapped by Hurricane Ike -- what our fellow citizens are dealing with in Texas and Arizona stretched to the point where we felt it a thousand miles away, entire neighborhoods wiped off the coast, thousands still in shelters in Ike's aftermath and all the way up here to the Ohio Valley millions without power. This week we've seen financial giants fall only to have the pieces picked up at bargain rates by other giants, an economy showing the power of greed, and both candidates saying pretty much the same thing about how to fix a system both had a hand in perpetuating for political financial gain.

Yet again this week the Hillary-Mac-Sarah-Obama-Joe machine schedules more drive-by campaigning in northeast Ohio without a single, substantive Q&A with voters. Our reporting and that of the rest of important Ohio centers not on questioning the fundamentals of just how ugly capitalism can be, what kind of policies we need to bailout roll-the-dice corporate managers and boards or even what we should do to bail out people who won't heed warnings to leave ahead of a killer storm. Instead we want another chance to repeat the applause line, accomplices in a conspiracy of shallow.

Here's a thought: put the candidates in a room with a classroom full of high school seniors and have 'em answer questions -- ANY questions -- for 45 minutes. Sit in the same room with all the TV types lined up for those "exclusive one on ones" and engage in a real dialogue, with the first to launch spin banished to a corner until they actually provide an answer to the question on what they would do as opposed to what they say their opponent supposedly stands for.

Demand boring discussion and debate. Ask Hillary why Bill didn't try to change the anything-goes economic culture; ask Joe and John why they didn't work harder on the structure in their decades on Capitol Hill, ask Barack and Sarah how they will protect the economy from the quarterly-performance demanding pension funds that use our own money to treat the rest of us as pawns.

That's the job we in the media should do: keep the candidates on target to answer deep questions about the issues of the day, and not let up until they actually give an answer. As long as we settle for the easy surface story and photo op coverage it will be business as usual. Apply the BS test: if the answer sounds like bull, get a real answer or call it bull. Make them explain themselves.

Give the politicians credit: they do learn their lessons.