Media sensationalizes election

In two weeks, American voters will cast their ballots for the United States President who will lead the nation into the next century. Voters will want to choose the candidate who will make decisions that will have a positive effect on their lives. They will turn to the media for information on the candidate who will best suit their needs. And the media will not deliver.

In these final weeks before America chooses its president, the news media is focusing not on the issues that will affect American voters, but on the personalities of the candidates who are vying to control these issues.

On Oct. 11, both the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal featured front-page articles speculating on why Bob Dole refused to attack Bill Clinton’s character in the Oct. 6 presidential debate. Neither newspaper ran front-page articles on other election issues such as welfare reform and taxes, even though these issues will certainly affect voters more than Bill Clinton’s alleged extramarital affairs or Bob Dole’s failed first marriage.

Character matters in an election. Voters should scrutinize a candidate’s personal views with the same intensity they grant his political views. After all, when America elects a president, it elects a human being whose human flaws will affect political behavior. However, there is also a time for the issues, and the media is lacking in this regard.

Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh was quoted in the Times article as saying that Dole’s avoidance of character issues in the debates was “a disaster.”

Later in the article, Everett C. Ladd, executive director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut, agreed, saying that character attacks are “a genuine issue… that I don’t think was handled well from a Republican standpoint.”

Since when is a debate based solely on issues that concern the American people “a disaster?” Since when are character attacks a more genuine issue than economic policy?

Perhaps the media believes that voters will lose interest in a campaign that is richer in social issues than in scandal. Perhaps they are afraid that, if they fail to report the details of each personal attack, they will lose their audience. However, research has proven this is not true.

Voters are growing tired of campaigns based on verbal blows. Dole’s debate ratings dropped when he personalized his attacks on Clinton.

By avoiding personal attacks, Dole gave the American public a clean debate that stated exactly where he stood on issues that will affect voters.

Unfortunately, this was not the debate the media wanted, and because of this, American voters may not receive information that will help them make an informed decision when it comes time to choose the leader of the nation.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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