A Diamond in the Rough

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/19/is-mitt-romney-the-most-unpopular-presidential-nominee-ever.html

     Ah, journalism. It’s like mining for diamonds, really. More often than not, you spend inordinate amounts of time seeking gemstones and find nothing of value. Occasionally, you uncover little gems like this one.

     This “little” gem goes against everything the Liberal model of journalism stands for, and somehow embodies its spirit perfectly. It shows no party parallelism, and no obvious bias. It is direct, informative, and conversational—despite its extreme relative length, even the dense statistics do not seem daunting.

     The jist of the story is this: with statistical evidence “going back 36 years into newspaper clippings and gallup polling archives,” we have no substantial evidence to say that Romney does or doesn’t have a shot at the presidency. To say his task of securing a lead over Obama following any securing of the Republican nomination will be easy would be absurd. Possible? Perhaps. Likely? Not by the numbers. And there are plenty of numbers.

     While most American journalism is events-based, this is not the case for this article. Andrew Romano, the author of this fine piece of journalism, no doubt spent long hours researching the past 36 years of statistics. As such, it is comments-based, and focuses as political scientists like to focus—on trends and hard evidence.

So while most journalism is a “5 year olds’ soccer game,” there seems to be a braniac on the bench working strategy.

Andrew Romano as American Journalism's Aladdin: a true "Diamond in the Rough."

We Who Are About to Write, Salute You

     While students all over Florida were encouraged to live blog about the Florida primary, the media had different pursuits.

     Sure, there were gallant efforts by the politically-focused press, but the king of this week’s news is not crowned among the realms of democracy. No, almost a week before the actual event, the media is live blogging about the Super Bowl. On a site that boasts, "Where your daily sports conversation begins... and never ends." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/super-bowl-2012-media-day-live-blog-eli-manning-and-the-new-york-giants/2012/01/31/gIQASam7eQ_blog.html)  

     Now, there is no political consequence to this— so much is true. In fact, it is clear that the American publics are more interested in gladiatorial combat than Greek theater. As I have drawn parallelisms between Rome and America before and now, I probably will again. We are plagued by many of the same problems. Human nature has barely changed over thousands of years, and we still prefer sex and violence over more cultured or intellectual pursuits.

Pollice Vero, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872

     But that is just it.

     The commercial media and events-based journalism are built not upon the adage, “If you build it, they will come,” as the comment-based presses of many other countries are. No, it is built on supply and demand. The news is a product to be sold—not a scrutiny to evoke thought. As long as our Cerberus is appeased with bread (see: the story of Psyche in Greek mythology), he will silently allow issues to pass under his watchful eye, silenced.

     So too is our press. So long as the watchdog is given ratings and advertising income, he is placated. But while that is a problem rooted in the nature and history of our press, the solution lies in us.

     We define the demand. We can break the cycle.