Spectral Observations

Where We Were…

It was the election in November of the year 2000 when delegates George W. Bush and Al Gore squared off for their shot at political peak, the chance to reign as the President of the United States of America. A lot of commotion was stirred up during this election. In Arizona, many of us were steamed that Bush had used incredibly low and cheap tactics to oust Senator John McCain’s chances of winning the Republican primary. Though Bush had much stronger funding, McCain won the first state to vote on the primaries (New Hampshire if I recall correctly) and began to pick up more followers. McCain had transformed from a dark horse to a contender. However, sensing a strong upheaval from the McCain group, the Bush campaign decided to cheat. They relied on spreading a viral infection of misleading information to help Bush win the hearts of the hardcore conservatives. Lies were spread that McCain had unprotected sex with an African American and had a child outside of wedlock. Clearly, the conservative faithful (no pun intended!) could not vote for such a man. The truth of the matter was, McCain and his wife adopted the child.

            After winning the GOP ticket, President-to-be-Bush began using the biased media to help him with his victory over challenger and current Vice President Al Gore. This time, unlike with McCain, Bush would need to rely on the right wing bias to help him. After all, Gore would complete the election with 500,000 more popular votes than the former Texas governor. After bogus reports, commercials, and a Supreme Court ruling, George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd president of the United States.

I remember being formally instructed about bias in the media; how at this particular time, it was skewed to the right on the political spectrum. It’s not like the media bias wasn’t something on my mind before learning about it in class; however, I used to have a hard time believing that it had an actual impact. “How many people could possibly think that’s true?” Such statements seemed to come to my mind if I detected some evident bias, or flat out incorrect information after I would watch something on T.V. or read an article online Fact of the matter is, at this particular time in the year 2000, the right wing bias, along with an eventual decision from the Supreme Court, helped Bush begin his reign of terror (again, no pun intended!) for two terms. Don’t even get me started on the race against Kerry in 04!

Where We’re At…

Thankfully, dark eventually must turn to light. Thank goodness for the good ol’ 22nd amendment. In 2008 we had two candidates who didn’t have the last name “Bush” running for presidency. This time, the bias in the media would play a much different role to the one we were used to seeing in the previous two elections. Putting on the cloak of Socialism and provoking the laziness that supposedly lost the previous two elections, the liberal left launched an attack on McCain that he would not be able to recover from. Focusing on nearly anything BUT the real issues at hand, the liberals found a way to dissect the McCain campaign, and things definitely got worse once Sarah Palin was announced as the running mate. Whether it was discussing her pregnant daughter, or her hacked email account, the discussion revolving around Palin was hardly relevant. Those of you who thought Bill Clinton should have burned at the stake for lying about his personal sex life should probably stop reading now. I am not trying to “reach” to that mind set so to speak. I’m trying to appeal to those who feel such things are most certainly irrelevant.

“Change”

This was the motto used by the Obama campaign to help invigorate the hopeful voters. Change was undoubtedly needed, in a big way. More than ever before, voter registration went through the ceiling and people began to think positively in this country. Harsh times were clearly upon us, but light was finally being seen at the end of the tunnel. Obama used his superior education to dominate the debates to the average spectator. No need to even discuss or dissect the vice president debates. Palin, with all due respect, it’s time to invest some time and money into your debating skills However, Obama found a way to appeal to the youth of America like I believe no other candidate has been able to do. Change. He found a way to relate, and to bring out more young voters than ever before. He claimed to come from virtually nothing, and captured the heart of America because of this mass appeal. Typical visits to any of my favorite political websites would come up with at least 10+ stories of biased information leading towards the notion of you absolutely must vote for Obama unless you want another 4 years like those of President Bush. The liberals did a good job of linking the previous, disastrous eight years with what would come if McCain was to be elected. Much like the Ipod phenomenon, the trend of Change and Obamaness spread through colleges like wildfire. Many of the Obama faithful would go so far as to attack the intelligence and well being of the few McCain supporters.

