Ask the Right Questions
I'd title this "Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps," but I don't want to infringe on Brad DeLong's trademarks.
There's been a minor kerfuffle over John Kerry's unsubtle mention of Mary Cheney in his answer to the homosexuality question in the "debate" the other night (OBDailyShow: "Gaaaaayyyyyy Daaaaughterrrrrr!!!!"). Her parents, Mr. Burns and Cruella DeVille, have been acting miffed for the last couple of days, despite the fact that Kerry didn't actually say anything disrespectful about her.
Of course, nowhere have I seen any mention of the only question that matters here: what does Mary Cheney think of this? It's not like she's in a closet somewhere (OBDailyShow2: "She's here. She's queer. Next question."), figuratively or literally-- she's working for the Bush-Cheney campaign, for God's sake. Isn't there some ace reporter out there who can call her up and ask her what she thinks? If she says she's offended, then that's a story. If she's not offended, that's the end of a story. If she refuses to comment, well, that's noteworthy, too.
But, nothing. Even in the stories that mention her position with the campaign, we don't even get a "Attempts to reach Ms. Cheney were unsuccessful." It's like nobody even thought it might be worth contacting the person at the center of the whole issue.
Similarly, there was a brief flurry of discussion after the second "debate" about Bush's lame answer to the "What mistakes have you made?" question, with people going back and forth about whether it was a good answer or not, and yet, somehow, nobody thought to ask the woman who asked the question whether she was happy with the answer. What's up with that? It's not like she was some semi-anonymous e-mailer from East Podunk-- she was in the auditorium with half the reporters in the Western world. And nobody managed to tap her on the shoulder on the way out?
In fact, that's the one bit of information I'd really like about any and all of the "town hall" questions: what did the person who asked the question think of the answers? I might consider giving a damn about what Jeff Greenfield thinks of the answers, right about the time that an asteroid strike wipes out everybody in America but the candidates, me, and Jeff Greenfield. But short of that, not so much with the Jeff Greenfield, OK?
These were questions that mattered enough to these "undecided" voters that they showed up to a "debate," and asked them of the two men for the office of "most powerful man in the world." The answers must matter to those voters, and since they matter in this election, I'd like to know what they think. Unless there was some sort of ban on talking to the actual questioners (I definitely saw comments from someone who was in the audience, but not picked to ask a question, so there can't have been a total ban on talking to the audience), they should be asked their opinion. Even if it's a confused muddle (which seems likely), that's information I'd like to see.
But again, nothing. What the hell are all these media people getting paid for?
Finally, how is it that undecided voters in the St. Louis area managed to come up with better questions than any of the professional journalists picked to "moderate" these dog and ony shows? If this "Do you love your wife?" puffery is the best that professional journalism has to offer, we might as well start choosing "debate" "moderators" by lot in 2008.
Honestly, where did we find these clowns? And can we send them back?
Posted at 10:01 AM | link | follow-ups |