The Gadfly is a series of letters offering commentary on local issues and published in the Warrensburg Gazette.

In the 19th Century most voters had never actually seen a presidential candidate or heard one speak. While many had only a general idea of a leader’s appearance, printed material shows that an impression of dignity was more important than youthfulness. Speeches were often hours long and candidates were judged both on the quality of their oratory and their grasp of issues. Newspapers were the only mass media and most of them were fiercely partisan and many did not hesitate to use sensational stories of dubious origin and truthfulness. Focus of the news had to be on the candidates and their positions since there was no way to measure the relative strength of the campaigns.

Today a lot of things have changed. Everyone has seen the candidates on TV and appearance counts; speeches are reduced to a series of “sound bites” fit for replay on the evening news. On appearance alone I doubt that men like Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Jackson or William Howard Taft could even hope to become a major party’s nominee today.

Sometime in the 20th Century the press decided to be “non-partisan” or “objective” and this carried over to the new electronic media, radio and television. However, there are various degrees of “objectivity.” Newspapers can still slant the news coverage by story selection and placement, misleading headlines and choice of words. Television can slant coverage by selecting the pictures and sound bites shown, the types of questions reporters ask and the body language of announcers.

One of the more egregious examples of modern-day slanting is the on-going problem with CBS’s use of dubious documents to support a story questioning Pres. Bush’s National Guard service 30 years ago. The dubious document dispute has obscured the rest of the story, which in any case may or may not have been relevant to voters today. It smacks of the “yellow press” of the 19th Century.

I have no problem with media being partisan, I just wish they’d openly announce their partisanship as did their counterparts of earlier times.