And where they don't have that duke 'em out battle royale between a small group of people -- preferably two -- they'll invent it.
What the Obama story showed was that this "reporting a horse race" mentality is so important, it's needed in framing political debate as well. So, when writing a story about false and long debunked rumors about Obama being a Muslim, the Post failed to once note that those rumors were false and long debunked. Journalistic incompetence? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's more interesting and appealing to write a story about competing stories. A horse race, if you will, between Obama being a Christian and Obama being a Muslim. When reporting on competing realities, it's not as interesting, the theory goes, if one of those rumors was exposed as a lie to begin with.
And this sort of style of journalism pervades even into reporting about important issues themselves. The media seeks to create a grand debate where one doesn't exist. For example, in this LA Times article, the reporter twists math to create his horse race:
One-third of Americans want to deny social services, including public schooling and emergency room healthcare, to illegal immigrants, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.Did you see what she did there? She invented an "ambivalence." Two-thirds of Americans are not against denying all social services to immigrants (66%) -- and, looking deeper at the survey, 60% answered that they'd allow at least one of the listed social services for illegal immigrants -- but that first paragraph is phrased in a way that creates a juxtaposition with the second paragraph. Rather than report that a strong majority was against the "give 'em nothing" position and in favor of allowing a form of social services to illegal immigrants, in addition to being for the path to citizenship, the writer went out of her way to invent a horse race. Much more interesting for the reader to think American's are torn about immigration, than to think that most of us think the same way.Still, in a sign of ambivalence among voters about the emotionally charged issue, a strong bipartisan majority -- 60% -- favors allowing illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements.
And so it goes -- Google and Microsoft are going at it. A pair of starlets hate each other. Yankees v. Red Sox. And, beliefs and ideas that unite most Americans are spliced and diced in a way to create an evenly matched battle. Nobody wants to read that everyone shares the same values -- it's the high-pitched debates that sell copy.