Horse Race Coverage/Media Bias

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/15/tea.party/index.html

The main focus of this story was on the Tea Party's nominations for positions, and its list of targeted lawmakers for the upcoming mid-term elections. The article is clearly biased towards the Tea Party because all the quotes in it are from Tea Party members, most of the mentions were of Tea Party candidates and the other candidates mentioned were mentioned because they were targets of the Tea Party. While I think the bias in this article was structural, the article definitely falls into the category of horse race coverage rather than issue coverage. The entire story focused on the Tea Party's "targets" and efforts to win or "defeat" certain candidates while focusing on very little substantial about the Tea Party candidates. If anything I think that this article was biased against the Tea Party, because while they are mentioned far more often, it reduces their message to one of mere election politicking rather than focusing on the issues they care about.

Framing and Agenda Setting

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4151380/a-rare-case-of-bipartisanship?playlist_id=86925

This video discusses a bipartisan plan to cut taxes, but it draws on some preexisting frames, such as seeing the two parties as enemies. The congressmen make reference to the fact that we are used to seeing Democrats and Republicans at each others throats, however in this particular circumstance they are working together. Creating this dichotomy allows them to compare the frames we have in our heads about Democrats facing off against Republicans to what the congressmen are doing now: working together. This makes them look good, because they're working together as opposed to being enemies. Also it could be said the video contains some agenda setting, because it centers around tax breaks, and it also stresses bipartisanship.

Cynicism

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-24-2008/local-campaign-ads

This is an obvious lead to cynicism for the general public. The way than John Stewart makes fun of these campaign videos makes people look at these candidates like idiots.

- Tom Corcoran

Media bias

http://www.arecentstudy.com/images/media-bias.jpg


This political cartoon shows that people believe that there is a large amount of political bias in certain outlets like the New York Times. This cartoon displays the screens that define bias to this person, and most of the public.
-Tom Corcoran

John McCain's "Cynicism" Express

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8LfDBYKmN4

This was an issue brought up from the show Morning Joe on MSNBC. I felt that this was a great example of the great cynicism brought on by the McCain camp. The balanced group is seeking answers during the Republican National Convention. Where I think they make a great point is when they question McCain's judgement in picking Sarah Palin as his Vice President after only meeting her ONE time for fifteen minutes. For all the the criticism Barack Obama and the democrats got for being unprepared for the presidency, it's extremely off-putting that the republican's choice for Vice President would be a very risky choice in the unknown Sarah Palin. I feel that it was their cynicism that led to this choice. They never admitted that they probably picked Mrs. Palin to win the women votes, mostly democratic and middle-age voters who are unsure about Barack Obama. Palin's ability was not the question, the democrats had a black nominee and the republicans had to match their buzz by picking someone that no one expected. This is why I believe John McCain was a bit politically cynical as we described in class.

Dave Henney

Image vs. Issue ads

Above is a link for a website that features several ridiculous political ads. The first one which is the one I’m focusing on is for the senate race in California. It is in support of Carly Fiorina a republican candidate for the senate. She portrays the image of her opponent Tom Campbell as a wolf in sheep’s clothing literally. She actually uses wolf dressed as a sheep to show him as a liar and a terrible person also there is ominous music playing in the back round and glowing eyes on the sheep Campbell is supposed to represent. Yet there are also a lot of issues that are brought up and many of them have his voting record on issues and the bills that he has proposed. This commercial while ridiculous and is a clear attack ad against Campbell is able to bring up issues on Campbell’s record though there is few information on her. The question I am trying to raise is the new type of hybrid political ad than incorporates many aspects of traditional ads like attack, issue, and image? Also is this going to be a growing trend for candidates to use to convey their message and their opponents’ failures?

political ad campaigni nvestment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkb5CAQC4IM

My main concern is that so much money is being put into these campaigns when so much money is needed elsewhere. Numerous political supporters are ready to drop the dollars to help fund expensive campaigns but then complain about giving the actual government money to take care of the country. What does it say to me (the voter) when my candidate (and the opposition) is ready to spend that much money on a short clip for TV instead of forwarding those fund to public school or hospitals?

by Maria João Reis