Does this show more contempt for the press or the voter?
She is in Las Vegas for some campaign appearances and Reporter Nathan Baca caught up with her just after she landed at McCarran International Airport.
There have been major policy questions that remain unanswered from Angle’s campaign. Voters have seen Angle’s views and ideas on improving Nevada’s economy, but the topics of national security and the role the men and woman at Nellis Air Force Base must play in two wars remain unknown.
We’ve tried to go to her public events and ask, but she won’t answer. We’ve tried to call and email her campaign, but they won’t answer. Now, we’re finding her at the airport, still trying to get answers.
“I think when it comes to major policy issues, the people of Nevada are most concerned about our jobs, our homes and our economy,” she said.
“If you want to be one of 100 U.S. Senators that are deciding on war powers and on ratifying treaties, which is what a Senator has to do, you have to answer these questions,” said Reporter Nathan Baca.
“Well, certainly. And I’ll answer those questions when I’m the Senator,” replied Angle.
We asked Angle further questions about her desire for the United States to quit and leave the United Nations. She refused to answer our questions about that topic, instead saying she “wanted us to help her get out the vote.”
Have we gotten to the point that the press is held in such low regard that a candidate actually benefits by refusing to answer their questions? I hope that the rally today can really restore sanity.
The answer to your question is that it shows a lot of contempt for both. The far right wing has the press eating out of its hand, all the while denouncing them as liberal. And the press feels it must be in just the right spot, since both sides denounce it. The first law of journalism today is that there are exactly two sides to every issue, and that the two sides are exactly balanced in terms of truthfulness, reasonableness and validity of content. The only thing for them to evaluate is which message is selling better. The press’ smug certainty that it’s doing a great job when in fact it failing massively is killing democracy.
But Angle is breaking even those rules by refusing to offer her side of the story.
And what happens when right wingers refuse to talk to the press? Does it make the press denounce right wingers as being unfit to participate in democracy, or does it make them truckle to the right even more? A few reporters may be unhappy and even say something, but it doesn’t hurt the standing of the right wing with the press at all as far as I can tell.
No. She determines her own story—no one else—and it’s the job of the media to spread it. She answered the questions with non sequiturs and now it’s the turn of the press to repeat them without comment. Her job is to get herself elected to the job (= all those juicy percs), nothing else, no matter how, and up to now her arrogance has served her well, because it must resonates with her voters. We used to call this a lack of communication, nowadays it’s called getting out and managing the message. The answer to your question is also ‘no’—sanity will not be restored, as far as I can judge.
Boo:
You know damn well nothing will change, from the TradMed that is. They are controlled by corporations. And corporations by and large support Republicans. The only way it will change is if we start bankrupting the big 4(I include Faux in that) and either Kaplan Test Prep Post or the NYT
It seems to be working quite well for her. Which goes to show a politician doesn’t actually need the press to win. The bigger problem is with the voters. Why on earth would anyone vote for this lunatic when she hasn’t answered questions? Why? Because they hate Harry Reid.
That is the most pathetic think I’ve ever seen. Angle..”some of you look Asian”, O’Donnel-“I’m not a witch” are clear examples of what happens when enough secret money is pumped into a campaign.
What Angle is doing is clearly wrong. She is setting up Nevada for “buyer’s remorse.” Maybe with these nut bags coming into the Senate the last two moderates from Maine will join our party. Because with the likes of Angle there will be no room for moderate Republicans.
It’s interesting that the teabaggers choose not Reagan’s “Trust but Verify” philosophy but instead Nancy’s “Just say No”.
In the end, Angle & her ilk have persuaded their leming followers that all that is needed is to run against something and carry a gun for it to be trustworthy.
The least she could have done, being a teabagger and all, was to comment on the cost to the deficit of the two wars.
I found especially galling the end of the video, where the local reporter notes that the “policy statements” on Ms. Angle’s website about foreign policy and national security issues are each one sentence long. What a joke.
Of course they do, the right has an alternate Media universe that its people operate in. Sully has been documenting this for some time.
Sharon Angle does not deal in facts. She has a very weak, superficial set of “beliefs” about how the world works and they never stand up when challenged. If she were to try to answer questions grounded in fact, she would have constant Jan-Brewer-esque brain farts and she knows that. She is so afraid of the local news media that she has decided two of the local TV stations won’t be able to cover her big “Victory Party” on Tuesday night and she won’t take any questions on any subject before then either.
Whatever.
My prediction: She’s gonna lose and it won’t even be that close. But don’t expect a concession speech. Not from her. She is not only crazy but also has absolutely no class.