Abortion and Homosexual Rights: An Election Day Catch-Phrase for Maine is Born
By Mike Hein
Aug 11, 2006, 07:51
The Bangor Daily News is the only daily newspaper serving northern Maine. As such, it is a vital resource of information for many Mainers. Many of their readers are Christians. The management and reporters have every reason to be proud of their paper, they do good work most of the time.
Having said that, I'd like to examine the front page, top-of-the-fold Bangor Daily News article from Saturday, August 5, 2006 (Abortion, gay rights might not turn vote.) In my view it is contrived and disingenuous. Reading it, I could not help but imagine the proverbial square peg being forced into a round hole. The ‘square peg’ is Republican gubernatorial candidate Chandler Woodcock. The ‘round hole’ is the description of him as an outspoken Christian man of faith. The attempt to portray the Senator as a fire-and-brimstone Baptist preacher man is weak journalism. The article contains vague assertions and offers little that is news.
Perhaps articles that fan the flames of controversy boost readership, advertising, and subscriptions. The print media has fallen on hard times. A newspaper like the Bangor Daily might occasionally be tempted to manufacture the news instead of report it.
That appears to be the case here. There really is no story here, yet the article goes to great lengths to suggest otherwise. The banner headline trumpets abortion and homosexual rights, but the article itself concludes that these are not important issues to most Maine voters.
Ironically, it was pro-family Mainers who powered Chandler Woodcock to his primary election victory in June.
This article leads the reader to conclude that Maine’s ‘value voters’ are yesterday’s news. The article quotes candidate Woodcock stating that he has no social agenda. He says he is not seeking the endorsement of the Christian Civic League of Maine. The article does little to explore this angle.
The article references a ‘fine line’ that must be walked by both major political party candidates for Governor on the social value issues. Governor Baldacci is made to appear more electable than candidate Woodcock. It reads like a ‘puff piece’ for our current Governor, as though it were written by his staff.
The political commentators that are quoted in the article give us insight into what the average Maine voter looks for in a candidate. According to the pundits, social values issues like abortion and homosexual marriage are not the primary concerns of the majority of Maine voters. These comments are injected into the article and then left unexamined.
The article first constructs a ‘straw man’ argument (that the Republican candidate is a radical social conservative), then it completely reverses course. A reasonable person might conclude that these comments are included solely to imply that the Senator is ‘out of touch’ with the average Maine voter. This tactic of ‘mislead and discredit’ does a further disservice to the credibility of the Bangor Daily News.
What good can be taken from this article? Well, it was published in early August, well before most Mainers traditionally begin to focus on political campaigns. When we’re trudging to the polls this November through a foot of slush, early August will be a distant warm memory.
And not all who read this news story will be swayed by the somewhat anti-Christian rhetoric and less-than-honest literary devices. Mainers tend to have a healthy skepticism about believing everything they read. Even upstanding Christian ministries like the Christian Civic League of Maine have been unfairly criticized. Thus, many will have read the article with the proverbial grain of salt.
What may come from this article and others that have yet to be written, is a reaction from the Maine Christian community. It’s legacy may be that it becomes something of a softly-spoken rally cry. Not one that will be screamed from rooftops in hamlets throughout Maine, but more of a simple catch-phrase among Christians who vote this November.
“Abortion and homosexual rights?” Oh yes, we Christian Mainers are aware of these issues, and we know where these two candidates stand on them. We can remember the phrase "abortion and homosexual rights" for the next few months. In fact, we have the memory of an elephant at times.
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