Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Media And Their Endorsements - A Poisonous Cocktail

The elections are getting closer and the papers haven't been giving enough coverage to any of the challengers in most of the local races. Why not? The Stockton Record, The Sun Post, The Manteca Bulletin and some others appear to care about the current incumbents and ignore any challenger. Why is this? It's bias, plain and simple.

I wish to speak about endorsements. Why do we have endorsements? Is it because the press, the politicians and some entrepreneurs have figured out a way to take advantage of the system because they have found out there are plenty of lazy voters out there to scam? Yes!

Now, this is going to sound a bit different, but listen to what I am saying here. Can this be some sort of State Run Media? Hear me out. The media gets into the game by playing the endorsement game to keep their incumbents in and hiding under the First Amendment. The politicians don't say anything because of this, but yet they do control to some extent the media. They wish to stay in power and the newspapers wish to stay in business. Does it matter if the city is doing well or not? No, it does not. In fact, negativity sells just like sex. Good news is easily forgotten.

My question is: What qualifies a newspaper to be an endorser? What qualifications does an owner or editor have to have in order to be qualified to endorse a candidate? Is there any specific qualification or certificate of notoriety that must be obtained before endorsing anyone?

To my knowledge, no there is not!

NOTE: The Manteca Bulletin is the only newspaper that does not endorse candidates and I give them credit for that. They do tend to lean more on the incumbents and not give equal time to any challenger getting their message out there.

The Sun Post however has a staff of owner editor husband and wife Cecelia Drake and Carlon Perry. They tend to take interviews of candidates and then give their endorsements. They do not take the interviews of the current incumbents. They only do the challengers. This leads us to believe that there is media bias. I am convinced that they do this just to get ratings to show their genuine identity so they can have a type of credibility whatever that may be.

I believe there already is a chosen candidate to be endorsed and those are the two current incumbents. Again, what qualifies the newspapers to give endorsements? They are only doing it to keep who they believe would work best for their own personal interest, keeping the paper alive and making money by subscriptions and ad space. What else is there?

In my opinion, as far as Manteca is concerned, Carlon Perry and Cecelia Drake are in no position to endorse any candidate. Why is that? They are not qualified. They do not know the candidates on a personal level long enough to see just who they really are. I have news for you folks, money is what makes the world go around and newspapers rely heavily on revenue to survive. They have a difficult time surviving already. Statistics already show they are loosing ground.

I already have reservations about the Sun Post not having the coverage they say they have. I'll write about this later on.

Manteca, please make up your own mind. Do not let the media and newspapers make up your minds. They are in it for the profits. Voter Guides that sell ad space to candidates are sleazy pimps. They are in it to make money. Read what you receive very carefully in the mail. They are businesses disguised as political voter guides. The newspapers are the same way. They are using their name to get into the game of selling more papers by offering an endorsement of a candidate for whatever office they are seeking. True voter guides follow rules by showing both party candidates and they don't endorse.

Endorsements from a newspaper and voter guides are a scam! They are fraudulent socialized media attempting to use your votes to make money.

Will the Sun Post endorse Carlon Perry for the Irrigation District Board? Let's see what happens.

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