Sunday, May 8, 2022

WSFA12 candidate profiles


My critique
WSFA 12's announcement briefly says,

"WSFA 12 News wants to keep you informed about who the candidates are and what platform they’re running on. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be introducing you to candidates from Alabama’s U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races. Each profile will highlight the candidate and important issues on their platform."

This sounds as if the candidates' profiles will be maybe 5 to 10 minutes each.

In contrast to the 5 to 10 minute profiles, WSFA viewers have for many weeks been bombarded over and over and over with TV ads of the candidates and their PACs, and for the running of which TV ads WSFA has been paid a lot of money by the candidates and their PACs

Those TV ads implicitly blare to WSFA viewers "this is what important in this election; this is what you need to know about what is important in this election; and this is what you should base your voting decision on."

The ferocious bombardment of WSFA's viewers by the TV ads of the candidates and their PACs will continue for the next two weeks and, if there is a run off, for four additional weeks after May 24th. 

I submit that the importance to Alabamians of matters  the TV ads blare about are actually less important than the ads suggest, and that claims made by the ads are false or misleading and call for the posing of questions about the claims and getting answers to the questions for Alabamians to hear.

I further submit that the TV ads omit bringing up numerous matters that are very important to Alabamians and that should be discussed by the candidates and about which the candidates should be questioned.

I suspect that WSFA's candidate profiles will be brief pablums of, from, by or about the candidates that will not cure the serious impairments to the democratic electoral process that the TV ads of the candidates and their PACs inflict.

Worse, WSFA's candidate profiles could be felt by voters as an imprimatur by WSFA of the playing out of the democratic electoral process on their TV station and the participation of the viewers in watching WSFA.

Suggested prefatory statement
[Based on what I say above, I think WSFA should, before each candidate profile it airs, make a prefatory statement to viewers along the lines of the following:]

WSFA12 believes in the democratic electoral process in which voters should have accurate and relevant information related to their voting decisions. Further, in this WSFA12 believes it has an important journalistic role to play for its viewers, and WSFA12 desires to perform this role as best it can.

In judging the candidate profiles WSFA12 is presenting, WSFA viewers should reflect on the bombardment they receive over and over and over from the TV ads of the candidates and their PACs, and viewers should reflect on WSFA being paid a lot of money by the candidates and their PACs for the TV ads that WFA runs.

Those TV ads implicitly blare to WSFA viewers the campaign message of "this is what important in this election; this is what you need to know about what is important in this election; and this is what you should base your voting decision on."

The ferocious bombardment of WSFA's viewers by the TV ads of the candidates and their PACs will continue for the next two weeks and, if there is a run off, for four additional weeks after May 24th. 

WSFA thinks that viewers should consider that the importance to Alabamians of matters the TV ads blare about is actually may be less than the ads suggest, and that claims made by the ads may be false or misleading and may call for the posing of questions about the claims and getting answers to the questions for Alabamians to hear.

WSFA thinks that viewers should also consider that the TV ads may omit bringing up matters that are actually very important to the viewer and that should be discussed by the candidates and about which the candidates should be questioned.

WSFA's candidate profiles are not intended to, and will not, help viewers reach conclusions about whether the TV ads attribute more importance to things in the ads than their actual importance; or about whether  the claims made by the ads are false or misleading ot deserving of questions being asked and being answered by the candidates; or whether the TV ads omit bringing up matters that are very important to the viewers, that should be discussed by the candidates, and about which the candidates should be questioned.
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