![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acroyearIn an editorial in the 'Post about the media's seizing on "Moral Values" as being the most important voting criteria of this election, Dick Meyer of CBS News writes, "It's a neat theory -- but wrong. How it came to be regarded as the real story of Bush's victory is a fascinating and sobering example of journalism's quest for freshness and surprise."
He goes on to describe that the biggest problem with how the question regarding moral values was phrased was that it immediately implied that one issue alone was responsible for someone's vote. Television commentators were understandably struck by the results of the question asked of almost 7,000 voters as they left their polling places: "Which one issue mattered most in deciding how you voted for president?" In this it perpetuated the mythos of "single-issue voters" (of which there are as I've learned far fewer than the media implies, thank you Capi & Rob). It also required those who weren't single-issue to decide which of the ones on the list was the most important, thus having to think single-issue. Thus, as a question, it distorted the very results it was looking for.
And the trouble is that situations like this actually increase the importance of "Moral Values" issues far beyond what they really should be and give those who would want all of the US to follow *their* moral values the real "mandate" they need.
And, he writes of the CBS newsroom on election night, "it wasn't until about 4 a.m. that someone quite innocently asked, "What exactly are 'moral values'?"
He goes on to describe that the biggest problem with how the question regarding moral values was phrased was that it immediately implied that one issue alone was responsible for someone's vote. Television commentators were understandably struck by the results of the question asked of almost 7,000 voters as they left their polling places: "Which one issue mattered most in deciding how you voted for president?" In this it perpetuated the mythos of "single-issue voters" (of which there are as I've learned far fewer than the media implies, thank you Capi & Rob). It also required those who weren't single-issue to decide which of the ones on the list was the most important, thus having to think single-issue. Thus, as a question, it distorted the very results it was looking for.
And the trouble is that situations like this actually increase the importance of "Moral Values" issues far beyond what they really should be and give those who would want all of the US to follow *their* moral values the real "mandate" they need.
And, he writes of the CBS newsroom on election night, "it wasn't until about 4 a.m. that someone quite innocently asked, "What exactly are 'moral values'?"
