Here is an interesting experiment in media priorities:
1. U.S. financial markets in turmoil, Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy and AIG needs a $85 billion loan to stay afloat. Merrill Lynch bought out by Bank of America. Dow down several hundred points, hurting Americans’ stock portfolios badly. Thousands of people will lose their jobs in financial restructuring of several major institutions.
2. “A terrorist attack that included a suicide car bombing, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades has killed at least 16 people at the U.S. Embassy compound in Yemen.” The attack was carried out by an Al Qaeda affiliate, and more attacks are threatened.
Now imagine if the bombing of an American embassy in the Middle East by terrorists led the news and the financial markets were the secondary story. Imagine if the candidates kept getting asked about the Global War on Terror, how it’s happening outside Iraq/Afghanistan, and how to keep Americans abroad safe. Imagine if Barack Obama released a two-minute TV ad talking about how he would deal with terrorism, and that confronting radical Jihadists was the crisis McCain’s ad discussed. All of that would start, it would seem, with people in the media asking the candidates about that rather than what they would do about the markets.
Do you think cable news room directors are making the right choice to talk financial markets 24/7? Have you seen sufficient coverage of the Yemeni attack? Do you feel the candidates have been adequately asked about how they would deal with such things as commander in chief? After 5 years in Iraq, have news rooms become insensitive to attacks on US installations, i.e. such occurrences are more ho-hum these days?
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So does this mean you believe our economy is tanking? Just asking, because I get the impression there are conservative people out there that think things have never been better…
Have US news rooms become insensitive to attacks on US installations? I don’t think so. Maybe we’ve all become a little desensitized. But almost every poll shows that the economy is the #1 issue on the public’s mind, so, maybe news rooms are just giving people what they want.
America has to be strong in the financial sector… or we won’t have a tax base for a strong military to defend ourselves from outside threats. The greatest danger to this country is ourselves.
I was working so couldn’t judge the difference in the TV coverage, but people at work were talking a lot more about the financial stuff than the Yemen attack. My dad’s ex-Navy so I heard all about that, plus a review of the Cole attack.
I’d like to see both candidates asked a whole lot of things, and terrorism outside Iraq is top of my list.
Agreed with SPET3R.
If the media were talking economy after, say, a suicide bombing attack within our national borders, then Daniel would be right. But a suicide bombing on an embassy in the Arabian Peninsula vs. the continuing accelerated collapse of the American economy?
Sorry, but the economy is a more pressing issue for the American populace at the moment than another (surprise, surprise) suicide bombing in the Middle East.
But I understand your frustration that your candidate is tanking on the issue that currently matters most to Americans.