"Rich man's" media and "death by ridicule" in the press....still going strong.

Watching the television news, cable or network, this week was a painful experience. It was like a switch was turned in some corporate boardroom, and all the media outlets began spouting the nonsense again.

This was a powerful article from 2004, and I thought of it this week. The attacks on the Clintons have begun again, they are gearing up for Gore. They are up to their old tricks just like in 04. Watching Hardball today was a sad experience. Chris Matthews has a sick fascination with the Clintons still.

Here is that article from 2004...
The Awesome Destructive Power of the Corporate Media

The article first refers to the media's attacks on Howard Dean during the campaign, but that is only a small part of their major points.

This commentary, however, is not about the merits of Howard Dean. If a mildly progressive, Internet-driven, young white middle class-centered, movement-like campaign such as Dean's - flush with money derived from unconventional sources, backed by significant sections of labor, reinforced by big name endorsements and surging with upward momentum - can be derailed in a matter of weeks at the whim of corporate media, then all of us are in deep trouble. The Dean beat-down should signal an intense reassessment of media's role in the American power structure.

In these two paragraphs, they say the Democrats are not much of a part of the corporate power, corporate media equation. My opinion is, though, that we have many Democrats equally beholden to the corporations. They come off pretty easy in the press because they seldom take stands and seldom have any opinions dissenting from the corporate views. They have it easy.

Clinton's Republican predecessors were not subjected to anything approaching such scrutiny and abuse. It is self-evident that George Bush, who should have been buried under a glacier of scandal and criminality within months of entering the White House, enjoys the full-time protection of the corporate press. Their institutional intention is to elect him again. Media apologists offer fictions about press vs. power, when in reality corporate media equals corporate power, just as Bush equals corporate power. The Democrats are not part of this equation.

Thus, the rich men's media descended on the Democratic Party primary process in order to mangle and denigrate it, while propping up the corporate champion in the White House. The New York Times, through its chief political reporter, Adam Nagourney, set the parameters of coverage by eliminating any mention of the three "bottom tier" candidates - starting with his "analysis" of the May televised debate in South Carolina, a state in which Al Sharpton is a key player! Nagourney systematically erased Sharpton, Kucinich and Carol Moseley-Braun from his weekly coverage of the contest - a professionally suicidal routine were it not consistent with the objectives of corporate management. The Times proudly sets the standard for national reporting, but its leadership was not necessary to ensure that the bottom tier would remain at the bottom. The organs of corporate speech all march to the same tune because there is not a dime's worth of difference between their owners.

The article mentions the way Ted Koppel in New Hampshire attacked the 3 candidates who had not raised much money in their races. He was ridiculing them in public. The article points out they had more class than he did.

Kucinich, Sharpton and Moseley-Braun acquitted themselves well in the exchange. The real story here is that Koppel felt empowered to all but demand that the three most progressive candidates and both Blacks vacate the Democratic presidential arena. Koppel had fumed to the New York Times about the uppity intruders, the month before. The day after the debate, ABC withdrew its reporters from all three campaigns.

The article concludes with the fact that Dean knew what had been been done to him, and I am most sure the others are still painfully aware. I see it all over again this week and the last few weeks.

Speaking of Dean after the race was over:

In an interview with CNN's repugnant Wolf Blitzer, the candidate said: "You report the news and you create the news... You chose to play it 673 times."

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