The Perfect Storm: When Polarizing Politics meets the Blogosphere

As of Tuesday morning it looks like New Orleans avoided the worst of Hurricane Gustav although the city did not escape unscathed, with several deaths attributed to traffic accidents and falling trees. Meanwhile, a different kind of storm has been gusting its way across the political landscape.

Perhaps you've heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin?

It's pretty hard to avoid news of Sen. McCain's new running mate. Flip through ABC, NBC, FOX, or CNN and you'll get nearly equal coverage of Hurricane Gustav and the latest on Sarah Palin and her family.

Click on any news website and the focus on Sarah Palin is even more intense.

Now I'm as guilty as the next guy of hunting down info on Mrs. Palin's involvement in "troopergate," her support for the Alaska Independent Party, and her switching stances on the "bridge to nowhere," but the judgmental frenzy about Mrs. Palin's pregnant teenaged daughter highlights everything that is wrong about twenty-four hour news coverage dominated by highly partisan politics. 

I think, deep down, most people wish health and happiness for young Bristol Palin. But both sides can't help holding her up as a symbol to further their own causes. For conservatives, Bristol's decision to carry her child to term validates her mother's pro-life beliefs. For liberals, that same decision represents a right that the girls' mother wishes to rob from everyone else.

The situation is really much more complex than that because Bristol Palin's actions are also being interpreted through the lens of family values, sexual education policies, religious beliefs, and countless others.

Bristol Palin doesn't deserve this scrutiny, but she stands right in the center of a fierce political debate that has been stirred to extraordinary fervor thanks to the blogosphere. Presidential races can turn best friends into snapping dogs, and blogs and other online news outlets now spread more information (both rumor and fact) and amplify opinionated voices in a way that wasn't possible even four years ago.

In a fairer world, Senators McCain and Obama would clearly state their views on abortion, foreign policy, education, the economy, and every other major issue and the media would demand explanations when their words or actions were inconsistent with their promises. Unfortunately, we've been settling for the play-by-play which, while exciting, merely tells us what to think or gives new excuses for everyone to bang their heads against each other like crotchety goats.

As disturbing as this situation is, at the very least it's helping me understand what happens when a pervasive media (and I'm including blogs in that term because the distinction between amateur blogs and mainstream media outlets is getting harder and harder to see) loses sight of the facts for the compelling but false and/or inappropriate narrative.