{"id":39537,"date":"2023-12-05T12:40:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T18:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=39537"},"modified":"2023-12-05T12:40:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T18:40:36","slug":"irrelevant-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2023\/12\/05\/irrelevant-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Irrelevant News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Rubin of WaPo<\/strong><\/em> is frustrated<\/a> with tomorrow’s news reporting and has an alternate proposal:<\/p>\n

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Now imagine if, as the mainstream media did when\u00a0the New York Times released a poll<\/a>\u00a0showing Biden trailing in five of six key battleground states (improbably showing Biden leading among 18- to 29-year-olds by only one point and trailing among 30- to 44-year-olds), the media blanketed the airwaves and splashed\u00a0these\u00a0<\/i>findings over the front pages for days on end. We would see headlines such as: \u201cBiden rebounds with young voters!\u201d and \u201cTrump lead collapses!\u201d<\/p>\n

Cable TV panels would explain how Trump\u2019s fascist references<\/a>, his\u00a0threats directed at judges<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u00a0were finally backfiring. We\u2019d hear that Bidenomics, far from being a political dud, was not only an economic winner but a political tour de force. Vice President Harris\u2019s \u201cFight for our Freedoms College Tour<\/a>\u201d in seven states had ignited enthusiasm among young people, more than proving her value to the ticket, pundits would explain.<\/p>\n

Then we would have a raft of \u201cRepublicans panic\u201d stories in which Republicans confessed they knew Trump was a disaster but had no way of offloading him. Republican donors would be quizzed about their reluctance to give money to someone \u201closing\u201d the race. Republicans would fret over the lack of a \u201cPlan B.\u201d Republican consultants would bemoan the failure of the \u201cage issue\u201d to damage Biden. Leaks from the Trump camp would explain that the candidate had gone into an emotional tailspin. (Maybe even stopped eating<\/a>?) And this would go on for\u00a0days and days<\/i>, coloring virtually all coverage of the campaign.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Or, in other words, Big Polling has a grip on the news? Emerson College <\/strong><\/em>or Siena College<\/strong><\/em> brays out a poll that shows discontent a year out on a Presidential election, before the incumbent has really begun messaging, and it’s treated seriously.<\/p>\n

One has to wonder how much money is influencing the direction of reporting. Polling, after all, is, to some extent, synthetic news, estimates of the inclinations of voters long before most have made up their minds. The news is the polling process; the results, not so interesting or important. But if the news organizations can sell it, then they fill their pages with it. It’s cheap news, because it’s delivered to their doors, rather than having to chase it down, and cheap punditry.<\/p>\n

But what if news organizations weren’t measured by dollars profit, but by accuracy and insight and trustworthiness? Would year-early polls still fill the pages?<\/p>\n

Or, as Rubin wishes, coverage of issues and positions?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Rubin of WaPo is frustrated with tomorrow’s news reporting and has an alternate proposal: Now imagine if, as the mainstream media did when\u00a0the New York Times released a poll\u00a0showing Biden trailing in five of six key battleground states (improbably showing Biden leading among 18- to 29-year-olds by only one \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39538,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39537\/revisions\/39538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}