Politics and the Media
It should be troubling to all San Franciscans that a person who has expressed no interest in running for the District 6 seat on the Board of Supervisors, who has lived in Washington D.C. for over ten years (and does so presently), and eventually had to affirmatively state that she's not running for the seat, gets more attention about her non-candidacy than do residents of San Francisco who've actually expressed an interest in running. For example:
"Christina Pelosi Announces She Won't Run in District 6
by Casey Mills‚ Jan. 26‚ 2006
On January 18, Beyond Chron reported that Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christina was being encouraged by downtown to run for Supervisor against Chris Daly in District 6 this November. In their column yesterday, Mattier and Ross confirmed our account, and revealed that Pelosi had decided not to enter the race. The Mayor and downtown clearly remain dissatisfied with the current challengers to Daly, and are likely to continue search their candidate search."
In both the above indicated stories, none of the other potential candidates who actually filed their intent to run are mentioned. This phenomenon represents two of our society's growing ills, (1) the growing prevalence of nepotistic politics, which in California is eroding the progressive policy reforms made during the progressive era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and (2) the replacement of investigative journalists, and journalism as a profession, with "access reporting" and the stenographic discipline of "balanced news" in which the media (not to be confused with a journalist - but more akin to a blogger) restate what other people have said in a "competing view" format, then presents the transaction as news. For instance, in our present corporate media, a Democrat could say "White is White," and a Republican can say, "Black is White" and the media then presents both views as deserving equal weight of consideration (this example is not my own, but I forgot where I got it, so I can’t site the source). I recommend to anyone interested in the fiasco that is our current media system, pick up a copy of Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney.
"Christina Pelosi Announces She Won't Run in District 6
by Casey Mills‚ Jan. 26‚ 2006
On January 18, Beyond Chron reported that Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christina was being encouraged by downtown to run for Supervisor against Chris Daly in District 6 this November. In their column yesterday, Mattier and Ross confirmed our account, and revealed that Pelosi had decided not to enter the race. The Mayor and downtown clearly remain dissatisfied with the current challengers to Daly, and are likely to continue search their candidate search."
In both the above indicated stories, none of the other potential candidates who actually filed their intent to run are mentioned. This phenomenon represents two of our society's growing ills, (1) the growing prevalence of nepotistic politics, which in California is eroding the progressive policy reforms made during the progressive era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and (2) the replacement of investigative journalists, and journalism as a profession, with "access reporting" and the stenographic discipline of "balanced news" in which the media (not to be confused with a journalist - but more akin to a blogger) restate what other people have said in a "competing view" format, then presents the transaction as news. For instance, in our present corporate media, a Democrat could say "White is White," and a Republican can say, "Black is White" and the media then presents both views as deserving equal weight of consideration (this example is not my own, but I forgot where I got it, so I can’t site the source). I recommend to anyone interested in the fiasco that is our current media system, pick up a copy of Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney.
posted by vicioustwist at 2:59 AM
1 Comments:
Just out of curiousity...
Did you write the authors of these articles and take exception to their comments or just let the slide like your opponent Jordanna Thigpen?
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