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Showing posts with label Battle for House and Senate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battle for House and Senate. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

News media do another awful job, wasting our time in trying to call midterm elections

A voter entering the Fairmount School in Hackensack around 2 this afternoon to vote in the 2018 midterm congressional elections, as well as on county races and two ballot questions. Voting machines were set up in the cafeteria. Hackensack schools were dismissed after a half day.
A voter using a cane as he approached the doors to the Hackensack High School gymnasium, another polling place where voting machines were set up.


By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Nearly 2 years into the presidency of Donald J. Trump, not a single reporter has had the courage to confront him and say, "Mr. President, please stop lying to the American people."

Instead, they've covered every one of his partisan rallies, and spread his lies around the world with no fact-checking.

Then, days or weeks later, The Washington Post or New York Times thunder about all of the lies Trump has told.

Who will win?

Today is Election Day across America, and the news media have spent the past few weeks obsessing over who will win, and whether Democrats will be able to take control of the House and Senate.

Why not just wait for the results to come in after the polls close, and devote all that energy to laying out the issues instead of relentlessly focusing on politics?

Polls are notoriously inaccurate, yet their reports are filled with them, and updated every day, it seems.

Sensational ads

NBC, CBS and other networks accept the most sensational, deceptive or inaccurate campaign ads, signaling to viewers that only the bottom line matters.

It's no surprise there are so many apathetic voters in Hackensack and elsewhere across the nation.

The blame rests squarely on the news media, who seem cowed by Trump's campaign to portray them as the enemy of the people.

It's another sad day for the Fourth Estate.


Hackensack Councilman Leo Battaglia, in dark top and cap, in the Fairmount School cafeteria this afternoon.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Where you can find fair, non-partisan info on next week's elections in N.J., the nation

In Bergen County, N.J., where I live, the Nov. 6 ballot lists candidates for county executive, freeholder, sheriff, U.S. House of Representatives from the 5th District and U.S. Senate. The ballot also has two public questions.


By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Given the news media's relentless focus on politics, you might have given up hope of finding resources you can trust in the week before the crucial midterm elections.

I'm passing along four listed in the October 2018 issue of AARP Bulletin, but you'll find the sites discuss issues of concern for all Americans, not just the older ones.


Project Vote Smart at Votesmart.org surveys candidates for their positions on issues of importance to voters.

The site relies on financial support from citizens and foundations, AARP Bulletin reports, and doesn't accept donations from business, unions or political parties.

At RealClearPolitics.com, go to the Election 2018 tab to find a wealth of information on specific races in your state or across the country.

Co-owned by its two founders and Crest Media, it relies on advertising for funding.

Ballotpedia.org features 275,000 "neutral, reliable"
articles written and curated by its staff about politics at all levels of government.

Ballotpedia is sponsored by the nonprofit Lucy Burn Institute, based in Wisconsin.

PolitiFact.com, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for journalism, checks statements made by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups.

"Politifact's mission is ... to provide voters with accurate, independently vetted information so they can govern themselves in a democracy," said Editor Angie Drobic Holan.

The nonprofit Poynter Institute is the owner, and revenue comes from online advertising  and grants.


"The most consequential elections of our lifetime," is how one political scholar describes the Nov. 6 balloting in AARP Bulletin's cover story.