As I was heading to bed last night, I turned on CNN for just a minute, to see if the final results from Indiana were in. I tuned in just in time to watch Wolf Blitzer scolding the mayor of Gary, Indiana. "Why is this taking so long?" he demanded. He acknowledged that there had been an unprecedented number of absentee ballots, "but why couldn't you have posted partial results?"
I want to clue you in on something, Wolf. This is the electoral process we're talking about here -- perhaps the most important institution in our country. We're not going to undermine its integrity by speeding through the vote-counting so you can get your talking heads on the air.
Our "news" media have turned this election into one giant circus, full of gaffes, gotchas, and manufactured controversies. They have long since abandoned discussion of the issues in favor of attacks on the candidates. I realized something as I watched Blitzer hounding a public official to get all the votes counted so he could have his drama: our media used to be responsible for reporting the news. During this election, they have devoted their energies to trying to create news -- they have searched for that perfect "gotcha" moment, and replayed it over and over until the next one happened. Our media is no longer helping to inform the American public; instead, they are filling our airwaves with vapid political sniping.
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