There is no point to television campaign coverage

North Country Light Brigade initiates first “Oust Stefanik” protest

By Ken Tingley

For weeks now, the national media has been anticipating today’s Iowa caucuses with breathless anticipation.

I’m perplexed.

For weeks now, we’ve known who the presidential candidates will be - Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

There is no doubt about that.

Even the most egregious polling error is not going to get this one wrong.

So why cover the race if the race is over?

It’s not surprising that many voters are saying they don’t like the current presidential choices. The voters have not really been involved in the choice.

So why do major television networks spend enormous resources to wander around the wilds of Iowa and New Hampshire to analyze campaign strategies of candidates who don’t have a chance of winning in a race that has already been decided?

Sure, it’s important who wins the next presidential election - maybe more critical than ever this year - but the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and Super Tuesday are all meaningless.

I suspect there are a lot of smart people working in the media, so why are they covering politics as a race, especially this year.

Instead of these detailed reports from parka-clad reporters on the scene in Iowa, how about an in-depth investigative report on what can be done to actually solve the border crisis and why none of our elected officials have done it?

It’s a complicated issue.

One Republican president (Trump) and one Democrat (Biden) have had a shot at fixing the problem at the border without any progress. It appears neither party has the right solution and Congress hasn’t helped by relentlessly politicizing the issue.

This could be a nightly narrative at every news outlet in the country.

Issue by issue, identify the problem, possible solutions and where the candidates stand on those solutions with experts providing pros and cons.

How about a January 6 investigative report on each of the criminal cases against Donald Trump - Yes, that means you too Fox News - to review the facts, the legitimacy of the charges and whether there is any evidence to support Donald Trump’s contention this is all a political witch hunt?

Or has trust in the media so eroded that no one trusts anything it reports anymore?

If that is true, we are truly lost.

Maybe a how-they-did-it journalism primer before each in-depth report explaining what the reporters and editors have done to ensure its reporting is fair and unbiased?

Yes, this is a waste of valuable time, but if no one believes what you are reporting, what’s the point?

How about turning the spotlight on the media itself to review where it has failed, where it has succeeded and what it needs to regain the trust. Perhaps one of the big journalism think tanks like Poynter or Nieman could do a weekly television show that reviews the success and failings of news outlets. It could be a 60 Minutes on holding journalists accountable.

But part of the problem is the public’s waning interest.

Week after week, 60 Minutes continues to be the leader in broadcast journalism. It regularly draws 8 to 9 million viewers an episode for its in-depth stories. The problem is there are over 330 million people in the country.

Even 60 Minutes draws a fraction of the populous.

My nightly television news of choice, PBS Newshour, averages only about 2 million viewers a night.

The major networks average around 6 million viewers each.

You add them all up and my mathematical conclusion is not many people are even watching the news.

Fewer and fewer people are also subscribing to local newspapers.

Fox News is the leading cable news outlet in prime time and averages around 2 million viewers. Again, just a fraction of our country’s total population.

Unless there is “breaking news” of an impending snowstorm, there seems to be minimal interest.

Consider this, especially with two NFL playoff scheduled for today. The average playoff game last year drew more than 28 million viewers.

That’s where the real interest lies in our country.

I won’t be watching the coverage out of Iowa tonight.

Donald Trump is going to win.

He is gong to win by more than 30 percentage points.

Remember, you read it here first.

But I suspect you knew that already as well.

The North Country Light Brigade initiated its first “action” of 2024 with this message on the bike trail bridge over Quaker Road in Queensbury - “Oust Stefanik.”

North Country Light Brigade

You may have seen them before.

They are a group of Democrats who have assembled at various places with their light messages. I’ve seen them assembled at the five-way intersection at Glens Falls’ Centennial Circle.

I heard from one of their members on Thursday that they were holding their first “action” of 2024 on Friday evening at the Quaker Road bike trail bridge.

I stopped by at dusk where the group of less than a dozen had placed lighted letters on the overpass so that motorists could see their message.

It read: “Oust Stefanik.”

Every once in awhile a car would honk its approval, but not a lot. My guess is that most people are just not paying attention.

Or maybe they still don’t know who “Stefanik” is.

MLK Day

As I was watching the nightly local news Sunday evening, the commentator got my attention when they reminded us that today is Marylin Luther King Day.

The anchor then proceeded to explain who Martin Luther King was and why he was important.

I found that startling.

Look for snow sculpture

Last month, I profiled Rich Elmer and his Christmas lights on Dixon Road in

Queensbury.

This past week, Elmer was out in the yard hard at work on his next project, a snow sculpture of Asian lanterns. I’m hoping the recent thaw did not hurt too much.

I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

Correction

In Friday’s column on the Monahan trial, I referenced a shooting in Kansas City back in April where a young man was shot when he went to the wrong house to pic up his brother. I said the man died in his shooting. Remarkably he survived.