February 22, 2012

Media Power Defining Santorum

By Steve McCann
Over the past thirty years, a strange thing has happened on the path to the presidency.  With the advent of the twenty-four-hour news cycle and the proliferation of media outlets, potential presidential nominees can no longer control or establish their image in the minds of the public. This is particularly true of someone whom the public does not know.  Barack Obama was a virtual unknown when he decided to run for the White House in 2007.  But he had three major characteristics that worked in his favor: 1) he was of African-American descent; 2) as Joe Biden put, it he was "clean and articulate"; and 3) he was a liberal Democrat.  He thus became the darling of the mainstream and entertainment media and nearly all the cable news outlets as well as many websites.  This set the stage for the image which settled into the minds of the majority of the public. This image was of not only a candidate who could deliver a good speech, but also of a person who had a...(Read Full Article)