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Username: Tonya
Post Number: 7442
Registered: 07-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 03:51 pm: | 
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Corporate Media Makes Greens Invisible
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Wednesday, 06 August 2008
Democracy is impossible when corporate media act as "supreme arbiters of which ideas, parties and candidates are permitted to effectively compete in the public arena." Big Media in the U.S. specialize, not so much in disseminating information, but in spreading ignorance by censoring realities they don't like. The Washington Post refuses to cover the Statehood Green Party, despite the fact that they are the number two vote-getters - outpolling Republicans - in the nation's capital. As Green Party national standard bearers Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente point out: "It is equivalent to rigging an election." Democracy has nothing to do with it.
Corporate Media Strangles Democracy
"Giant corporations control the political menu in the United States."
We need to stop using the word "democracy" to describe the every two or four years exercise to fill electoral offices in the United States. The ritual is in fact a commercial enterprise utterly dominated by corporations that control not only which individuals are nominated by the two Big Business parties, but what ideas and political programs are made visible to the public. Citizens cannot possibly make free and informed choices when the only views to which they have access are those fed to them by the giant communications corporations that monopolize the American political conversation. When money and the rich man's media are the supreme arbiters of which ideas, parties and candidates are permitted to effectively compete in the public arena, then democracy does not exist.
In Washington, DC, the Statehood Green Party, through labor-intensive, grassroots work, has managed to garner more votes in the last several elections than the local Republican Party. That's an amazing accomplishment, given that the Statehood Greens get virtually no coverage from the Washington Post newspaper - which means little or no exposure in the corporate television media, either, since all the stations follow the Post's lead. Let's go over the facts, again: the Statehood Greens are the number two party in Washington, DC, yet the Washington Post refuses to cover them. The paper's congressional reporter, Paul Kane, recently slipped up and told the "brutally honest" truth about the Post's methodical manipulation of the "news." Kane claimed the Greens and Ralph Nader "got plenty of coverage" in the 2000 election, when, in his words, Nader "had a chance to play a decisive role in some states." According to Kane, "there is little indication that the Greens will have any major impact on the '08 election." Then Kane declared, "Until you [Greens] demonstrate that there is some level of support for your party, our paper isn't going to spend precious resources reporting on whatever it is you're doing [emphasis mine]."
"The Washington Post won't even cover the Greens in DC, where they are second to the Democrats in voter appeal."
Kane is a corporate hack who arrogantly refuses to be bothered finding out what precisely the Greens are doing, nationally or locally. It appears that's not part of his job description as a major media "journalist." The Washington Post won't even cover the Greens in DC, where they are second to the Democrats in voter appeal. And this year there are at least as many "swing states" where the Greens and Ralph Nader's independent operation can play as "decisive" a role as in the 2000 election - if that is really the criteria for coverage.
In reality, the Washington Post and the rest of the corporate media cabal withhold coverage from the non-Big Business parties in order to starve the public of alternative choices and ideas. They are censors who, as Green Party national standard bearers Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente have said, are attempting to "white out" a "political party that just nominated two women of color" for president and vice-president.
Giant corporations control the political menu in the United States. The public is given little choice but to consume whatever the moneyed classes put on their plates. As McKinney and Clemente point out: "It is equivalent to rigging an election."
And, we will add, it bears no resemblance to democracy.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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