YOU’RE DESPICABLE!!!

One of my fave TV ads in the recent campaign ended with these words on screen about the candidate’s opponent..”Dishonest, Despicable….and Liberal”

There were a number of such ads..dishonest and despicable ones I mean..and I missed the C-J and Herald Leader’s stories debunking them.  TV stations, who grabbed scads of money from such ads, did zilch..totally abdicating their obligation to operate “in the public interest, convenience and necessity” as the law requires. The Lexington paper told me they had decided to put its analysis of some ads in their campaign stories, rather than as a separate story, which I thought was a bad call. Ads are a big factor in the campaign and deserve more prominence in news media stories.

Did all the negative ads contribute to the record low turnout in many places?  That’s worthy of a good sociological study.

So is the abject failure of so many polls..polls that got it reasonably right last time. In the Grimes-Mitch race, a 15 point difference is NOT  “too close to call.”  What happened? Inquiring readers, viewers---and I hope, editors---want to know, need to know before next time.  USA Today’s polling columnist urged the media to “kick (the) polling habit”:, a position I have held for years, but am not holding my breath it will happen.  Nationwide one survey showed polls were off by an average of 7 percent; that is not within the margin of error.

I am sure the media will study what happened..though I am less sure it will have the guts or  wisdom to consider dropping polls entirely.  Let the candidates poll all they want, that does not mean there has to be stories about poll results, especially given the recent errors the polls made.  The only poll that counts, after all,  is the one the media reports election night..your votes.

And speaking of your votes…where were you? One would think given the important offices at state..U-S Senators and governors..people would turn  out. One would think with all the ads telling them to vote for various candidates people would understand the importance of voting…but No, they didn’t   Why?  Nothing but the future of the Republic is riding on that answer.

I'm just sayin'...