137:, have been used to describe media coverage of elections. The terms refer to any news story or article whose main focus is describing how a particular candidate or candidates is faring during the election, in other words, trying to predict the outcome. This category includes polls. There is a thin line between a horse race news story and a non horse race news story. For example, an article simply describing a candidate's economic policy is a non horse race article, but an article which is about how certain groups of voters are angry at a candidate's economic policy is a horse race article.
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Some say that horse race coverage destroys coverage of the issues, because often, an article is mostly about how groups reacted to a speech or other presentation of a candidate on an issue and has little room to discuss the candidate's point of view
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Critics of the news media say that the vast majority of all articles during a political election are horse race style. Different criticisms have been raised as to why that is bad:
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It is argued that horse race coverage distracts voters from issues surrounding candidates by emphasizing poll results, regardless of how reliable the polls may be.
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