by Lynn Marie

Created on: October 30, 2008

Candidates should be required to hold press conferences and all media outlets and the public must be allowed to attend and given the same opportunity to ask any questions. In this presidential election year, we have seen one presidential candidate, in particular being given "a pass" to some crucial quesions. How else can the public know just how the candidates will react in "real time" when asked "real questions"? When the candidates have been questioned it is in a "controlled environment", where the candidates have their questions "screened" by their staff so that the candidates do not become too uncomfortable or answer in the wrong way.

We have also seen, in this election year particularly, how the media have controlled who will be elected by using soundbites from interviews to either ridicule or lavish praise on a candidate. If the candidates had press conferences, these would be carried live (preferably in "prime time") so that the public would be able to make up their own minds about who would be the best candidate, instead of letting the media tell them who is the best candidate by putting on the soundbite that the media outlet feels will either denigrate or exalt their candidate.

I also believe that the press conferences should take place at least once a week in the last two months of the campaign, and it would be beneficial for the public to have the candidates hold press conferences during the primary season. This would have also ensured that the party's candidates would have been dealt a "fair hand", instead of letting the media outlets again control what the public was allowed to hear and see of the candidates. Not very many Americans are able to attend a campaign rally and see and listen to the candidates. By having a press conference, the "real" candidates would have been revealed. This past presidential election year, we have seen how certain candidates were "protected" from the media and any sensitive questions. I truly believe that this election year, the media "elected" our presidential candidates and ignored the popular consensus. We are seeing the "creation" of the media's president. They made sure that the public would be persuaded to elect the person that they (the media) had decided should be the perfect person to represent the United States. I believe that there would have been different candidates had there been more access to all of the candidates, through press conferences. At these press conferences, the public would have asked the more pertinent questions of the candidates and the true character and beliefs of the candidates would have been made public through live press conferences, not edited soundbites.

Learn more about this author, Lynn Marie.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.