I have watched the debates and I have the opinion that we need to get better coverage from our media. There are several things which I take exception to that mainstream media continues to do:

• No clear delineation between reporting and editorializing, delivering in a slanted manner the daily happenings.

• Siding with one party or the other. Certain networks race to find anything that can be made to appear as objectionable if delivered in a certain way.

• Using the name of a minor child, disclosing her pregnancy. She is not the public person in her family, and she is a minor!

• Racing to find faults (with zealous glee) with a candidate who has been on the ticket for a very few weeks, when everyone else on either ticket has been running for over two years for the office.

• I think the fair political practices committee needs to review the amount of “face time” each candidate was given. The review will find that one candidate was given more full screen time alone, while the other had more spilt-screen time shared with his opponent. I would hope that when it comes time to renew FCC licenses, this information is forwarded.

• Media is more and more trying to influence the story rather than report it, to make the news — not witness it.

• Exit polls should be limited only to those areas where polling has ceased. Some small hamlet in New Hampshire has voted at midnight and votes tallied are then broadcast nationwide. To report as to how many voters have made it to the polls would be proper, but not to ask them who they voted for in a secret election (we do still have secret ballot, I believe).

Most newspapers clearly state, on their editorial page, their endorsements on issues and candidates. Whether we concur or not, at least we know plainly what they think. And elsewhere in their pages they report on the news. Sadly, most of us get our taste of the news from broadcast media alone and try to find the truth that there is between two or three stations of various slantings. This is also why I take more than one newspaper.

We are in danger of choosing someone by his photogenic factor, his eloquence, his razzle dazzle, not from his record. We must remember that campaign promises are dreams of a possible future, much like the hopes one has when starting a new romance or job. It’s always sunshine and roses: “Two chickens in every pot, two cars in every garage, peace and prosperity in our time.”

Regrettably, we still have a group of people who are making war on us. We can’t win friends around the world with everything we do. We have people who are jealous and envious of our successes for which they condemn us. But they still try to get here to have the chance to become one of us. We still have the best of ideas for government on this planet currently. We can work together to make it win. Do your research carefully and vote on election day.

God bless America.

(Brandt lives in Napa.)