A Political Press That Can Only Count to Two
In my last article on the possibilities for Libertarian Party action in Texas's Republicanless 22nd district House race, I warned that one should never underestimate the ability of the media to ignore anything interesting that involves the LP. Case in point: this longish Los Angeles Times article on what they portray as the race between Democrat Nick Lampson and Republican write-in Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, with nary a mention that small-government types who don't relish the thought of a Democrat in the House from their district do have an on-the-ballot choice in Libertarian Bob Smither.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
The media are bipartisan. BI BI not TRI
Why is it that, even in this case where there's not even a Repub on the ballot, does the media completely ignore any other party's candidates? Seems to me it's got to be about money, but does anyone in the biz have any idea? I don't know much, if anything, about how a newsroom works, whether it be a newspaper or tv newsroom.
Anyone have any insight?
The insight: I don't know much about Smither, but most LP candidates are totally out of synch with the general public. It is one thing to say that you are in favor of small government. Only a very small percentage of the population could ever sign off on the LP platform, and only a few more could read it without laughing.
No mention of the L.P. in the L.A. Times? What, after planting Matt Welch over there as our man inside?
Lowdog: I'd say it's just due to the "horserace" paradigm through which 95% of the US population perceives politics. Everything gets interpreted in the context a zero-sum game in which one of the two official teams must win. That's also why "impartial" political journalism has become an exercise in "he-said-she-said" rather than an actual attempt to figure out the truth.
"What, after planting Matt Welch over there as our man inside?"
He's deep undercover.
Lowdog- Because moonbats are interesting only as amusing sidebars.
It would appear that Matt has gone native.
I wonder what Mr. Welch would say about this blatant case of mediabias?
JMR