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My own cynical take is that a lot of the media coverage seems to focus on the political fight, rather than the substance behind the issues. I know they focus on the fight, because that is where the story is. Man versus man, slugging it out. It sells more papers. The media would be doing a service to the public if they would actually focus on the issues and the facts behind the issues. The media should do what it can to point out the potential risks and rewards to a proposed policy. Instead, the media only reports what others say about a proposed policy.
For example, I think it would more important for the public to know that a proposed policy by one of the candidates is financially unsound versus knowing that one of the candidates has pulled ahead in the polls.
The media often tries to be fair and balanced when covering an issue. It will present two sides to an arguement even when one side is clearly wrong. They find some crackpot somewhere who believes that the world is flat. Then they run a story about whether the world is flat or round, giving equal time to each side, to be balanced about it. The media should have the balls to come out and say that the world is round. The flat earth dude should get no screen time.
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