Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina were cut from Fox's recent GOP candidate debate.
“The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed,” remarked the British theologian G.K. Chesterton after a visit to the United States in 1922, and I agree with the sentiment. The vast majority of people still believe that in their heart of hearts, in the same way one might believe in fairies and myths. The idea and accompanying beliefs are persistent even in the face of glaring contradictions. We created those contradictions, quite by accident. For a start, we decided to make our media the gatekeepers of the electoral process. Now, journalists and their teachers of ethics seem to recognize that fact and they are taught to take their "duty: seriously. They don’t, however, … most of the time.
Journalism, like insurance, bookstores and peddlers of sketchy material (who have more in common with journalists than either party would like to admit), are all businesses, and the flashier, more useful and more controversial something is, the more it sells. If we quickly glance at the rap sheet of political journalists, we can see that the misuse of gatekeeping has a long and storied history. Take your pick: We can have excessive saber rattling leading to the Spanish American War. Or choose from any number of celebrity trials where guilt is determined by politicized writers cheering in bloodlust or saintliness for some cause or another.
Now, journalism is not a bad thing. I have in the past argued for absolute freedom of speech in all cases except those leading to actual physical violence, and journalism as it currently exists is the most efficient method of distributing information quickly.
However, journalists, equipped as they are with the great power of their craft, need to be aware of the scope and consequences of their actions. Not just in what they themselves write but in what they choose to report on or allow. In their role as electoral gatekeepers, they have more power than anybody to determine the outcome of an election. If they are committed to the system of American governance, they need to take their profession and their duties seriously, and not just in a philosophical sense. They also have to be vaguely competent in assessing the situation they are reporting on.
The example I would use to illustrate this point is Rand Paul’s and Carly Fiorina’s recent exclusion from the Fox GOP candidate debate. Now, the reason for his exclusion was ostentatiously to do with low polling numbers. However, the Fox employees involved did not realize the intricacies inherent in the polling process. In this case the Fox Poll had a 5 percent margin of error. For reference, that would mean someone who scored 6 percent and someone who scored 1 percent in the poll would be statistically tied.
The fact that the people we have tacitly appointed as gatekeepers of political knowledge did not seem to posses an elementary knowledge of political polling is cause for concern. That leaves us with two possible issues: The first is that Rand was excluded deliberately — something that I’m not really willing to grant — or the people involved had little idea of what they were talking about, which is more likely to be the case.
I suppose the lesson here is quite simple: Journalists have appointed themselves the gatekeepers of information in our political process, and we consent to it because it is easier than having to go out and look for information ourselves.
We should recognize that fact and perhaps subject our gatekeepers to a little more scrutiny than they’re used to because the mistakes of the incompetent should not determine the people’s choice of leader. And perhaps compensate Mr. Paul and Ms. Fiorina for valuable time lost.
Jack Davies is a sophomore studying philosophy and the Honors Tutorial College senator in Student Senate. What did you think of Paul's and Fiorina's exclusion from the recent GOP candidate debate? Email him at jd814213@ohio.edu.