Unfortunately, taking a closer look at the facts (which require more than a Google or Wikipedia search, mind you!), this assumed linking of McCain to Bush is simply as far from the truth as Obama being a Muslim terrorist. Funny thing is, the limited negatives that surfaced about Obama were all quickly buried by this virtual bias storm the liberals had created. Internet blogging and social media sites played a crucial role in this election, arguably more so than ever before. Information (and I use that term very loosely) was easy to access for anyone who had a computer and the Internet. Many people would link to favorite articles (which were more often than not founded on opinions, not fact) and through the phenomenon of Internet networking, stories of the smallest or greatest magnitude would spread like wildfire within minutes. Thousands of hits could be generated from a simple opinion within an hour, sometimes even less. The strangest and most ironic thing about this social stratification was the idea that such people were helping the cause, effecting the Change. In reality and most cases, they were unknowingly spreading false information and plagued opinions filled with malice.

Through all this plethora of easy to access information, people began to forget about the importance of checking sources and fact checking. However, that can be tough to do when your favorite sites are using subliminal messaging to reach you. Throughout this election, even sites such as factcheck showed clear signs of bias. The election of 2008 was steamrolling with Obama being the overwhelming favorite. When the Redskins lost on Monday night football, it was all but certain Obama would win (just kidding, kind of. Kudos to sports enthusiasts who know what I’m referring to!).

Change. From the same groups fueled by dedication to correct, RELEVANT, and concise information was an incredible amount of just the opposite. Incorrect, irrelevant, and cluttered strands of articles and interviews were spread out with the intention of destroying the McCain campaign. Even by the time the McCain campaign recognized what was happening and tried to counter with equally cheap tricks, the snowball of the Obama following was too large, and simply crushed any efforts of countering. Many will argue these are the typical events that are insured during a political election year; It has been accepted as the nature of politics. Why is this? Why can’t we CHANGE that? Who wants to hear about personal problems in a candidate’s private life? Who really cares about bogus conspiracies and generalizations? Obviously not the Obama faithful, or they may have taken a closer look at his connections to his politcal fame. They would have researched how he obtained funding for college (pretty tough for a single mom to pay for that sort of schooling, even with some affirmative action helping you!). They would have been perplexed that Barack Hussein Obama was running for president, and not Barry Obama. Obama made race an issue in this election, and he played the card very well. I’m ecstatic that the ghosts of America are finally being put to rest. We have a black president, but I wish he could have accomplished that without some of the crutches he called upon to do so.

Where We’re Going…

For me, this election was choosing the lesser of two evils. Neither candidate had been able to captivate me or really fire me up. In fact, I thought both to be fairly inferior choices to other democratic primary nominees. That being said, it is getting really old reading all the “Yes We Did!” articles and updates to social networking sites. What exactly did YOU do? This may shock some of you, but higher voting turn out does NOT equate to a higher democratic favor like the media portrayed. Though there are a few scholars who have tried to show there is a direct relationship between Democratic support and high voter turnouts, it’s simply not true. Typically, most of the data used and collected for this generalization is gathered from congressional districts. This means that studies relating to electoral districts are fairly non-existent.

What are the odds on cleaning up the media and news titans? For the great “change” coming with our newly elected president, I think many citizens are forgetting that simply going out and voting isn’t going to change a damn thing. It’s going to take work on the individual level. Stop harping about calling people in the battleground states, going door to door, and putting in volunteer time to help elect your favorite candidate. It doesn’t mean anything; it hasn’t contributed to the change that Obama represents. The real work begins now. Whether or not you voted for McCain or Obama, it is time to recognize there is a severe problem with news information and bias in our media. We can combat it on an individual level by dedicating ourselves to research and trying our best to let the topics be the topics, and letting everything else that’s not a topic not weigh in as much as it has. Obviously, opinions (and particularly political ones) are essential for positive growth and feedback. However, opinions need to be stated as such, and not skewed to look like factual information.

I for one am tired of letting the media decide who will run the country. Let’s take it back, and let’s do it now on the turn of a new page in America. Let us support our newly elected officials, and work together for a better America. Like Senator McCain said when he conceded, “above all else, I am an American”. Let’s make Change that really matters and improves the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for everyone.

**special thank you to Jennifer Wermes, Instructor of English for helping with some extreme editing so you can all read this without having your eyes bleed **