Maybe what happened here over a decade ago doesn’t apply in the US today. But then maybe it does: the notion of the two-horse political race. When I stood, some media, notably the foreign-owned newspapers (as they were), were obsessed with it. Which made it tricky for the guy polling third (in real polls, not the ones they concocted).
Indeed, I was surprised that the last mayoral election was ultimately (although somewhat reluctantly by some) covered as a three-way contest, even if the media was obsessed for some time with Foster v. Eagle—neither of whom won.
As many of you know, I couldn’t even get my name into the mayoral polls in The Dominion Post for most of my 2010 run, and my name was missing from the hat during the mayoral debate that the newspaper itself ran (even though I was invited)! When they ran “polls”, they were predicting numbers like 2 per cent for me. History showed they were out by multiples, and our internal polling had me on around 12 per cent, which was far closer to what eventuated.
The radio debate on Radio New Zealand featured the candidates who were in first, second and a distant fourth. Or, if you want to look at it the other way, the debate featured the white candidates.
There was the same obsession in 2013 between the incumbent and a city councillor who was, on the face, a pleasant chap, but who lacked any real vision for the city. History again shows that the third-placed candidate (yours truly) had a lot of the right ideas for Wellington in both campaigns, not least COVID-proofing the city years ahead and, as recession bites, diversifying the economy so it would not be so heavily reliant on the public service. We had a window then. And we missed it again and again.
The radio debate on Radio New Zealand featured the candidates who were in first, second and a distant fourth. Or, if you want to look at it the other way, the debate featured the white candidates.
That copy-and-paste was not accidental.
Radio New Zealand said it made an editorial decision.
I found this explanation difficult to accept.
But its decision certainly helped cement the idea of a two-horse race, especially if the third-placed candidate received far less air time than his rivals.
Videos that candidates filmed for The Dominion Post never saw the light of day, and I suspect that Karunanidhi Muthu and I, as two people of colour, looked too damned good—and it would have upset the two-horse narrative.
And I have already discussed on previous occasions how The Dominion Post, on its front page, reported on its own 2013 debate by saying that my accent didn’t help—anything to “other” the person of colour even though I speak with a fairly standard New Zealand accent (as many people on social media pointed out to the embarrassed newspaper).
Maybe it’s a lack of imagination, or a lack of knowledge, or a lack of integrity, that saw to these so-called editorial decisions, made by people who no longer work for the media properties named.
If it is the first two, then it says something about media who try to create the impression of a tight, two-horse race for the sake of eyeballs and sales. It is too hard for them to include a third non-establishment figure, because they don’t know how it impacts sales.
It is why they got it so wrong in 2022, when Tory Whanau saw a landslide as she was elected mayor of Wellington. No one considered this prospect. Some tried to portray her as too young, when she was the same age as former mayor Mark Blumsky when he first stood. Some said she was the ‘Jack Yan’ of the election. With Paul Eagle a person of colour, the media didn’t have as big a problem giving coverage to one, since he contributed to the two-horse narrative. The colour bar gone, Whanau fortunately received a slightly greater share of coverage, though by my estimates it still should have been more.
Now we come to the United States where polling insists that the gap between Harris and Trump is narrow. Maybe it is in certain places. But maybe it isn’t—but the narrative is so damned tempting to push.
None of this should dissuade Americans from getting out and voting as they have a septuagenarian candidate who has expressly said that the United States will no longer hold elections if he wins. For them, it is the difference between freedom and tyranny. This has chilling effects on the rest of the free world. How strange that the US media have largely ignored this, contrasted with The Guardian which has this as its most-read piece.
Regardless of the margins, their voters must still make their voices heard definitively about where they want their country to head. Not voting is accepting the prospect of tyranny, holding their country back while others move head-first into the future.
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