Friday, September 9, 2011

Politicians and double speak

This past weekend, Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann “answered” a question about her stance on homosexuality by declaring: “I’m running for the Presidency!” Then on Wednesday’s August 17th edition of CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell, when asked about her position on homosexual marriage, claimed that the question was “rude,” and then (at the urging of some mysterious shadowy figure off camera) took off her microphone and walked off the show. I mean the nerve of some journalists, asking a politician a political question. Just who does he think he is anyway?

Lately, there seems to be a growing trend among politicians to not only “double talk” their way around answering questions (as they’ve always done), but to flat out ignore the actual question, and instead answer a completely different question. “What do you think about homosexuality? – I’m running for President.” Uh, Mrs. Bachmann, that wasn’t the question. We already know you’re running for President. We want to know whether or not you still believe homosexuals are satanic. Apparently Mrs. Bachmann was suffering from some sort of hearing problem that Sunday morning.

In those moments just before a politician attempts to “answer” a hard question – when they’re frozen like a deer in the headlights – what do you suppose is actually going through their minds? Are they thinking, “I hope I don’t look as freaked out as I feel?”, or maybe, “If I answer an unrelated question, will it appear as though I am prescient of a question which the journalist is going to ask me two minutes from now?” In fact, one wonders if they’re thinking of anything other that how to get themselves out of a jam.

As for Ms. O’Donnell’s actions, I think we should actually give her some credit. At least she didn’t pretend she was hard of hearing and answer an unrelated question. She simply claimed that a journalist shouldn’t ask a politician politically relevant questions, because it’s rude, and then walked off the set. Some people might feel as though Ms. O’Donnell’s actions were a bit cowardly, but I think they were quite brave. She simply had the “courage” to do what Mrs. Bachmann didn’t, but probably wanted to: tell all of those mean journalists that she didn’t want to answer hard questions, because hard questions just aren’t fair!

Journalists for a number of years have increasingly allowed politicians to get away with this sort of question dodging. With the recent behavior of some politicians, one begins to wonder whether or not most politicians today simply assume that they shouldn’t be asked difficult questions at all. Thanks to Ms. O’Donnell, we don’t even have to wonder because she publically professed to Piers Morgan, that as an invited guest she should only be asked questions which she wants to answer.

We shouldn’t blame Ms. O’Donnell though. In fact, we should thank her for exposing what are the likely expectations and desires of most politicians today. Ms. O’Donnell’s only fault is that she wears her heart on her sleeve. She is at least genuine in her opinions and was honest to say she believed hard questions were unfair. Ms. O’Donnell has done us all a favor by unwittingly exposing the politician’s mindset, which is the direct result of the vast majority of American journalists allowing politicians to get away with not answering questions for at least the last decade. Most journalists no longer push politicians to get the tough answers because they want people to like them.

If journalists continue to allow politicians to believe that an interview is merely a platform, for them to give book recommendations or to espouse their religious beliefs free from criticism, someday Americans won’t be electing Presidents based on a candidate’s policy stances, ability to work with others, and other relevant qualifications (since they won’t be talking about those things), but we’ll be deciding whom to vote for based on more trivial matters, like who has the nicest smile, the best hair, the coolest accent, or what religion they’re affiliated with – oh wait – that kind of sounds like how we’re doing things today, doesn’t it? Oh well, at least we can thank Miss O’Donnell for pointing out that the future is already here. - (Written August 18, 2011)

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