The rolling out of a VP is a lot like the announcement of a company’s quarterly earnings. In both cases the media flips out and makes a huge deal of it. Average people merely make a mental note and move on. This observation applies to much of the media’s coverage of the election. It is the obvious result of 24 hour news. There are simply more hours in the day than hours of news.

Every hour and half hour the networks must have headlines. But, it might take three hours for the news to be made. The result: at the top of the hour the breaking news was that Obama had left the gym to head home as Biden was still sitting in his home. That is not news. There is very little drama to be had. We would have been better off with 5 hours of coverage of the situation between Georgia and Russia than five hours of waiting for Biden to leave the house.

Oh, and yes, it is Biden. The media was all a scoff with what this means. Does it show Obama is weak on Foreign Policy? Did Obama give up on Change? Is Biden an attack Dog? While it does mean all of this and more, I find truth in McCain’s estimation that the VP has two jobs: to cast tie breaking votes in the senate and to check in daily as to the health of the president.

My point is that the coverage was downright over the top. The networks’ contrasting styles of covering the whole ordeal were interesting and say much about how the media approaches this race. I think Jay Cost of RealClearPolitics.com put it best, when he said the media reports on the bubble of Washington and talks about the average people like they are stupid. This was eye opening because I realized I find myself doing this. When I watch cable news it is largely a cerebral exercise in assessing the effect of each move on the “average American.” This is dumb of me! The average American has a visceral and gut reaction to a politician’s actions, but they also apply a large degree of reason.

For example, the gas tax. It simply won’t work. It’s a fine idea, but you won’t find an economist who isn’t employed by an oil company who thinks it will work. The average American gets this. Just like the average American understands that drilling won’t solve all our problems. But the media talks about whether or not this will stick with Bob in Kansas.

I take offense because not only should Americans be treated like they aren’t dumb but it’s the media’s job to report when politicians lie. If the gas tax won’t work, CNN should be explaining this, not in a partisan way but in a factual way. There is a difference between fair and balanced. Balanced is not always fair. If 90% of people are against issue A, but you give 50% of your air time to the other 10%, that is wrong. So is silencing the minority. But it’s the media’s job to report reality, and they fail to do it.

So CNN and MSNBC were largely spending their time in a Washington bubble. They were talking on a Macro level about emotions instead of facts or people’s gut reactions. Fox, on the other hand, was only talking about emotions. I am not sure who the newscaster, I was watching, was but whoever he was, he should get a raise. He spent most of his time watching Biden’s door, as the world waited for Biden to leave the house, complaining about how he had to cover Biden instead of playing Bocce and eating Italian sausage with his family. At least he was honest that it was boring. But he also spent much of his time talking about how expensive Biden’s house must be and how this neutralizes McCain’s gaffe about not knowing how many houses he owns. This type of coverage focuses on shaping people’s emotional reactions towards a political point. It makes Micro logic trump Macro logic. It tells people to think only emotionally, just like the other networks tell us only to think logically. We need both.

Basically, we get too much news coverage. The coverage never focuses on facts. Fox is too emotional. The rest of the news is too cerebral. And I also wish that I had played bocce instead of watching Biden’s door for 3 hours.