Newsweek Editor’s Condescending View of Young Voters: ‘Being Hip Matters Most’

Taking into account how the majority of Hollywood supports the Democratic Party no matter what, it should come as no surprise that Entertainment Tonight continues to produce segments of political fluff in an election year.

The president himself showed up for a softball interview with his wife on Aug. 15, where he insisted that his re-election campaign hasn’t “tried to divide the country.” While avoiding  questions from the White House press corps earlier this summer, the president did find the time to sit down with People Magazine, a couple newspapers in Iowa, and called in to a few radio stations however (including a sports talk show).

But far from being excoriated for his obvious pandering scheme, the lapdog media seemed to love it, seeing it as a pitch for the youth vote. Senior Newsweek Editor Tony Dokoupil recently said on Entertainment Tonight that, "young voters want to feel like they're behind the hip party. That's what matters most."

The voting disparity among the 18-29 demographic four years ago suggests he may be right, back then. This was at the height of Obama hype and heavy disapproval for the outgoing Bush administration.

According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, the 2008 election saw the second highest turnout for young voters in U.S. history. The highest turn out occurred in 1972, when 18-year-olds were first given the chance to vote in a presidential contest.

But the ongoing recession seems to have affected the youth most of all. Their unemployment rate has risen to almost 17 percent. Good-paying jobs that are commensurate with a lack of experience are scarce and competition is intense.

College graduates are moving back in with their parents in droves, some in the media are now calling millennials the “boomerang generation.”

Underemployment has become the only option, and overregulation of the economy may have something to do with it. At least 54 percent of recent college graduates are overqualified and underpaid for what they’re doing. Numerous companies are citing an 'uncertain future' for their current hiring strategy, or lack thereof.

Getting the economy back on track and cutting deficit spending are what should matter most in this election, but the media are intent on propping up Obama’s “coolness” factor and insisting that rhetoric and mantras will suffice once again.