Blatant Berry: Correct the Din of the Spin

I haven't ever been as motivated to participate in a national election as I was the first time I voted in the middle of the fearful and repressed Fifties. Americans were scared stiff of Communists then. It turned out that we “had nothing to fear...,” as my favorite U.S. President might have put it. This election, however, has me jumping.

Some pundits—and there are more of them than ever in this election—think we should fear what they call “terrorists”— and they do scare the hell out of me. But I'm much more afraid of and concerned about all the spin, misinformation, and frothy punditry surrounding the election campaign than I am fearful of fanatics.

I worry about scurrilous lies from the next bunch of Swift Boat veterans. I fear the scare tactics that will come from our own American religious extremists. I even dread attacks on one another by candidates, especially when they label views such as opposition to our current war as treason. I am tired of hearing how the “family values” of some leaders are somehow morally superior to the progressive, community-centered values of my own colleagues.

Along with those fears, I am bored to distraction with all the “expert” analysis from NBC's noisy Matthews and Scarborough and CNN's monotonous Blitzer and Cooper and the noxious rants of Fox Network's O'Reilly and faux ideologs Hannity and Colmes. Most of this endless spin and sputtering has less substance than the speeches of the candidates, who themselves are too often short on specifics. Neither the broadcasts nor the newspapers do much to correct such lack of clarity and depth. It often seems as though there is no agency or institution making it its mission to distinguish the truth and meaning from the nonstop toxic noise that drives the rest of the news off the airwaves.

There is, however, as librarians know, an agency that was mandated by our society to deliver to Americans the best and broadest information they need to govern themselves. It is, of course, the public library.

Late last year, LJ publisher Ron Shank laid out a simple program of steps libraries could take to inform voters (“Libraries and the Election,” Publisher's Letter, LJ 9/15/07, p. 8). LJ's Raya Kuzyk followed up and reported encouraging, proactive efforts by libraries to inform caucus participants and primary voters in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and elsewhere (www.libraryjournal.com/ElectionEd). It is great to see how some of these libraries have helped clarify the issues for many Americans.

Her second report found that the early burst of library election energy had dimmed (www.libraryjournal.com/ElectionEdLags), as the excitement about the idea seems to be waning, or is perhaps being held at bay until the candidates are selected and the election draws near.

I hope they don't wait too long. This is a golden opportunity and, more important, a crucial responsibility of public libraries, as Shank pointed out, and as many librarians have agreed. It is a mandate that dates to the very roots and first purposes of the public library in America. It is time, right now, to gear up and loudly publicize what libraries have to offer voters, just the way they did on a blog at the Educational Park Branch of the San José Public Library, CA: “Civic Duty Fatigue? Tired of Hearing About the Candidates on the News but Still Not Ready for [the Election]? Not to worry! Your librarian has gathered...a number of valuable resources.”

This most basic obligation of libraries must be undertaken aggressively. That means delivering not only the easily available opinion about the issues in the current campaigns but also the resources that reveal the details and fabric of the concerns the candidates address. For example, voters need evidence as to whether or not illegal immigration has caused unemployment in this country. If they are as frustrated as I am, voters need detailed information from and about Afghanistan, Cuba, Iraq, and Pakistan, not to mention the Middle East. It is the kind of data almost totally absent from the mainstream media.

It is getting late. The din of the spin is distracting America's voters. It is time for public libraries to help them decide based on solid information.