It's a Problem...

To me, it's funny how government failings that hurt the people directly are used by both the media and politicians as ammo in a fight against their ideological counterparts.

One of the bigger political issues of the past several years is the craziness surrounding the Affordable Care Act and the implementation of its many provisions, chief of most being the insurance exchange website. Over the past month or so, many of the American people have been attempting to use the website to go ahead and comply with the law, switching coverages if they need to. Unfortunately, the website has had its faults, and the process has been made much more difficult than it was planned to be. These failures, of course, have been used to attack the President's administration and his political party, in my opinion, unduly.

In a Fox News that can be found here http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/30/obamacare-website-re-do-deadline-set-for-saturday/, the author asserts that "Republicans have already suggested they'll launch coordinated attacks linking every congressional Democrat up for re-election to the Affordable Care Act." The article goes on to explain that "In the House, the effort, based around dozens of votes to repeal the law, is about denying Democrats the 17-seat gain they would need to win back the majority. In the Senate, it's about gaining the six seats Republicans need to take control of that chamber." First off, I'd like to voice how crazy this is. While it was the Democratic Party responsible for the bills passing, it was largely a group effort in its creation: Republicans had just as bug if an opportunity to help create and modify it had they been willing to compromise. Now obviously the Democratic Party had the majority, but that doesn't mean that Republican voices could not have been heard. Instead, they choose to not participate in its forming, making them equally as responsible for the result for not trying., Also, its not necessarily the Democrat's fault for the website's failures: they aren't the ones who created it. That falls on the designers. I'm not saying that the Dems are devoid of responsibility, but to simply blame a political party for a government failure is ridiculous.

It's mind-numbing for me to read not only the idiotic things that politicians are doing, but for the media to seemingly condone the strategy. If they do not at least identify and warn the people about the tactics used by politicians to help faction the people, then the media is failing to successfully preform one of their most essential of functions: to be a watch-dog. It's to bad seeing it, and hopefully the informed citizenry will one day start putting their weight behind those news organizations and politicians that fulfill their responsibilities faithfully for the people, not those who point fingers at their opponents at ever chance they get.

'Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right...'

The last of couple weeks have been tough for President Obama and his administration. First, the website created for the Affordable Care Act that is used, at least in part, in insurance exchanges has been an absolute mess, and then the President had to go before the American people and back-track from a previous promise that whoever wanted to keep their current health insurance, which wasn't totally true.

Now, this stuff was bound to be scrutinized thoroughly from the start. It deals with possibly the most controversial issue in a decade, and every person from all sides of the argument have been chiming in. However, it is still funny how polarized the media is on the issues: groups like Fox News and the Washington Free Beacon absolutely blast the President, using it as proof that he doesn't know what he's doing and is a liar, further calling for 'Obamacare' to be repealed. On the other side, groups like CBS try to downplay the news as much as possible.

Now, from my perspective, I think it's absolutely true that the website fiasco has been a problem, and only further muddies the murky waters surrounding the implementation and overall impact of the Affordable Care Act. If the government decides what's best for the people is universal, mandatory health insurance, then I think that it should be their responsibility to make sure that its implementation is done near seamlessly: if you're going to take over for the private sector, then you better do at least as good a job as them. However, I don't think that the government website's early difficulties are cause for anarchy.Nor do I believe that the President's 'lies' are absolutely extraordinary. In another post I'll go into his comments in more detail, but suffice it to say that (at least in my opinion) no malice was intended. While I disagree with anyone defending him as innocent, I think that blatantly attacking him is wrong as well.

The one news source that seemed to agree with me was NBC News. In one of there First Thoughts articles found here, the authors give a very objective take on the whole situation. They assess what's going, give insights, and share thoughts from politicians from both sides. It was exactly what I was hoping to read: factual information with fair opinion.

I don't think it's right to expect perfection from either our government or news media.. Both will have biases and flaws that we not necessarily like, but that's not uncommon. However, I do believe that it's fair to presume that each is trying to do the best they can to fairly inform their audience. It may not be what sells, but facts are what is vital. When we get away from that, and concentrate more on informing or arguing on ideological lines, it creates chaos that is really tough not to laugh at.

Responsibility

Before I even knew what the premise of this blog would be, I understood at least one simple fact: the media does not function the way it does for no reason.

Bias exists in the media, and that's a fact. Though some may argue the degree, it is plainly seen almost everywhere. Whether it be to the right or left, much of the news is reported off center. As a consequence, there are many who complain of unjust treatment of their party or political interests. These individuals often times then vow not to get their news from there, but from a source that is more 'on their side' instead. This behavior, however, is the root of the problem.

For the sake of analogy, we will look at bias in the media as a disease. We do so because it hurts the media's integrity, compromising its function in the democratic process. Facts are ignored or misplaced because of one's own personal views on events, and a false reality is created for the audience. While a certain amount of bias may be expected (reporters/journalists are in fact human), its presence in nearly every available news outlet signifies a problem. However, bias is not a cause. It does not exist for its own sake, intentionally harming the political process wherever it can. It is an effect. The infectious agent that is spreading this 'disease' is in fact us, the people. We are the reason why bias exists in the media the way it does.

It is important to understand a point that I have reiterated the past few months: news and media is a business. They do what they do to make money. The people reporting and writing on current events are not in the business out of good will, but at least in large part to make a living. Their work must sell, and so they do what they can to meet that end. People are inherently biased. A Republican is most likely not going to go to NBC to get their news. To the contrary, they will, out of frustration with the 'left-wing media', go to a source like Fox News because they know that their news will be reported favorably to right wing interests. It's human nature for one to gravitate towards those they are similar to, and the media capitalizes on it. News organizations or even independents trying to create an audience will lean one way or another in the way they do their work, knowing that, though biased, they will reach groups on individuals. 

If people didn't operate the way they do, then media bias would not be an issue. The population as a whole would be able to stand behind bold ideals such as fair and honest reporting in the news, and news organizations would absolutely respond. However, we as people are biased, and the media is simply following suit. I think that's an important thing to remember. Whenever you or I think of complaining about one news organization or the industry as a whole, and seek to find refuge with 'friends', we should realize that we are only adding fuel to the fire. We don't live in an ideal world, and it's up to us and the way we live through our actions to either help fix the problem, or only make it worse.