Heinrich Wefing has an article in today’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung entitled "The Disunited States" (Die unvereinigten Staaten) where he asks if the big media in the US missed the boat on understanding the "moral values" issue that drove voters in the red states to come out and vote in record numbers. He notes that the major newspapers on the west and east coasts endorsed John Kerry, and brings up the charge – leveled by conservatives – that the media has a liberal bias.
Ungezählte Autoren haben in den
vergangenen Jahren die These vom „bias”, von der Einäugigkeit der
Journaille, auflagenträchtig herausgebrüllt und damit die Wähler der
Republikaner aufgepeitscht; der Begriff liberal media ist in bestimmten
Kreisen längst zu einem Schimpfwort geworden. Ironischerweise speist
sich dieser Haß auf den vermeintlich linken mainstream in den
amerikanischen Medien aus demselben Glauben wie der pompöse Ernst, mit
dem manche Presseorgane ihre Wahlempfehlungen abgeben: aus der
Überzeugung, ihr Wort zähle; ihr Ratschlag könne in hart umkämpften
Entscheidungen den Ausschlag geben.
I do agree with Wefing that journalists and reporters from New York, DC, or LA have tended to ignore what is going on the center of the nation, and therefore by and large missed the big story of the 2004 election. When they did venture forth into Nebraska or Kansas the reports had an exotic or condescending tone.
Mitunter mag vielleicht einmal irgendein
anspruchsvolleres Magazin einen Reporter in die Weiten Nebraskas oder
North Dakotas oder in die wohlhabenden suburbs von Los Angeles oder
Miami entsenden. Aber die Geschichten, die diese Journalisten von ihren
Exkursionen in das innere Amerika nach Hause senden, haben meist den
Beiklang von ethnologischen Berichten, die amüsiert die wunderlichen
Gebräuche fremder Völkerschaften beschreiben. Was in den Kirchen und
Gemeindehäusern, auf den Spielplätzen und an den Theken der
amerikanischen Provinz verhandelt wird, das jedenfalls läßt sich den
Expeditionstagebüchern nur selten entnehmen.
To be sure, there are any number of blogs analyze and criticize the mainstream media for liberal tendencies. The entire premise behind the bilingual blog Medienkritik is that the German and US press is so hopelessly blinded by leftist ideology that it can never report the truth. Unfortunately, Medienkritik all too often relies on questionable news sources such as the Moon-owned Washington Times for its own reporting.
But there may be another issue that Wefing misses when he talks about the alienation of red state voters from the establishment media. Supporters of President Bush tend not to read ANY newspapers – just like the president himself. They simply are not interested in examining the issues and as a consequence are alarmingly ignorant about many things. A recent study by the Program for International Policy Attitudes found that a majority of Bush supporters had misconceptions about the administration’s positions on many issues, or lacked any knowledge of facts about the war on terror or the invasion of Iraq. For example, a majority believed that Iraq had stockpiles of WMDs even though this was not the case, and the international press has reported on this frequently.
"Bush supporters also have numerous
misperceptions about Bush’s international policy
positions. Majorities incorrectly assume that
Bush supports multilateral approaches to various
international issues–the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty (69%), the treaty banning land mines (72%)–and
for addressing the problem of global warming:
51% incorrectly assume he favors US participation
in the Kyoto treaty. After he denounced the International
Criminal Court in the debates, the perception
that he favored it dropped from 66%, but still
53% continue to believe that he favors it. An
overwhelming 74% incorrectly assumes that he favors
including labor and environmental standards in
trade agreements. In all these cases, majorities
of Bush supporters favor the positions they impute
to Bush. Kerry supporters are much more accurate
in their perceptions of his positions on these
issues."
I suspect that even if these supporters were aware of the facts if would have little impact on their support for the president. Just as President Bush believes he is carrying out a divine plan to bring "freedom" to the world, his supporters have a blind faith in his presidency.
