I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather the last few days, so going to bed by midnight is my attempt at getting to sleep early. Here are a few things that caught my eye today:
Mark Bowden’s ‘The Point’. I had the opportunity to meet Black Hawk Down author and journalist Mark Bowden and interview him for an article while working at my college newspaper five years ago. Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite books and a masterpiece of journalistic work, which Bowden researched partially in Mogadishu (he flew there in 1997 with a photographer sitting on sacks of khat). A national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, he also has a column that appears in The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Currents section and has written about US policies at Guantanamo, gangs in Columbia and a shield law for journalists.
His June 2007 column about the future of print journalism is particularly interesting … he predicts about newspaper web sites:
I suspect news sites will open with a bang, displaying the most powerful video image of the day in the way editors have long chosen the day’s most dramatic or informative still images to anchor Page One. In that sense, they will look more like TV news than a newspaper - with this difference: All these production values will lead into detailed written stories.
Unlike with TV and radio, which are stuck with people reading out loud, customers of digital journalism will get the best of all media forms. They can wade into any story that attracts them as deeply as they wish. Readers will gravitate toward prose, while those who prefer sounds and images can simply watch and listen.
But do they vote? Young people are among four groups of voters The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib believes will be key to the election in November. Although this election has generated amounts of interest among the 18 to 30 crowd not seen in years, the question remains: will young voters show up on Election Day?
Seib writes:
The rise in both registrations and primary-election turnout by young voters certainly suggests the possibility of a big showing this year. In a sign of that potential, turnout by voters under age 30 four years ago rose faster than among any other voting group, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan group Rock the Vote.
Yet even with that uptick, young voters turned out in lower proportions than any other age group. Turnout among those under 30 was 49%, compared with 73% of those age 60 to 74, the Rock the Vote data show.
The Quinnipiac survey of Pennsylvania shows Sen. Obama leading among Democratic voters under the age of 45 by a 57%-to-41% margin. But the real turnout test will come in November.
The other three groups that matter? Working-class white males, rural voters and Hispanics.
A measure of racism in America? Roger Simon of Politico writes about an issue that’s been on my mind about the general election: How much will race count in November if it comes down to Sen. Barack Obama vs. Sen. John McCain? Simon tries to quantify just how much the race vote will matter:
There is a percentage of the American electorate who will simply not vote for a black person no matter what his qualities or qualifications.
How big is that percentage? An AP-Yahoo poll conducted April 2-14 found that “about 8 percent of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black for president.”
I don’t know if 8 percent sounds high or low to you, but I was amazed that 8 percent of respondents were willing to admit this to a pollster. And I figure that the true figure is much higher.
The same poll also found that 15 percent of voters believe Hawaii-born Obama is a Muslim (he’s actually a Christian). I am not sure how that matched up with the people who said they would not vote for him because he is black, but I’m sure whatever rumors are circulating about Obama being a Muslim are not working in his favor.
Yes, she can! Sen. Hillary Clinton emerged victorious in the important Pennsylvania primary today, besting Obama by 10 percentage points (55-45). Good news if you can’t get enough of the excitement swirling around this primary race. Bad news if November is six months away and you already feel like you’re getting sick of election coverage.
