“Public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the Journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of the events and issues.”
Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics
The reporting on last evening’s Republican presidential debate in Houston by both the broadcast and print media has been, at best, disappointing and, at worst, nothing more than a feeble exercise in entertainment sensationalism!
Rather than reporting on the substantive remarks, visions and plans of the candidates on the real issues facing America and their practical impact on American citizens, their coverage focused on the tantrums and juvenile antics of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. While one would expect to watch such “cat fights” on Maury Povich or Oprah, it is an irresponsible for the self-proclaimed news media to call such broadcasting fair and balanced coverage.
Were Trump, Cruz and Rubio the only three in the race and if they were not competing for our nation’s highest office, such coverage might be excusable … as Trump has yet to articulate any “rationally” achievable or detailed programs to “Make American Great again”, Cruz continues to run so far to the conservative right, particularly on social issues, that he is well out of the political mainstream of vast segments of the American public and Rubio’s comments that where, as president, he’d opt for [his] god’s law over US law suggests he’d be comfortable with an American caliphate.
If one had missed watching the debate, they would hardly know both John Kasich and Ben Carson were still in the race. And, perhaps the wall-to-wall coverage of the three leaders in the polls, to the near exclusion of all others, is one possible reason Carson and Kasich are not polling better.
While Carson continues to speak in generalities and often demonstrates a lack of depth on many major subjects, John Kasich, an experienced and successful Congressman and Governor, continues to demonstrate his grasp of the issues, has articulated well-thought out and often proven solutions and expresses them without shouting at or denigrating his opponents. Further, unlike most of the candidates in both parties, the statistics he cites are almost always validated by FactCheck and Snoops.
The American public should expect that the mainstream media spend the bulk of its air time and ink on responsible and truly balanced reporting and leave the emotional outbursts of presidential wannabees to the daytime talk shows and opinions on the campaigns Sunday morning talking heads!
