Polls can’t predict – but they can warn. And I’m not sure our horserace-obsessed media are heeding the warning

One of the things these numbers suggest is that the journalists are not getting the truth across to citizens on some key points (or if they are, that truth is being ignored).

The poll respondents claim that one of their big concerns is the economy. If that’s the case, they should be happy with Biden. Among the factors: low inflation, significant growth and low unemployment. Paul Krugman, the Nobel laureate economist, wrote recently: “The economic news in 2023 was almost miraculously good.” (Even the cost of a classic Thanksgiving dinner, he notes, was down 4.5% last year.)

If the economy is that strong and that important to voters – and if Biden can take at least some of the credit – why isn’t it coming across? That’s something for the Biden campaign, primarily; but it’s also something for media people since journalists are supposed to be communicating information so that citizens can vote with knowledge. That should be a higher priority than generating profits, ratings and clicks, but one eventually despairs that it ever will be.

Another major voter concern, of course, is Biden’s age. He’s 81; Trump will be 78 in June. They’re both old; both have memory gaps and both exhibit confusion at times.

Only one of them, however, talks about some migrants as “animals” or predicts a “bloodbath” for the country if he loses. Only one is facing dozens of charges related to crimes including trying to overturn a legitimate election. Only one has promised to be a dictator on day one of his presidency and only one has allies that are meticulously plotting a radical revamping of how America works.

  • Drinvictus@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 months ago

    Biden keeps giving weapons to Israel so they can kill more brown people and these people are like “Gee it’s the fucking press’ fault”. All those uncommitted votes and not one mention of Palestine in the entire article.

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        TBF to the press they did cover the uncommitted votes in the primary. Moderates and liberals just decided they didn’t want to take it seriously. They shrugged and said “They’ll vote for Biden when the time comes.”

    • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Is your last line not agreeing that it’s the fault of the press that the issue driving the votes isn’t being talked about?

          • Drinvictus@discuss.tchncs.de
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            3 months ago

            Did you read the article bro? It’s obvious what I’ve meant. Is English your second language or something?

            Edit: fuck it I’ll spell it out. The article is blaming the press for not telling people more about Biden administration’s achievements. But the uncommitted votas have shown that a lot of people are not voting for Biden because of the ongoing genocide. And not one mention of it in the article. So I’m not blaming the press for Biden’s poor performance. I’m calling them delusional to think that it’s because of that. Please read the article next time before commenting.

      • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I mean it has been covered. People just ignore it. I’m still getting accused of being a Russian plant even after thousands of votes were cast for uncommitted. Either those votes were cast by Russians or those people don’t have internet I guess.