Presidential Election Of The United States

1182 WordsSep 29, 20165 Pages
On September 26, 2016, 84 million people tuned in to the most watched debate in American history (Battaglio). 84 million of the 135 million people who are estimated to vote in the United States’ 2016 presidential election fulfilled their citizen duties on becoming aware of the candidates’ policies in order to make an informed decision when voting happens in November (Battaglio). About 60% of estimated voters watched the raw debate so where will the rest of the voters get their information from? They will most likely watch the morning or evening news the next day but the problem is that the news will not be covering the hard facts of the debate. They will be talking about how many times Trump interrupted Clinton, Clinton’s ‘robotic’ answers, and possibly even update us on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s divorce. The viewers will miss out on being informed about important issues such as tax policies and wage gaps that Americans face everyday. They are going to be informing us on things that grab our attention, things that will raise their viewership and make them more money. News outlets are now entertainment driven. As Al Gore points out in The Assault of Reason, the idea of celebrification of the news negatively affected our public sphere in 2007 and continues to harm the public sphere today. As a result, the public sphere is worse off today than in 2007. Our Founding Fathers broke our government into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial, with the hope that
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