FOR THOSE who haven't heard, the 2004 election takes place tomorrow.
The campaigns, especially the presidential campaigns, have received scant attention from the media and have been conducted in a civilized way that has raised the level of political discourse in the country. And I hear there's a nice bridge in Brooklyn for sale to anyone who believes that.
The truth is obviously quite different. Media organizations across the country have talked about the election non-stop for the last couple of months. The Cavalier Daily's News page has made some productive contributions of its own to covering the political situation, including a few last week designed to enhance its readers' understanding of the process.
The most noticeable example appeared in Wednesday's Focus section. Associate editor Christopher Jones wrote about the Electoral College and the controversy surrounding it as the country seemingly heads toward another messy presidential election.
Jones's article thoroughly described the Electoral College and went in-depth into the problems with it ("One person = one vote?" Oct. 27). He talked about the disputed results of the 2000 election and a controversial amendment proposal in Colorado that would split the state's electoral votes based on the proportion of the vote each candidate receives in the state. Jones also went into potential alternatives to the Electoral College and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
The article covered nearly every aspect of the Electoral College possible. Jones could have made it a bit more relevant to University students by including some discussion about Virginia's situation and the attention President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have paid to it. Otherwise, Jones provided a good description of a confusing aspect of the presidential election.
Jones wrote another article Thursday about Politics Prof. Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball presentation in which Sabato predicted Bush would win "a razor-thin victory" if the election was held Wednesday ("Sabato's crystal ball predicts tight race," Oct. 28). Political analysts and pollsters across the country are bombarding the media with their predictions of the race. Jones presented a local expert's assessment and emphasized through Sabato's words the unpredictability of the race -- something that other media organizations fail to point out.
Associate editor A.J. Frank also took a look at Charlottesville's voting machines on Thursday ("Officials say voting machines ready," Oct. 28). As Frank mentioned in the article, the federal Help America Vote Act requires the entire country to switch to electronic voting by 2006. His article helped put local efforts to meet that requirement into context.
Finally, associate editor Monika Galvydis wrote Friday about University students headed to battleground states to campaign for their respective candidates days before the election ("Students head to battleground states," Oct. 29). Again, a Cavalier Daily writer took something occurring at a national level -- last-minute campaigning for Bush and Kerry -- and made it relevant to the newspaper's readers.
One more source
An intern from Planned Parenthood wrote a letter to the editor ("Asking the wrong source," Oct. 25) arguing that an Oct. 22 Cavalier Daily article "presented a very one-sided and unfair view of the debate" over the group's new building ("Community discontent deep on presence of Planned Parenthood," Oct. 22). The reader's criticism has some merit to it.
The debate that the reader mentioned centers on whether Planned Parenthood's activities are consistent with the building's zoning definition. Albemarle County currently categorizes the building as a professional office, but some county residents and the anti-abortion student group First Right argue it should be defined more like a hospital.
The article contained quotes from three people and information from county resident Renee Townsend's appeal to the zoning board. Albemarle County spokesperson Lee Catlin served as a neutral voice in the article, explaining the background of the disagreement. First Right President Kia Lam represented the views of the group opposing Planned Parenthood and served as the primary source to describe a protest outside the building during its grand opening.
The Cavalier Daily needed someone to counterbalance Lam and the information from the appeal. To a certain extent, the paper's interview with Christine Peterson, director of gynecology at Student Health, did that. Peterson explained at the end of the article how a disruption in Planned Parenthood's normal operations would affect University students looking for its services.
But Peterson is not directly involved in the dispute, so she couldn't offer as strong a voice as Lam. The letter to the editor suggested The Cavalier Daily could have interviewed a Planned Parenthood representative or a pro-choice advocate planning to attend the zoning board meeting. A comment or two from any one of those sources would have strengthened the article.
Even if a Planned Parenthood representative refused to comment or repeated calls to the office went unreturned, the article should have reflected that. The words "no comment" or "repeated phone calls were not returned" would have at least shown that The Cavalier Daily made an effort to contact the organization.
Jeremy Ashton can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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