Mediaboss Marketing

Broadcast and cable news reluctance to talk about gerrymandering, let alone address the outsized impact it has in state and federal elections, has allowed American democracy to quietly become less representative. As movements build behind redistricting reform, the question remains: Will TV news ever care about gerrymandering?

A yearlongMedia Mattersstudyfoundthat cable news shows brought up gerrymandering in only five segments between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017. During that same time period, broadcast morning news programs and nightly newscasts didnt discuss gerrymandering at all. And this isnt a new trend; for years, media have shown areluctance to discussgerrymandering and redistricting. Given the outsized influence partisan and racial gerrymandering has on American democracy, these issues deserve more coverage.

Partisan gerrymandering is not exactly new, butsince 2010, Republicans have takenit to a new level. The Associated Press (AP)foundthat in the 2016 election, gerrymandering helped create the conditions that led to four times as many states with Republican-skewed state House or Assembly districts than Democratic ones. Additionally, among the two dozen most populated states that determine the vast majority of Congress, there were nearly three times as many with Republican-tilted U.S. House districts. As University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stonewrotefor HuffPost, Although partisan gerrymandering has been with us from the beginning, it is now worse than ever, because computer modeling enables legislators to design districts that almost precisely maximize their political advantage.

Racial gerrymandering whichinvolvesspreading minorities across voting districts, leaving them too few in number in any given district to elect their preferred candidates, or concentrating the minority vote in certain districts has also helpedRepublicans hold on to their majority. AsThe Washington Posts Wonkblog explained, Since the minority electorate leans liberal, packing minorities has the same effect as packing Democrats, causing the district map to favor Republicans in the same way it favors whites.The New York Times editorial boarddescribedthe radical racial gerrymandering that resulted inunconstitutional districtsin North Carolina as the GOPs unscrupulous efforts to fence off black communities.

While Republicans have been attacking the heart of American democracy, media coverage has been lacking, to say the least. At the same time,activistsandpoliticians fromboth sides of the aislehave been calling for independent, nonpartisan groups to take the charge on redistricting in the near future. With momentum rising, the question remains: Will media, specifically broadcast and cable news, ever care about gerrymandering? So far, the answer appears to be no.

Read this article:
Gerrymandering is ruining our democracy. Will television news ever care? - Salon