Horserace reporting and sources for news

It's inevitable that most of the reporting on this race, regardless of quality, is going to be "horserace reporting" -- reporting on the odds of the election and its mechanics, rather than on the issues or the candidates themselves.

Even when I like the results, I have to put in a caveat -- every story you see like this is editorial material. Even if they limit themselves to statistics, the scope of a news story limits the reporter to reporting the statistics and a shred of analysis that reflects their idea of what's important -- i.e. bias.

If you want to think about the election, make sure that you read multiple sources. I like to browse through Google News to see what the world is saying about John Kerry. I also read the Guardian, home of Greg Palast, every night before I go to bed.

International perspectives are increasingly important to this race -- and international news relating to the US (i.e. the Guardian's "world coverage" of US elections, or the Iraq war) can enrichen your perspective. Many of the important reports on US issues from the international press don't make it to US corporate media -- or don't make it intact.

My family were interested in international politics when I was growing up. At the time, the best domestic newspaper was the Christian Science Monitor. Where the monitor is still a good paper on international news, relatively speaking, it doesn't have the budget (or the will, really, since restructuring back in the 90's) to really keep up with the international scene. The International Herald Tribune used to be another trusted source for me, but now they are owned by the New York Times, which, while a decent paper, seems increasingly nervous about risky reporting since editorial scandals smacked them around last year.

But to me, as noted on last Tuesday, one of the saddest things is the press corps that's following Kerry. Since then, I've been combing Google for news of Kerry's whistle stops. Invariably, local media is reporting on his full platform, as presented to their community. National press is picking one hot issue and blasting that. If it can't be made a sidebar on whatever is "top of the fold, front page" as their main news story, it's not worth reporting. So dog the net for local reporting if you want to hear a few tidbits of what the candidate is really doing.

In media, "caveat emptor," let the consumer beware.