Media Helps Reveal Character of Candidates

* Re “A Candidate’s Character Does Count,” the Jan. 22 “On Faith” column by the Rev. Edward C. Martin: Martin tells us that during the upcoming election year we will be “subjected to a constant barrage of information and misinformation” and that we should consider matters of character and honor.

How are we to assess such matters if not via the media--the mechanism that brings us information and misinformation? Should we establish a personal relationship with all candidates? Should we move in next door to them?

In the current political cliche of “up is down” thinking, Martin chides leaders for basing their decisions on polls. I marvel at the thinking that our government shows weakness by even considering our desires.

We lowly voters are too uneducated and ignorant to know what we want? Perhaps only highly paid and positioned chief executive officers, political leaders and industrialists know what we really need. Of course, they can contact these leaders directly. We’re really only voting for one of two baby-sitters, not for a range of specific social and economic demands.

When Martin encourages us to consider character as well as causes, does he not know that both are defined via the same media?

Al Gore and Bill Bradley have admitted marijuana usage. George W. Bush, the subject of rumors that he used cocaine in his youth, has admitted nothing. Which “character” issue do we consider? Usage, the specific drug, or the candor to admit using it? But all of this is also mediated information, so perhaps it should be discarded too?

Are we to vote based on “causes” like gun control, health care and campaign financing and the stated viewpoints of all, or let it be “obfuscated” by information and misinformation regarding matters of character and honor?

GERALD SCOTT-MOORE

Santa Ana