Heath's Random Thoughts

McCain on Letterman: One Sided Attack?

I can't say that I saw John McCain's appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, but I read an article through Yahoo! News about it this morning. So take the rest of this with a grain of salt because I am basing my take on this through a second hand account, but I think this is a good example of why we, as voters, need to be aware of media biases. The article describes how Letterman hammers on McCain regarding comments he has made during his campaign and repeatedly questions Sarah Palin's qualifications to be running a country. Now, to be clear, I have absolutely no problem with interviewers asking these types of tough questions of our potential candidates, but I do question whether this same sort of questioning would have occurred with Sen. Obama. David Letterman reaches nearly 4 million viewers a night and in some ways has a responsibility to keep things even handed between the candidates. Just like anyone, he has his own preference for a candidate, but I still think he and other media outlets need to understand the responsibility they hold to remain somewhat unbiased. Especially, when the media plays such and influential role in how we view each of these candidates.

I thought most of the questions he asked McCain were fair, but the level to which he seemed to have hounded Sen. McCain seemed out of balance with other interviews he has done in the past. And I wonder if it was coincidental that he had Keith Oberman, one of the biggest critics of the G.O.P and John McCain on the set that night too. If this was more done for entertainment, which is what the Letterman show is really for, then great and I still think individuals need to take responsibility and make sure they do their own digging on the candidates rather than taking the word of a David Letterman, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Oberman, etc. Personally, I am a big fan of the Daily Show and Cobert Report, but I also understand that these are satirical shows and at the end of the day I need to do my own research and decide for myself. Just some food for thought.

Labels: elections, entertainment, politics

posted by Heath @ 10:18 AM