How America is killing political journalism

Election years are brutal for political journalists. Politics, like no other realm of journalistic inquiry, incite rabid passions as politicians dish out savage rhetorical beatings until a winner emerges, victorious but battle-worn after experiencing the harsh reality of our democracy.

In the middle of this tedious brawl of emotions and hysteria is the political journalist -- the underpaid and jaded intellectual masochist who is left with the arduous task of cobbling together the copious amounts of lies and empty oratory and delivering some semblance of Truth^©. Subsequently, it's no accident that political journalism is often associated with heavy drinking and liberal abuse of any substance available to numb the pain of rowing down a constant stream of bullshit.

And therein lies the problem. In the end, political journalists are dishing out the Truth^© to a public full of stubborn voters who SAY they want to be informed objectively but really just want the media to deliver evidence of their pre-conceived notions about political realities. If a political journalist fails in this task, or even has the audacity to contradict such notions, he is either biased or uninformed. Sadly, these are the only two options for Average Joe Voter, who retains such a clear picture of the political landscape from the comfort of his armchair that logical inquiry is moot. And this, of course, is how the American public can continue to elect people like George W. Bush.

The culmination of this vicious cycle -- that is to say, political journalists barely surviving election after election in order to deliver facts to people who don't really want them -- is rather hilarious. It goes something like this: The citizens who are presented with political facts but choose to ignore them simply spew out their asinine misconceptions, which the media gather and redistribute in order to develop some absurd gauge of political success. Allow me to demonstrate:

WILLIAMSON, West Virginia (AP) -- Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

Mr Simpson’s remarks help explain why Mr Obama is trailing Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, by 40 percentage points ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in the heavily white and rural state, according to recent opinion polls.

Wow. Where do I even begin? First, and most depressing, is that a participant in this democracy would be such an idiot as to base his vote on some outlandish rumor without even attempting to verify its accuracy. A brief search on the Internet would reveal to this man that Barack Obama and his wife are both Christians. One would think Obama's religious affiliation would be evident by the 24-hour coverage of Obama's former Christian pastor. Another clue might be the unlikelihood that a devout Muslim would marry an atheist. Yet, undoubtedly, this voter has already decided that Obama is a Muslim, and thus any independent investigation on his part is fruitless.

Still, the clear stupidity of this one voter didn't deter the reporter, who simply concluded that the state must be full of Obama-haters, as if talking to one uninformed citizen in the backwoods of West Virginia is somehow an indicator -- and explanation -- of Obama's lack of support in the state. Last time I checked, a retired miner living in the Appalachians is not the fucking spokesman for West Virginia. The only information I can glean from this man is that the town is occupied by at least one idiot. Well, make that two conclusions: In West Virginia, John McCain appears to have a great start at securing the moron vote.

Basically, people in this country need to learn how to fucking fact check. And the media in this country need to learn how to distinguish between one delusional voter and the political persuasions of an entire state. Until then, this orgy of absurdity will continue, and we'll undoubtedly keep electing people who are utterly full of shit.