I was just poking around the USA Today website, and came across this “Candidate Match Game“. Seemed interesting enough, so I gave it a shot. All I can say is, holy cow, I can not believe how loaded and skewed the questions are to support the democratic candidate (Obama). Here are just a few of my favorites:
- “The president should maintain open lines of communication with nations hostile to our interests.” – Honestly, no one in their right mind disagrees with this… but if you state that you do agree… the tool puts you in support of Obama because McCain has stated that sometimes this just doesn’t work in the real world.
- “The United States needs to keep a military presence in Iraq for decades to come.” – Again, this is a jab at a McCain speech were he states that we can’t just pull out of Iraq immediately. Using the phrase “decades to come” is extraordinarily divisive.
- “The president’s judicial nominations should interpret the constitution strictly and narrowly.” – The use of the word “narrowly” here is certainly not unintentional… it has a connotation of “limited”, “outdated”, and “naive”.
If you aren’t outraged by the American Medias liberal agenda, you aren’t paying enough attention.
PS: I’m currently in support of Obama, though that’s subject to change.
3 Comments for Skewed Media
Will | 6/24/2008 at 1:35 am
Author comment by admin | 6/26/2008 at 1:31 pm
True, it is just a “toy”; however, it is a “toy” developed by a MAJOR news organization and linked to from their political homepage.
Statements like: “US forces should be withdrawn from Iraq” is divisive, not stereotypical. Something like “US forces should be withdrawn from Iraq ASAP” is more truthful and, frankly, more stereotypical.
Jake | 7/7/2008 at 2:49 pm
So…do you believe you are the change you are waiting for? 
(Cf. Obama’s speech February 5 “Super Tuesday” speech.)
Good call on the test questions…I stopped takign those stupid “Match quizzes” a long time ago.
Alternate explanation:
If you’re going to write a simple program for a website “toy” that will categorize you into one side or another… you probably need some divisive statements, right? It’d be kind of pointless (read: boring) if the “game” said, “You don’t fit a stereotype.”