Why Won't They do Their Job?

Fifty years ago, the media consisted of three TV news organizations, two wire services, many large newspapers and a few magazines that dealt with the news. Today, there are at least eight TV news organizations, enormous numbers of internet news sites, one wire service and still countless newspapers. There is also radio news sources like talk radio which are hybrids between news and entertainment. In other words, in the last 50 years there has been an explosion of news sources for the public. Logically, one would think that with all these news providers added to the mix, the public would have a much better idea of what issues face the country and how the parties and their candidates propose to deal with those issues.

So here are three questions to answer quickly:

1) What is president Obama's energy policy? Do not tell me the goals (like energy independence); tell me the specific steps he wants to take to achieve those goals.

2) What is Obama's plan to get the economy moving again? Again, do not tell me the goals; it is the specific steps that you need to tell me.

3) How does Obama plan to deal with the impending bankruptcy of the three largest entitlement programs: social security, medicare and medicaid? Focus on the specific steps Obama recommends.

Here are the answers: On energy, Obama has not put forward specific steps that would constitute an energy policy. Regarding the economy, Obama has been a bit more specific, but he still only talks about goals rather than how to achieve them. He has pushed for raising taxes, but no responsible economist believes that raising taxes promotes economic growth. Indeed, if all the tax increases currently scheduled for January of 2013 go into effect, the consensus view is that the economy will lapse back into recession. Obama has no plan to deal with the entitlements. So far, he has cut $500 billion from medicare to put that money into Obamacare. Obama has also cut many hundreds of billions in funding for social security with the payroll tax holidays. In other words, Obama has made the condition of the entitlements worse, not better.

How can the American people decide who should be president if they do not get an informed choice? Shouldn't the media be out there every day pushing the Obama campaign to announce the specifics of what it plans in these critical areas? Shouln't someone be making an issue of the resounding silence from Obama on these points? I know that Obama does not want to talk about his record; it is not a good one so he is avoiding it. That is bad enough, but not talking in a meaningful way about the future is even worse. The election is a choice for the future, not the past. American voters need to understand what it is that Obama sees for his second term. The media are the folks who are supposed to be pushing for those details.

Why won't the media just do their jobs?