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Tuesday, 24 October 2006 16:35 |
| | Janese Johnson |
Over the years I have grown more and more weary of the lack of integrity at the Asheville Citizen-Times, and recently I have really become quite disheartened with the bias in its reporting.
When the AC-T slammed Heath Shuler on the cover of the front page, and didnët address what Charles Taylor had done, I knew that it is truly a partisan paper giving the full support to Charles Taylor.
Heath Shuler, who is a candidate for the U.S House of Representatives, has shown up for six debates, while his opponent, Rep. Charles Taylor R-Brevard, has stood him up all six times. It was never reported in any of the Citizen-Times headlines that Charles Taylor had backed out of the debates with Shuler. When the AC-T gave Heath Shuler one date to do another debate on, Heath told them that he had a prior commitment with his family and was not going to break it, but gave them a few other dates that would work. They immediately invalidated him and put on the front page on how he backed out of the debate.
In
my opinion, I would prefer a politician in office who keeps his word.
The fact that Heath Shuler was not willing to change his prior
commitment shows me that I can count on him to keep his word with his
constituents. I do not want a politician who moves in whatever
direction the wind blows. In my mind, that is how corruption begins.
Even though I am
not thrilled with the way our political system is set up, it is what we
have. And while it is in place, it seems important that we make every
attempt to keep those in positions of authority ÇƒÓ such as office or
even a daily newspaper, accountable for their actions. It seems quite
unethical that a newspaper with such a large readership in Buncombe
County would have such an unquestioned bias towards a certain
candidate.
Politics does
not have to be so cruel. It is up to us whether we will tolerate this
negative "us against you" thinking. Research reveals that people hear
the message more from negative than positive ads. I think that if we
become more involved with accountability and fact finding, the
candidates will stand on what they value, not on how good at
mudslinging they have become.
I do not know
how I would behave if someone was lying about me and slinging lots of
mud. I could either stand there or reveal the corruption of others.
Especially if they had been voted one of the 20 most corrupt
politicians in office today. I believe that we really donët know what
we would do until we are in that situation.
There are many
ways that we can express our dissent of negative campaigning. One
approach would be to ignore all negative advertisements. Another way is
showing intolerance for mudslinging by doing our own investigating.
Further research almost always shows whether the candidate is telling
the truth or just making things up because people who do not ask
questions will believe them.
Even if a daily
newspaper is telling you something as fact, check out the facts from
another source before jumping in with full belief. We know that the
Citizen-Times slants stories to appeal to certain constituencies, but
we donët have to get all our information from one source.
Letës stand up
for integrity and start supporting a positive approach to politics. We
will not read or hear "fair and balanced" reporting if we do not stand
up for what is healthy.
ï
Janese Johnson
has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years.
She may be contacted at janesej-at-buncombe.main.nc.us.
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