With the clock winding down on one of the most the highly-anticipated elections in a century, it seems that citizens pulling metal levers or pushing small buttons in cramped voting booths today is simply a formality. After all, CNN Headline News has been posting the most current polling statistics, essentially calling the election, every few hours for the last month. There is a table of a multitude of different polls, each claiming George W. Bush will be our next President. In fact, since the media decided the election for us, there's no need for us even to vote, it seems. Yes, the reporters are simply making educated guesses, not actual decisions, but it would be na??ve to say those predictions don't affect the outcome.
In elections past, due to the time difference on both coasts, news organizations often called the winner of the election before polls on the west coast closed. In the era of the 24-hour news cycle, we are inundated with information about the public and private lives of candidates, the Electoral College, interest groups, and any other factor that could possibly affect the outcome of this election. If the candidates themselves are the foremost factor in deciding the election, the media cannot be far behind.
For the first time, the Internet is playing the election out, minute-by-minute, issue-by-issue, offering individuals all over the country the same information at the touch of a few keys. The abundance of websites devoted to every possible aspect of the election is astounding, and the effect of these websites is far-reaching.
For instance, in response to the expected high voter percentages for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and the subsequent negative affect on the Gore campaign, a group of Texas Democrats started a website with the intent to convince Nader supporters in swing states to "trade" votes with Gore supporters in Bush-secure states. The site, www.NaderTrader.org, received 625,197 by this past Saturday at midnight. There is no legal precedent to actually prohibit the site, although the repercussions are expected to be huge.
The NaderTrader website, however, solicits no advertisements to fund itself, nor does it promote itself. The website became popular simply through word-of-mouth and, more significantly, media coverage.
The media's influence stretches much farther than just advertising. When Vice President Al Gore said he invented the Internet over a year ago, neither he nor anyone else could have imagined that the simple statement would become one of the key issues of the election. Perhaps the reason Gore didn't anticipate the backlash is because, contrary to what we are constantly told by the media, Gore didn't say he invented the Internet. In fact, what he told Wolf Blitzer on March 9, 1999 was true: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Gore did, in fact, author legislation (the US High Performance Computing Act) that helped lead to the creation of the Internet as we now know it. While his statement may have been slightly exaggerated, Gore is a politician. Politicians make statements strategically. They do not lie, however, and shouldn't be treated as if they do.
Similarly, George W. Bush's personal struggle with alcohol and drugs became a public talking point when he announced his candidacy. It is common knowledge that Bush led a life probably not ideal for a future public figure until he turned 40 - there is an arrest record showing Bush apprehended for drunk driving from 24 years ago. Twenty-four years ago was 1974 - most of the students enrolled here were not even born in 1974. Yet the arrest is being treated as if it occurred yesterday, not two and a half decades ago. Hours after the Bush-driving-drunk story broke, political pundits began proclaiming the end of Bush's campaign.
Because of the extensive focus on character, it is rare that reporters actually delve into the issues on the candidate's platforms. Occasionally, notable news media will do a feature and compare the healthcare plans of the two major party candidates, or print a chart outlining the two different education plans. But the majority of the hours and words spent on this candidate have centered on how the two men look, speak, and present themselves.
It took less than 20 minutes after Jim Lehrer thanked the candidates and ended each of the three presidential debates for correspondents to appear outside the debate locations, offering commentary on who won the debate, what the long term affect of the candidates statements would be, and, most alarmingly, what the people thought. The media's horse race coverage is reducing the citizen's vote to a mere formality. Recently a cable news-station producer said that he found the phrase "we're calling the election..." extremely alarming in that it undermined the importance of citizens' vote.
Today, millions of people nationwide will walk into those small booths and pull levers, push buttons, and place their votes for president. As they do, newspapers, television and radio stations, and Internet sites will be monitoring their movements, offering explanations for our each and every action. For better or worse, in this information age, it's somewhat unavoidable.
Brooke Menschel is a junior majoring in American studies. She is currently studying in Washington DC.
