Mitt Romney Rap Star with appearance by Ronald Reagan Michigan, Harvard, Brigham Young

My Man Mitt - Ronald Reagan believes in him



Wow, what a wild ride on Super Tuesday. I found myself dodging out of the CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News coverage because of the extreme focus on the analysts, the never ending expounding of points, and selective analyzing of exit polls. I was coming down with a headache from all the non-stop noise.

Then I stumbled across something that really surprised me. I stumbled across PBS of all things. Gone was the ever changing lights, the strange and and shaking camera angles, the dizzying non-stop analysis, the "I've got to sell this program so I can make some money" focus. In short, the stress of watching the news.

The program was called simply Super Tuesday and with a straight camera shot on his face sat Mr. Jim Lehrer of the Newshour. He and his co-hosts, Mr. David Brooks and one other I don't think was Mr. Mark Shields, calmly discussed the 2008 Presidential race. As each state's data became available, Mr. Lehrer politely interrupted the conversation and looking straight at the camera announced the news. It was calm, it was straightforward (it was a hair slower announcing the results compared to the main stream media) but it was thoughtful and provocative. And I was surprised.

This experience reminded me recently that the most fair news I have heard over the last month came from all places, National Public Radio (NPR). They tended not to sensationalize, they gave candidates the opportunity to speak, they weren't disparaging or rude. They also didn't broadcast all the foibles of every candidate and focused more on issues. While I have been frustrated with other news outlets (partially because I recognize they are money making ventures and realizing that Mitt Romney has a bit of money, they have unfairly given free reign to the airwaves for McCain and Huckabee. From Iowa I saw more national news coverage of Mike Huckabee than I ever saw of Romney's ads. Not to mention Ron Paul {I got to include him or I'll get spammed} not getting any media lovin'. I think the media news outlets want Mr. Romney to spend his money on commercials. Of course, this serves two purposes: first, the media outlets make a ton of money, and second, Mr. Huckabee gets to position himself as the dumpster-to-the-White-House candidate).

Anyway, Super Tuesday has taught me a valuable lesson, that frankly I never would have learned otherwise. I came away with a new vision of the cable news media outlets - their approach to news gives me a headache. Hat tip to Mr. Lehrer and colleagues for steady results presented in a calm manner.