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Floss 10, substance 0

Elizabeth Edwards is the wife of one-time Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards. She has been on the road with her husband and seen at first hand how the media covers the whole election process and what the candidates are saying and doing. She is therefore pretty well qualified to comment on the media, as she does in an op-ed piece in the NY Times:

"The vigorous press that was deemed an essential part of democracy at our country’s inception is now consigned to smaller venues, to the Internet and, in the mainstream media, to occasional articles. I am not suggesting that every journalist for a mainstream media outlet is neglecting his or her duties to the public. And I know that serious newspapers and magazines run analytical articles, and public television broadcasts longer, more probing segments.

But I am saying that every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture."

And:

"The problem today unfortunately is that voters who take their responsibility to be informed seriously enough to search out information about the candidates are finding it harder and harder to do so, particularly if they do not have access to the Internet."

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