This past week U.S. Senator Barack Obama officially accepted his party's nomination for president, becoming the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for the highest-ranking office in the country.
The next day, Republican presidential nominee John McCain tried to steal some of Obama's historical thunder by announcing his choice for Vice President, that of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Although McCain was praised for choosing a woman to serve as his running mate (a first for the Republican party), his decision came as a complete shock to American citizens as well as political pundits.
Many journalists see this critical decision by McCain simply as a reaction to Obama's VP pick. Obama came under attack by Democrats earlier in the week for not choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate, a move that angered many Hillary supporters. McCain saw this as an open window to try to win women voters with his VP selection, especially those 18 million people who supported Hillary in the democratic primaries.
The news came to the delight of many college students, who immediately did internet searches on the identity of the Republican vice-presidential nominee. With so many sites to choose from, young avid news consumers are finding themselves skipping over traditional news organizations and opting to get their news from amateur sources. One such example I found was on Facebook, an online social networking site.
The Facebook group Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton gives a brief description of who Sarah Palin is and what her positions on critical issues are. Although the main purpose of the group is to debunk McCain's assumption that having Palin on the ticket will help him secure most of Hillary's supporters, it also provides journalistic information on who Palin is. The group, which was created after McCain's announcement, has over 4,000 members now.
There is a clear distinction in the coverage of Sarah Palin by members of the mass media and amateur bloggers. Traditional journalists seem to be giving McCain the benefit of the doubt for his VP choice. For example, political analysts on CNN give credit to the McCain campaign for their efforts in expanding their party base with the selection of Palin. Also, it seems as though the mainstream media has been slow in scrutinizing the Alaskan governor's past, focusing more on what she has done in her current political role. However, online citizen journalists, like the creator of the Palin Facebook group, are being more critical of the pick, attacking the governor's lack of experience in the national spotlight.
On the HufflingtonPost, there have been a number of articles about Palin and her political inexperinece, primarily highlighting her brief career as a former beauty queen and sports newscaster.
These examples prove that although the lines of journalism amongst professional and amateur journalists are being erased, there is still a higher standard that traditional journalists hold to their profession. Amateur journalists on the other hand appear to have an inkling to covering personal flaws and inadequacies of politicians, like Governor Pailin, rather than focus on their political record.
By romoknowsbest.myopenid.com
June 17, 2009 11:15 PM
I think Palin did everything right. The problem is when the general public see's an attractive women in an authority position they can't take it. Couple that with her daughters pregnancy and it was a recipe for disaster.
Daniel, bad credit loans specialist & CEO.