To uninformed Americans, this campaign is like a movie they haven't seen

[jpgray]

More and more I recognize this as the phenomenon at work. Ever had a friend who has never seen a movie everyone's talking about, but wants to get in on the conversation?

Having not seen the movie, Joe Friend will be very much affected by the first group consensus he hears. Someone might say the camerawork was lousy, or that the acting was terrible, and if others echo those sentiments, they become more and more irrefutable in Joe's mind until they become almost objective fact.

But there's a problem with this way of thinking: Joe has never seen the camerawork, the acting, or anyt of those primary sources that would allow him to actually FORM those opinions for himself. All that he can do is judge how often an opinion on those primary sources is offered, how many different people offer it and how frequently it is challenged. If it is repeated often, given by many people and infrequently challenged, he will assume that opinion about the movie to be completely true, all without ever actually having seen the movie for himself--without having seen any of the objective evidence for himself.

This is the way the media can pull these things off without being accused of rampant bias. There is almost zero coverage of actual policy, issues, or campaign speeches--it is difficult for people to be informed on primary sources. There are only secondary sources given in the media, and if they are all singing the same tune, this results in a massive blind spot in the national debate. For example you and I know Novak is a rabid conservative, but if only he and Safire are on MTP to offer commentary, and no one identifies them as such, people have their opinion swayed by the apparent unanimity.

The meat of the political race--the actual consistency of Kerry's opinion on Iraq or Bush's outrageous bait-and-switches, for example--is like a movie the public hasn't seen. So what to do? Find a way to get that movie into homes across America, or put out more independent criticism?

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Honestly, there really isn't much else left to explain why

the bush "people" I have met would support the shit-for-brains. They truly have no sense that bush has led them down the path to endless grief. I think is has simply been too long since Nixon and Reagan, and people have been distracted and frightened by the 9/11 hype.

[homerthompson]

2. the problem is, any tactic you use to show ppl the truth

can easily be used by the dark side to show ppl lies presented as truth.

then the ppl are back to square one. michael moore makes a movie? okay, so do the jerks that made michael moore hates america. moveon.org makes commercials exposing corruption and dishonesty? then swiftboatvets makes commercials pushing lies as truth. how can you determine what's truthful anymore?

we need to find ways of exposing the deceptive methods of conservative liars, so that once ppl have the ability to determine that they're being lied to, that will surely turn them away from all things repuglican.

one of the best things I've ever seen is how the daily show will show a clip of a repug saying some shit, and then another video of the thing that the repug was talking about, which proves that the repug was lying.

or repugs saying some shit with absolute authority and certainty, and then they show a clip of that same repug saying the opposite thing a month ago.

[Melodybe]

3. I think that Kerry is making a lot of good decisions,

Mtv, Letterman, the Daily Show, and his DNC speech are coming off well.

Thank god that Kerry is actually a pretty cool guy, I think that it is working. People just have to see him first.

And MANY more people are paying attention these days, this is real life TV to the max, and people are waking up to it.

Thanks to F 9/11, the Daily Show, and the interent, politics is in most peoples conversations, that is not a good sign for Bush.

We might just be able to pull this off, we just have to keep it together.

[jpgray]

4. I agree we have a good shot

But the media really could be doing so much to help objectively present the two sides of this debate, but they just aren't stepping up. Average uninterested people really want to get a good condensed version of where the campaign is at, and they aren't getting it.