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The Wash
Crowd gathers at Nikki Haley event

Media bias concerns primary voters

The New Hampshire primary is filled with retail politics, rallies and surprise appearances.

By Albert Arron

LONDONDERRY, N.H. — Voters in the Granite State are accustomed to seeing potential candidates out and about. While many are proud of their vote, others say they are unhappy with the media’s representation of their candidate.

Londonderry school district worker and Republican voter Rebecca Mitchell, 55, contends that coverage varies by party. “I think the media is a huge problem,” she said.

At the same polling site, Laurie Riedel, vice president of finance for a software company, expressed her support for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley but said she would vote for President Joe Biden if he wins the nomination.

Riedel, 58, said, “I don’t think Biden gets enough credit for what he has done.” She said it’s the media’s fault for the lack of press because “the media — and the voters — like to focus on the drama.”

Data analyst Lee Sinkow, 39, and hospital administrator Linda Sinkow, 38, also voted in the Republican primary, casting their votes for Haley. “I find that she’s very much in the middle, which is a majority of America,” said Lee.

“I think a lot of the media or whatnot portrays everything to be very black and white,” Linda said. “You have to be on one side or another when most of America’s in the middle. I feel like she’s that middle-road representation.”

The couple hoped Haley would win the nomination, but if the election were between former President Trump and President Biden, they would be “torn” in their choice.

Media and supporters flock to Nikki Haley
Media and supporters flock to Nikki Haley at a retail event at the Peddler’s Daughter in Nashua, N.H. (Albert Arron/The Wash)

Donna and Paul LeRoy are loyal Democrat voters. After voting for President Biden in the 2020 presidential election, they turned to Democratic candidate Dean Phillips.

Her assessment of current coverage? “I don’t think they’ve been fair in representing Dean,” she said. “I think that they should have been out there more telling people that Biden stole our votes.”

The two also expressed their dissatisfaction with major T.V. networks.

“I was watching ABC, and they were covering a whole bunch of Republican candidates and so forth, but they have no spots on anything that happened on the Democrat side,” said Paul.

Paul LeRoy did say, “Channel 9 here in the state has always been very, very good about covering all the candidates.”

Michael Gendron, 65, and Jill Gendron, 64, both retired, voted for President Biden in the write-in campaign. Michael feels that “Joe doesn’t get enough positive coverage” and the “DNC needs to get their act together.”

Veteran and Trump voter Jim Baub had a more pessimistic outlook on the media. “I try to take in what I can, but … I don’t trust the conservative or formerly conservative media …. The liberal media, I don’t trust any of them.”

Baub had said, “They’ve changed… Everybody’s got an agenda. That’s exactly it, propaganda.”

The Wash Staff

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