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An expanding, but flawed, source of news
By Steve Hoffman
Beacon Journal editorial writer
Published on Thursday, Sep 04, 2008
Not that the situation would have remained hidden for long, but the statement issued Monday by Sarah and Todd Palin about the pregnancy of their unmarried, 17-year-old daughter Bristol was forced out into the open by a barrage of Internet rumors just before the GOP convention got under way. Some rumors focused on Sarah Palin's 4-month-old son, Trig, claiming the baby's mother was really Bristol and that the family had covered it up.
The Monday statement was issued to put a stop to what McCain campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt called ''rumor and smear'' posted on Web sites.
Yet as reported by Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post this week, Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign remains (in Schmidt's words) ''under siege'' by news inquiries questioning whether its vice-presidential pick is really the mother of the 4-month-old. The Alaska governor's introduction wasn't following the conventional convention-week script.
Where will it end? Only as the campaign develops, with more speeches and appearances, will it become clear how the Palin story, guns blazing, plays out with the electorate, especially voters in swing states such as Ohio. Kurtz's account this week does conclude that relationships between the media and McCain's ''Straight Talk Express'' are severely strained over what's happened so far.
Unfortunately, such Internet-driven incidents are likely to become increasingly common on the campaign trail at all levels.
Earlier this year, polling from the Pew Research Center showed the growing influence of the Internet on presidential campaigns. While the Internet may not be the most influential medium this year, it has a powerful hold on young voters and is poised to become the most regularly consulted source for political news for all voters by 2012, the Pew study suggests.
Since presidential campaigns pioneer the tactics and techniques for lower-level races, Internet-based politics will soon pervade every level of campaign activity.
Despite a steady rise in usage, from 9 percent of adults in 2000 to 24 percent in 2008, the Internet still lags behind (in order) local TV news (consulted regularly by 40 percent of the adults sampled), cable news (38 percent), network news (32 percent) and daily newspapers (31 percent), the Pew survey of 1,430 adults showed.
But a generational divide is developing. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 42 percent regularly get their campaign news from the Internet, double the percentage from four years ago and beating out all other sources of information.
Mainstream sites such as MSNBC.com and CNN.com get the most use, but the use of social networking sites among younger voters is growing, the Pew study found. Among those voters, 27 percent now consult such sites for campaign news.
What the Bristol Palin episode underscores is the disproportionate impact a few, relatively obscure Web sites can exert during the heat of a campaign. When unedited and purely speculative content gets tossed into such an atmosphere, it can gain momentum among voters, spreading like wildfire.
When a campaign decides there must be a response, the mainstream media can hardly be expected to sit on the story, even if the sleaze factor is high.
In Gov. Palin's case, Web sites showed pictures of her leading up to the birth of her son and suggesting she was much too trim for that point in a pregnancy.
Scurrilous pamphleteering and whisper campaigns have long been staples of American political life. What's different now is how fast and thoroughly the Internet can spread all kinds of information, which is preserved electronically and can resurface at any moment.
At the local level, at least one candidate felt compelled this season to answer a questionnaire from a grass-roots group (with a Web site) that had proceeded to fill in the blanks on its own, using a two-year-old Beacon Journal interview, when, initially, it didn't get a response.
The candidate doesn't remember getting the questionnaire in the first place, only a follow-up letter. While the story did contain quotes, much of it was a reporter's account, not a verbatim transcript. Although on a small scale, such abuses could easily mushroom into full-flown fiction.
While Schmidt rails at the media, other questions linger. Will politically motivated bloggers begin to exercise some form of self-restraint, realizing that their attacks only invite counter-attacks from the other side?
And will voters begin to steer themselves toward solid information about candidates' policies and positions on issues that affect their daily lives?
So far, this political campaign season offers little evidence that is taking place. There is still time.
Hoffman is a Beacon Journal editorial writer. He can be reached at 330-996-3740 or e-mailed at slhoffman@thebeaconjournal.com.
Not that the situation would have remained hidden for long, but the statement issued Monday by Sarah and Todd Palin about the pregnancy of their unmarried, 17-year-old daughter Bristol was forced out into the open by a barrage of Internet rumors just before the GOP convention got under way. Some rumors focused on Sarah Palin's 4-month-old son, Trig, claiming the baby's mother was really Bristol and that the family had covered it up.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 10:38 PM, 09/07/2008
What about troopergate, the library book banning, the e-bay jet, and this "sealing the divorce" and the unusual jointly held cabin? Those are not scurrelous stories. Thank god for the internet.
Posted 08:48 AM, 10/26/2008
Is this a lie? Look it up on the Summit County website.
Donofrio claims he follows "strict state standards", but he under-appraised property values of his political cronies. Here's one of multiple examples: Plusquellic's house is purchased for $269,000 then the fiscal officer appraised it for $182,000. Is this incompetent, unethical or illegal?
The corruption needs to end.