Let the Games Begin

In less than two months, the people of the United States of America will elect their 44th president.  As has been the case for some time now, the mainstream media have managed to turn what could be a remarkably democratic process into an absolute circus.  Unfortunately, that circus will play a major role in deciding who becomes our next commander-in-chief.

Despite the fact that mainstream media will only become more superficial, and even more self-forgiving in the next two months, there is some hope for decent journalism to arise like smoke from the flames of mainstream hell.  I'm sorry if that was overly poetic, my point is this blog will not be completely devoted to covering the idiocy, posturing and inanity of the mainstream media (although there will be plenty of that.)  This blog will also seek to illuminate the good pieces of election coverage, whether it be in the independent media (which is more often the case) or the rare piece of enlightening mainstream press (yes those do exist).

One might notice that this blog will be overly concerned with the coverage of the New York Times and the Talking Points Memo.  It is these two outlets that I will be monitoring most closely over the next two months.  This will be done essentially for comparison sake.  This will illuminate the pros and cons of mainstream media and independent media.

Finally, and most importantly, rather than making this a strict criticism of the media, I will try to offer advice on how this could be done better in the future.  I'm probably naive, but I believe that there is the possibility to bring the media back to the referee function the public so desperately needs, if we examine its shortcomings an aim to fix them.  I know corporate influence has a lot to do with this, and this can be very difficult to change, but I think it is still worth examining.