TORONTO – In the end, there was no substance to the discreditable “campaign coverage” of the 2024 US Presidential election. Voters had made up their minds long ago – at least as far back as that fateful and disastrous, for Biden and Democrats, first debate (back in June). Everything since (change of candidate, intemperate vilification of candidates’ character, spin and distortion of “issues”, sanctimonious finger-pointing…) only served to cement the obvious: former, now again, President Donald Trump would win.
Press and Media, in defiance of pollsters who repeatedly and consistently tracked concerns of Americans (old and newer) as economic, “show me the money”, “get me back to basics” – rational issues – fed their readers/viewers with speculations to the contrary.
Media giants like CNN (and in Canada, its ideological acolyte, the CBCNN) spun the “importance” of matters that, in most instances, reflect unchangeable circumstances affecting very personal or individual experiences, consequently of limited impact.
For example, exit polls on election night, conducted as the polls closed in the Eastern States (those on EST) and purporting to measure the issues that prompted what affected voter choice, found that economic issues like employment, job security, public safety, industrial strategy, employment-driven strategies and managerial competence mattered most.
Those were not the determining factors that CNN, New York Times (NYT), Washington Post (WP) fed their followers. Abortion, reproductive rights, pigmentation politics, social “marginalization”, biological sexual distinctions, were – according to them. Instead, those exit polls suggested that abortion figured in 13% -15% of respondents’ voting decision. One could sense the air being released from their balloon. Women make up about 50% of the population.
Interestingly, in the last two weeks of campaign, NYT and WP began to “hedge their bets”. The WP refused to endorse any Presidential candidate. In Canada, the Federal government’s political leadership seemed a lot less reluctant.
All those “smart girls and guys” whose expertise informs our collective leadership in respect of anything having to do with Canada-USA relations may have to “dust off” their curriculum vitae.
