It looks like Hillary Clinton has another “3 a.m.” political ad out. This time it’s about the economy.
I’m not sure what it is about these ads that have captured the nation’s imagination; John McCain has his own version of it, and, of course, it inspired scores of parodies on YouTube and among late-night talk show comedians.
Still, I wonder if the candidates will get around to making one of these ads about the environment.
It’d be really easy to do, actually. All you need is a ringing phone…and no one to answer it.
That’s because the environment has somehow become a non-issue during this campaign season. All three candidates have fairly progressive views when it comes to addressing climate change, and they all tout the benefits of weening ourselves off foreign oil, so we’ve basically been told by the media that there’s nothing more to discuss on the topic.
The only problem is that voters WANT to discuss it.
According to a recent Gallup poll:
Americans continue to say (by a seven percentage-point margin, 49% to 42%) protection of the environment should be given priority even at the risk of curbing economic growth.
In all fairness, the story goes on to say that the gap between those favoring the environment over the economy is closing rapidly. Of course, some of us happen to think that the two are not mutually exclusive, but that’s a topic for another day.
With that much support for environmental issues, you would think that the media would respond. Quite the contrary. Check out this depressing content analysis conducted by the League of Conservation Voters:
Total for 5 Top Political Reporters* updated 2/18/2008
Number of Interviews & Debates: 190
Number of Questions: 3,201
Questions That Mention Global Warming: 8
Global Warming Related Questions: 29*(CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, NBC’s Tim Russert, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, CBS’s Bob Schieffer, and FOX News’s Chris Wallace)
As a graduate student in journalism, I’m inclined to say that this is a classic case of The Agenda-Setting Theory, which basically states that the media doesn’t tell us what to think, but what to think about (we can end with prepositions in journalism…)
Can that really be the case? Is the media a monolithic beast with a well-planned agenda? Yes and no. There may not be a singular voice dictating what subjects get covered, but there clearly is a follow-the-mob mentality when it comes to chasing stories.
So while the mainstream media is busy focusing on the sermons of a Chicago preacher who isn’t even running for president, or whether some secret society of superdelegates will ultimately influence the nomination, we’re missing valuable opportunities to discuss the differences in the candidates’ environmental platforms. How exactly will they create “green” jobs? How will they interact with the rest of the world on climate change protocols? What sort of incentives will they offer for sustainable construction, renewable energy, hybrid cars?
How we get the mainstream media back on point is, of course, the $64,000 question. It starts with confronting outlets directly with this lack of environment-related campaign coverage. Emails to talking heads, newspapers, TV stations, radio hosts…believe me, if all it took was an email campaign to keep “Jericho” on the air, they’ll definitely listen to us.
But keep in mind that the media is rarely proactive, it’s mostly reactive, so in many ways this is as much a problem caused by the candidates as it is by the media. If we really want to improve coverage, we must demand that our candidates address the issue more frequently and with more depth. The more they address it, the more media will have to cover it.
Yes, the three candidates have fairly similar views on the major environmental themes, but there are distinct differences. We, as voters, deserve to have easy access to those differences.
Besides, I’ll be damned if the best discussion over climate change this election comes from an animated snow man during the YouTube debate.
illustration courtesy of Roberto Rizzato
Great Article. I agree, we need more readily available information about the differences in the candidates and their approach to our environmental concerns. For example, general consensus seems to say they all have similar views on environmental issues. According to http://www.ontheissues.org John McCain's voting record shows that he is not in favor of energy independence.