The Media and "Gotcha Politics"

Ezra Klein has an insightful op-ed piece in today's LA Times on how the media contributes to the distractions that prevent us from having informative debates on the issues - that the media business model in fact requires these distractions. Here is a highlight from his article...

"...gaffe-hunting makes up a substantial slice of contemporary campaign journalism. It is certainly the part that candidates fear most. And it is poisonous to our polity. You often hear that the media are too liberal or too conservative, too corporate or too effete. But to politicians, they are something else altogether: too trivializing and too intent on ferreting out moments of humiliation. They rob politicians of their ability to campaign in an honorable or spontaneous way."

I would like to offer a reminder, as I said before, that the media is a consumer market and while we may wish that the networks and various media outlets would hold themselves to a higher standard, ultimately it is the consumers (you and me) who determine what sells. Our viewing habits can either encourage the media's current model or it can force networks to redesign their business models around a consumer base more demanding of substantive political debate.