carl paladino is 25 points behind his opponent yet the media treats him as equal

[spanone]

our media is fucked.

even chuck todd says he has a 1% chance of getting elected.

[Upton]

1. Well..Paladino is the other major party's candidate..

what do you want the media to do...start ignoring candidates that are down big in the polls?

[spanone]

2. yes

[kenfrequed]

9. Id like them to stop treating politics like pro wrestling

It would be nice if they would do issues based reporting. Handicapping and wonking actually services a personality based mystified version of politics that does nothing to inform the voter as to the purported differences between the candidates.

[ejpoeta]

3. oh let them keep covering him. he is burying himself every time he opens his mouth.

[Bitwit1234]

13. AGREED let him sink his own ship

[saltpoint]

4. They must be enthralled with Carl's significant personal

charm and warmth...

Ok, maybe not.

Ok, definitely not.

He's a loose cannon and so he's drawing a lot of media attention. From about the morning of Nov. 3 on, though, I don't think New Yorkers will be hearing much about him.

His public remarks suggest someone who is extemely angry and petty.

[ejpoeta]

15. he is from wny so wnhyers love him. he could be the worst

politically, but he's from around here so they'll vote for him. and i am not kidding. boggles my mind.

[saltpoint]

19. Well, I wish they'd vote for the more emotionally

mature candidate in the race instead of the candidate closest to their zip codes!

[ejpoeta]

21. we aren't all like that.

[saltpoint]

22. I know. I'd love to see a healthy blue wave from

upstate & western NY.

New York State generally has as interesting a political landscape as any political junky could ask for.

I go back to the Bella Abzug days.

[msongs]

5. entertainment value to sell advertising nt

[LiberalFighter]

6. Do you mean equal as in saying the race is close?

Or equal in amount of coverage each receives?

If the former than that is wrong. But if the latter than I don't see a problem with that as long as reporting of Paladino without any help from the media exposes the problems with electing him. And the more coverage results in either the voters vote for the Democrat or they don't vote with the Democrat winning the election.

[Nye Bevan]

7. His campaign is like a car wreck that it's hard to look away from.

Latest homophobic rant was incredible.

[Evasporque]

8. equal time for the outrageous....that is the media...

All truth and no spray make Cletus a dull, mouth-breather.

[KharmaTrain]

10. Outrageous "Sells"

The corporate media isn't there to inform voters, it's there to entertain itself and nothing is doing that more than this year's bumper crop of bigots, homophobes, xenophobes and downright stupid candidates. They keep the chattering class amused and fixated and each has to have their say...their "take" which is usually no different than another talking head.

Outside the media bubble there's a whole different world that is starting to look closely at candidates and issues...not into the picadillos the Chuckles Todds of the world deem of "importance".

[The_Commonist]

11. The "media's" job is to generate profits.

Controversy sells, and Carl is quite controversial.
What do you expect them to do?

He was in my neighborhood yesterday talking to orthodox Jews, and saying that he didn't want children "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is acceptable."
A number of friends on Facebook were OUTRAGED!
I find that to be like getting mad at the dog for barking.

Which is kind of like what you are doing.

[frazzled]

12. In the meantime, the significant close races are ignored

Simply because there is no crazy factor. Paladino, O'Donnell ... why are we spending so much time on these jokers who will lose?

Here in Illinois, we have razor-thin races for both Governor and Senate (Obama's old seat). We may well end up with Republicans in both. Bill Brady is crazy right-wing, and although Mark Kirk isn't in reality, it doesn't matter: he'll vote with the party on any crazy policy no matter what.

Yet the media is totally disinterested in our governor or senate races. Not enough color coverage to provide I guess. Or maybe it's just that it's flyover country. But as everybody falls for the "Look! Over there!" ruse that focuses on lopsided races that don't matter, the rest of the country is falling into Republican hands.

[WinkyDink]

16. Because the NYT, Post, and Daily News are huge papers?

[frazzled]

18. We're not just (or even mostly) talking NYT here.

We're talking national cable news, big blogs, everywhere. This applies as much to the "left" mainstream media (from Olbermann and Maddow to TPM). All focus on teh crazy.

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Does Paladino getting media coverage help or hurt his campaign?

[Brother Buzz]

17. Paladinoto to the MSM: "I'll take you out, buddy"

[malaise]

20. Unbelievable isn't it

Won't help