Did Communication Efforts Trump Moral Values in 2004?
by Mathew Nisbet courtesy of csicop.org In the days following the Presidential election, many media observers arrived at an interpretation of Bush’s victory as driven by a voter focus on morality and values. Contrary to pollsters and campaign strategists who in the lead up to the election predicted that the war in Iraq, terrorism, the economy, and jobs would be the major themes that would decide the Presidential race, immediate post-election press analysis dubbed the outcome a matter of “Guns, God, and Gays.” As support for the explanation, many reporters cited exit poll results that showed moral values to be the most important issue named by voters. They also noted that nearly a quarter of voters nationwide were white Evangelical Christians with seven out of ten Evangelicals voting for Bush. A recent analysis finds that since the election “moral values” has been used in more than 4,000 press stories. To read more of this column, vist CSICOP online.
