So you think the media ran the election, not the voter? Think again. News organizations aren't quite as biased as Newt and Bob (Dole, in case you've forgotten already) would have you think.
Through the waning days of his campaign, Bob Dole pulled out a Republican tactic probably first used by James Polk during the 1844 elections. Rather than recognizing his own glaring shortcomings, Bob pulled out the ol' liberal-media-bias as a reason for Clinton's thundering lead.
Despite studies showing that most news journalists vote Democratic, these people are professionals. Even here at the FHS Arrow, I've seen hair pulled out over balancing the most basic story. I can testify that if we have an unbalanced story, it doesn't run. No exceptions (at least none that we know of).
If a high-school publication is that picky, you can imagine the perfection professional journalists strive for. But these pros strive for perfection because their publishers have some grander scheme in mind. And that scheme isn't control of the government. They want greenbacks.
If news was biased, the media would alienate its clientele, and wouldn't stay in business as long as most newspapers, networks and newsmagazines have.
Keep that in mind. A business offers choices of products, or faces bankruptcy. If Budget Bob refused to carry country music, he'd be out on the street in no time. Newspapers also have to tell their stories from every side. If they were biased, people would recognize that they weren't reading balanced news, and would stop paying money for that particular source of news.
There are isolated cases of bias, but they are due strictly to sloppy journalism. The basis of journalism is to tell people what happened: who, what, when, where, why and how. Reporters who stray from this don't last long. The Associated Press doesn't hire reporters who haven't been taught the basics. Neither does Burlington Northern hire untrained engineers, the City of Kalispell hire an unqualified City Manager or Flathead High hire uneducated teachers.
Doing so would be disastrous for an institution's reputation, and in a business's case, profits. Burlington Northern has hired an occasional inept engineer, but then again they shell out millions of dollars every year for derailments and idiot-caused accidents.
If the media influences elections, why is Newt still speaker?
If the media controls the nation, why is Trent Lott still majority leader?
If the media crucifies Republicans, how did that ignorant flat-earther Jesse Helms win reelection?
Sorry, but the only thing the media padded this year was their own pocketbooks. Call it business as usual.