Why do non-issues always dominate political headlines?

Question

It always seems stuff like gay marriage or flag burning or terry schiavo or some other type of issue is always dominating the republicans and democrats verbal sparring on the news. Why do they always want to talk about things like this instead of stuff that affects peoples daily lives, like economy, war, immigration, etc.?
Why does the media always push such distractions as actual news?

Answer 1

Because what's the percentage of people who are honestly going to enter into gay marriage?
What's the percentage of American people who actually want to burn the flag?
That percentage is very small! So they can still outrage America, and keep thier viewers. They are in the new business for ratings. The higher the rating the more they can charge their advertisers!
Other issues will cause a greater divide! With the possiblity of lossing their viewers.
IT'S BUSINESS!! PURE AND SIMPLE!!

Answer 2

I think it has to do with our politicians inability to act on major issues. There is such a high price to pay for being elected that by the time you get there your hands are tied. How can any politician or group of politicians do anything meaningful like tax reform or banking reform? When they finally get elected they have so many people to please. The news would report any meaningfull bill that comes their way? I haven't heard of any lately? More and More issues are going before the supreme court because of our legislators inability to represent the people. They can only appeal to special interests or groups of supporters that don't represent the country as a whole. Gay marriage is an easy debate for most politician's. The political cost of opposing it is not that high.....yet. Terry schiavo let our legislators grand stand for their own political base. Flag burning is more of the same. They may be legitimate issues. If they weren't the only types of things we ever hear about they would be more legitimate.


The media takes it's part of the blame as well. We live in a 24/7 news environment. Drama sells ads! The state of political debate in the media is driven more by toothpaste,cars, and insurance than by reporting the important issues.

Answer 3

Because those topics cost nothing for the taxpayers. If the arguments were about public transportation and rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure, then the politicians would have to assure that funding for such things was secured, and used properly.
Also, those are emotional hot topics, and aligning yourself with the largest faction on any topic ensures that the people of that faction will vote for you, where they might otherwise not.
Ammendments against Gay marriage or flag burning don't really cost money per se, not like building new roads or maintaining the National Parks.
As to the media, they like to run with what is "sexy" that week. There's an old adage among editors: "If it bleeds, it leads."

Answer 4

Because the media is controlled by Republican businessmen.

They don't want Americans to discuss the real issues out there, like tax breaks for the wealthy, corporate crime, fraud and waste in govt contract, war profiteering, corp[orate pollution, unfair labor practices, union busting, etc.

So their frinds, the Republicans, creat phony wedge issues to rile up the public and make them ignore the issues that actually affect their lives.

Read a book called "What's Wrong With Kansas. How Republicans get people to vote against their own best interest."

Answer 5

Becauase they focus on wedge issues to get people whipped up in a frenzy and divert attention from the real issues that affect most people.

shivo- < 10 people
gay marriage - < 10% of the population-- probably more like 5%
flag burning - maybe 100's of people would actually want to burn a flag

How about soc. security, find a way out of the war, our deficit/national debt. Thse are all huge issues that they have no backbone to tackle. They're more worried about getting re-elected to suckle at the goverment teet.

Answer 6

I agree. I'd also add to that the amount of junk I haer concerning Tom and Katie, or Ambassador Jolie and what they are doing with their kids, as if anyone should care.
The more time they can get us to waste talking or debating about junk, the more time the gov't has to centralize, grow larger, and pee on the constitution. Debating junk is no crime, but as you said, the war, immigration, etc is more important, as without a free and secure nation, what we think of whatever the hot button issue of the day is becomes moot.

Answer 7

I think this is because it is easier to comprehend yes/no arguments. Either you support gay rights or you don't, you either support Terry Shivo's husband or her parents.

With important issues there is room for debate. Are free trade agreements good or bad for the US economy? Should we raise taxes to lower the debt or not? No one can say with 100% certainty.

When running for political office, you try to create a difference between you and the other guy. Non-issue issues are the easiest way to do that. Real issues are much harder to answer, and to differentiate.

Answer 8

Small matters, such as gay rights or celebrity news purposely divert from extremely important
topics that affect everyone especially with the
democratic majority we have in Congress now.
I love the fact that babies in Africa are being adopted by rich Americans.
However, let's stop the genocide of 100 million
people first.
I don't care about the antics of Paris Hilton or
Lindsay Lohan. They are young, rich, and hot.
Let them have their fun.
Personally, I have no problems with immigrants
as long as they want a better life or a decent wife.
Besides, the only real AMERICANS are Native
americans(indians)

Answer 9

Not to mention social security. Remember that? It was a huge voting issue in 2004. The Bush administration didn't do anything with social security. Now we'll be 4 years closer to donating to an empty cause before anything happens with it.

Answer 10

Say what??? Politics has not something to do with ideology or faith. It has to do with power. the thank you to get it, the thank you to maintain it and the thank you to apply it. Theocrats are politicians too. yet while they spout rhetoric for customary intake approximately Dharma, selflessness and the welfare of the individuals, this is in simple terms a gadget for the maintenance of power. in case you elect to be an ideologue, stay out of politics.