What is Too Far?

With the ever increasing advancements in technology, national campaigns are evolving into an all access affair, not necessarily a source of basic information. When TV ads were first used in the 1950s, the nation was reveling in this new advancement with a sense of awe because at this point it was simply another medium through which the candidate could reach out to the public. However, with the continued advancements of such mediums as TV and the introduction of the internet, the ethics of political journalism are quickly becoming muddied. This is especially true among the last few weeks of the current campaign, when the question what is too far has been arising more and more.

For example, should Hillary Clinton be open to comments about her husband’s extra marital affairs, or further, should her daughter be forced to deal with these issues simply because the media feels like it is their duty to report these “news events” to the public? Unfortunately, the way our current media environment is set up the only real concern is who makes money and what sells. This desire of the media to be economically successful drives their decisions to find stories that will grab the attention of the public and sell more newspapers, and these sadly tend to be the juicy personal stories, not public policy speeches.

While this gatekeeping function of the media tends to leave people with less hard news and more editorial type reports, it also has greater implications for the voters of America. Too often voters become cynical and annoyed with the whole election process, which in turns, leads to voter apathy. This is extremely obvious right now and the current media situation surrounding the campaign. It is fair to say that political journalists feel that they have run out of newsworthy stories to publish, so they are simply creating some. The stories that have came out lately are absolutely ridiculous, and maybe instead of seeing this “lull” in news stories as an opportunity to create events, reporters could focus on the actual policies of the candidates…but would people really read these articles?

Although we always hear people complaining about the media, they are that way because of the American public. American citizens are hungry for the personal stories, so they determine what sells by feeling this way. If more people would be interested in concrete facts perhaps the media would change, but who knows? Either way, the media has been absurd lately, and the question what is too far needs to be asked a few more times.