Unit 2 Blog: Campaign Donations

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39246791/ns/politics/


In Politics the continued banter back and forth by Republicans and Democrats seem to carry on as routinely as I brush my teeth. In a recent clash between the parties, President Barack Obama is claiming that the Republicans are blocking a bill that would limit the amount of money that certain corporations and unions can spend on campaign advertisement. Since the majority of the House of Representatives are Democrats, they passed legislation to have donations disclosed properly to ensure validity. Senate Republicans have blocked this effort and the Senate will most likely not be able to act on the bill before the Nov. 2 elections. Republicans have stated that Obama administration is just trying to protect themselves in the upcoming elections. The Republicans are telling Obama to worry more about creating jobs like he has promised instead of worrying about where campaign dollars are coming from. After reading the article you can get a sense of what goal this journalist took on the recent scuffle. There are many back and forth, negative quotes and jabs by both parties that were highlighted.

The benefit in online journalism is the speed at which stories can be produced and how reading an article could shape opinions and give readers a view from an outsider prospective. Coverage of a certain event can be exclusive to that event without any other stories muddled in the mix. Many observations can be drawn out of the articles. There are also drawbacks in online journalism that can distort stories and give the reader only partial truths. People’s opinions and observation of an event can go viral and cause either bias or misleading information. The coverage of this event can be different than any other medium because people can read it and interpret the information how they see fit. There is also the ability to forward the article to other people and form a discussion about the influence that campaign dollars have in elections and how it shapes the upcoming elections.