Diane Rehm Show

Frequently, I listen to the Diane Rehm Show on NPR. Today I felt compelled to send them this letter.

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Diane and staff,

Unfortunately, I was in the car and meetings this morning and could not write this until now. I wanted to express how disappointed I am with the first segment of your show this morning, and for what two reasons I feel this way.

I am used to mostly quality coverage of Presidential elections from the Diane Rehm Show. You tend to have the candidates on the show and talk to them about their views on issues which is what should matter to the electorate. Your show usually offers an opportunity to get a feel for a candidate that is rare in the election cycle and which cannot be obtained from any advertisement or debate. But today, in the preview of your show, you talked about the way the New Hampshire results defied the "pollsters, pundits, and politicians" predictions and then asked what role race and gender played in the surprise. You ended by questioning whether or not America was ready for an African American or a woman President which implies that these things were the reason why the results surprised so many folks.

First, the choice of topic was abysmal because it dignified a question that should have no bearing on someone's choice of candidate. Anyone who votes for or against a candidate because of ethnicity is a fool. Anyone who votes for or against a candidate because of gender is a fool. While, unfortunately, in our country fools vote along with the rest of us, discussing their possible reasons for their choice is silly. Further, raising the question only cheapens whatever victory Obama or Clinton might achieve in this race. For example, if Obama wins, now we must wonder if he did not really win so much as Clinton lost because of a foolish reason. If Clinton wins, you would have us wonder the opposite. Wondering won't change the outcome and probably won't change any fools' minds though. It will simply cast a doubt over the entire process.

Second, far too much of the reporting is about who is currently winning (either in states or the polls) and what strategies the candidates will be employing to try to advance their causes. In this, the press is treating the election like it is a game and I see a lot of parallel between the talk about this game and the current NFL playoffs. Extending the analgoy is easy. In an NFL game, during the game the announcers talk about the results of the plays in terms of whether or not the team gets a First Down or scores. Similarly in this election, the Press spends most of its time discussing who is leading the polls and whether or not the candidates are succeeding or failing in advancing their numbers. During a football game, especially at halftime, the commentators usually discuss the game in terms of whether an overall strategy is working for a team and what adjustments they need to make strategically to pull off a win. The election coverage also mimics this by having exactly the same discussion about the campaigns. For example, the discussion that a candidate might choose to concentrate on certain states and why. In an NFL game, we see little discussion of the individual plays or why the coach thinks they will work; any discussion of the plays is usually in terms of broad strategy or whether the play advances the ball. Likewise, in the election, we see little discussion about the way candidates fall on certain issues. When we do get issue discussion it is usually in terms of brief, out-of-context, soundbites used to illustrate a piece on broader strategy or how a candidate's poll numbers have changed. While normally your show does a much better job of coving things that matter about candidates, today you fell back into the pack of mediocre journalism and reported on the game of politics and not the substance that drive political opinions. You talked about polls, standing, and performance in a given election instead of an issue. Unless you believe that Americans should vote for someone because that person's poll numbers are good/bad or because "everyone else" is or isn't, your topic had no place on the radio.

Today's program left me disappointed in the Diane Rehm Show.