Like many political junkies, I try to get my information from many sources, and unfortunately that sometimes leads me to some left leaning site such as Politico. The folks over a Politico have a clear liberal bias, and they have a hatred for Rick Perry that is probably only matched by the Democrats and maybe former George W. Bush people; who have since become members of the right leaning establishment media; such as Karl Rove. Their most effective tool they have is when they use unnamed sources in their stories, and then another news sources cites their article when doing a story; with the second most effective method being when they utilize the innuendo.
Despite the fact that many people boast that the media, ads, or commercials do not affect the outcome of their vote, it is clear that these things do have an effect on voter attitudes. Members of the media will send a reporter to a Rick Perry rally, and when it is done, they will ask a few attendees for a quick interview. I’ve given two of them this year, and my girlfriend has done one, which happened the first time she ever went to a campaign rally. A young journalist will interview six to ten people; this is what happened at the rallies I attended. When they later write about the said rally, they will say will use the quote form an attendee that either said something negative about the candidate, or expressed some kind of doubt about voting for the candidate; what they often not do is say they interviewed four to nine other attendees that expressed complete devotion towards election Rick Perry president. This likely happens to other candidates too, but because I have never personally seen this happen, I will stick to what I know.
The interviewer that I talked to even went as far as to try to insinuate what my reaction to Perry speech would be, saying “well after you have seen Perry in person, you are thinking of supporting another candidate “right;” when I explained that I was not thinking that at all, that interviewer gave me this shocked look, asked a few quick follow up questions, and then asked another attendee the same thing. Now the next person, after hearing our interview could be feeling pressure not to get the same reaction as I did from the interviewer, so they answer the question like this “he did not change my vote,” or ”he did not persuade me to vote for him.”
I am not saying this is what happens all the time, or that every person that has ever expressed concern about Perry to a reporter at a campaign rally is doing so under pressure from that said reporter, I am just claiming I’ve seen this technique used before. Being that I am still a student and I am not really equipped with the intricate of journalistic ethics or the standards principles of using names of reporters in my post, I will leave their name out of this. All I can say is you have to trust my word, and I am not sure I would trust another’s word, but for now that is as far as I am willing to go; you know defamation suits and all.
What happens is that if enough people read that Perry is not picking up new voters at his rally, they may come think that even though they would like Perry to be the nominee, they do not want to see their vote wasted. How many people do you know who at one time supported Perry but have given up on him because they no longer feel he can win? This happens, and after enough articles come out that release negative stuff about a candidate, then the outcome is going to be lower poll numbers. Once again, this alone doe snot explain Perry’s numbers, but when we have a candidate that has a record that is clearly superior to the others, one has to wonder if the media does not completely control the narrative.
It seems to me that there is something called Journalistic responsibility, and the truth should be the goal, not just a tool to be used when you are supporting the president. Does anybody really think the media has treated Rick Perry’s record the same as Mitt Romney’s, or that the old guard has not pushed certain candidates when they needed the conservative vote split. Do you think if Fox News talked about Romney’s past statements or flip flop as much as they do his supposed steadiness, that he would be anywhere near the top of the polls. I find it hard to believe Romney would be doing that well if he got the same treatments as Newt, Perry, and likely soon to be Santorum if he shows he can win a state. I’ve heard enough desultory remarks about Perry to understand that he is not liked by the media very much, and this comes from both right and left leaning news sources.
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