Media coverage of elections - and everything else

Father of Acts of Hope has given another presentation at the retirement community's second Election Forum. As usual, he was measured and nuanced and also uttered a few zingers (in gentlemanly manner of course) and talked about issues (imagine that) including one of his favorites, single-payer health care. Though he favors one candidate (easy to guess which), he did not spare criticism of either.

He continues to urge his listeners to exercise critical thinking about the media (of which he was a member for decades) and to get their information from more than one source.

He also acknowledges that it's hard to digest all the information and keep abreast of even the major issues. At the end of his comments (at least according to the notes he sent me), he notes:

Maybe it’s all too much for the media, the public or the candidates, to digest. I remember a story told by David Brinkley on Meet the Press some years ago.

He said you need to recognize there are limits. “If Moses came down from the mountaintop with the Ten Commandments today, how would television news cover that?”

Then Brinkley intoned the answer, “Moses came down from the mountain top today with the Ten Commandments. Here’s Sam Donaldson with the three most important ones.”