Is the media still objective?

To the Editor:

What has happened to the impartiality of the media?

Being neither Democrat nor Republican and a retired teacher, I find myself very disturbed by what I have seen and heard in our media regarding our presidential candidates. You do not have to be a Constitutional Law expert to know that John McCain is eligible to run for office.

However, when there are questions of the same raised to Barack Obama: whether he was born in Kenya or in Hawaii, that only one of his parents was an American citizen, we hear next to nothing.

Also, the media continually comments on the qualifications of Sarah Palin to be Vice President, seemingly ignoring the fact that she was a mayor and a governor, both of which are executive governmental positions. She may not have much foreign relations experience.

The Vice President has been more active in national matters rather than international. Compare her executive qualifications to those of Obama, who has only been a U.S. Senator for three years (two primarily spent campaigning for President). Why is our media ignoring this, instead of giving equal "airtime" to the qualifications of all candidates?

I believe that everyone has the right to vote for whomever he or she feels to be the best candidate running. But to be able to exercise that right intelligently, we must have all the facts available to us -- not just ones selected for us by the media.

John Arnett,

Brazil