Do news media collude with governmental officials to degrade the quality of political debate? Or do they corrode the party "message" by asking sharp questions?
The answers depend largely on what side you're on.
Some will say the Fox News Channel, with its lineup of conservative commentators, are in collusion with the Republican Party.
Others will maintain that MSNBC, with its liberal commentators, are allied with the Democratic Party.
Here's another aspect to the question: Do candidates resent the more independent news stations because they don't play along with party strategy?
But should they?
Conservatives are fond of lambasting the "media elite" who, they claim, don't really represent the American people. They toss around insulting phrases like "the lamestream media," and those reporters and interviewers who strive for neutrality and don't parrot the party line are dismissed as incompetent, at best, or enemies at worst.
Some observers take it as a given that "politicians lie." That may or may not be the case, but when dealing with two sides to a story, there is certainly conflict, and one set of informational views will contradict another.
As one young reporter once asked, "Did you ever get the feeling when you're interviewing people that one of them is lying?"
"Of course," replied the editor. "Maybe they both are. But it's not our job to decide that. Our job is to present both sides and let the reader decide."
Good reporters are neither advocates nor adversaries. They ask the tough questions because they need to be asked.
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