News Coverage and the Russian Elections

However we may feel about the political state of America, there can be no doubt that there are definitely worse governmental systems that one can have to live through. One excellent example can be found in the New York Times article, "Putin Basks in Election Win Despite Broad Criticism". The article details the win of Mr. Putin's party during the parliamentary elections, as well as the possibility that the newfound power may be used to change the Russian Constitution, allowing Putin to run for another term in office. However, the most important part of the article deals with the possible political corruption associated with the win. Even though accusations are not actually made in the article itself, it is clear that many suspect the election was unfair and was not actually done fairly. This is further complicated by the fact that the United Nations was not able to monitor or enforce the fairness of elections due to the many rules set up by the Russian Government.

However, all of this brings up a very interesting question, where was the Russian press during this difficult period? We often talk about the failure of the press in the American political system, but perhaps far greater failure can be found if we simply open our eyes to the rest of the world. As has been pointed out many times both during the course of class and throughout most of the sources we have been using, it is the responsibility of the mainstream media to report injustices such as this. However, even though it would be far more accurate to apply this principle to the Russian media systems, perhaps we can also find some interesting information to critique in the American system of press as well.