Post election Introspection

Yep, I mentioned this below in the Biden thread. THanks for posting the full links. I think the study gives some weight to the rants I have posted regarding media. Take this media effect away and at best Obama is tied with McCain. As I suggested to Raf, were the bias to leave and issues get vetted, then the flaws I suspect of Obama would rise to the top as the real reasons not to vote for Obama/Pelosi.

Call me a cynic, Chris, but my weather forecast for introspection on such matters calls for scattered blathering and partly cloudy reasoning bringing forth a cold front of complete inaction. :-)

It's a simple feedback loop leading to amplification. It's inevitable when we have as MUCH media as we have. And that ABSOLUTELY includes blogs. They're a HUGE part of the amplification and feedback.

Sometimes I think everyone should play guitar simply for the sake of having a really good mental and visceral understanding of a feedback loop and what it physically feels like. if you play a hollow-body electric and get too close to the amp at too high a volume, the whole guitar shakes and loud horrible disturbing sounds drown out everything else.

if you use that as an analogy and carry it further, imagine a room where more and more and more players show up all the time, and everyone wants their guitar to be heard over all the others. All you get is an incomprehensible din. This leads me to think that it's not so much an issue of individual behavior but collective environment. It's sort of a tragedy of the commons. Too many reporters, too much data, not enough serious, high-quality, unbiased analysis. Or if there is, not enough space on stage for it to get noticed, never mind heeded.

My master's project years ago suggested that the advebt of an age of stunning data overload would require individuals to become diligent informed active editors in order to make sense of their world. Not that this wasn't always true, but I think the 21st century is really recasting the bounds of the efficacy of rational ignorance.

But that's just my cloudy reasoning. :-)
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I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel. -Horace Walpole

There won't be introspection. The press loves gaffes, and people love to watch gaffes. What is important to point out is that this style of coverage isn't biased for or against one candidate--look at how Kerry was mutilated by the press in 2004. The candidate whose campaign is having re most trouble makes the most mistakes (usually), and those mistakes are reported over and over again by the press.

Looking at this more broadly, heightened negative coverage can also just be an indication that one candidate is just doing more things that deserve negative coverage--the Palin pick, the tone deaf Ayers attacks and McCain's politically blundering actions during the financial crisis come to mind. Whatever you think of of Obama's politics, it's pretty clear he has been running a very good, almost flawless, campaign.