Do people not get it? The problem is the MEDIA, stupid!

[kerry-is-my-prez]

The reason we will keep on getting our asses kicked.... the media! We could have the BEST candidates, the BEST ideas, the BEST talking points, the MOST money and we will continue to get our country stolen right from under us as long as right-wingers own the media.

The right-wing and Republicans have slowly begun to take over the media and until we take them back NOTHING is going to work. HOW do we take them back? MONEY. We need to band together and start buying back companies. Hostile takeovers. We start buying stock in these companies, etc.

Our money is better spent doing that than anything. We are fighting a losing battle.


http://www.swans.com/library/art7/rdeck004.html
"There is not one of you who would dare to write his honest opinion." John Swainton of the New York Times told colleagues at his retirement party circa 1870. "The business of a journalist now is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, fall at the feet of Mammon and sell himself for his daily bread. We are tools, vessels of rich men behind the scenes, we are jumping jacks. They pull the strings; we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are the properties of these men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
-- quoted in INDEX on Censorship, Vol. 30, No. 1, January 2001, p. 10.



http://www.swans.com/library/art7/rdeck004.html
The Media
by Deck Deckert
April 2, 2001

-snip-

Today the U.S. appears determined to prove that Jefferson knew what he was talking about. Americans are ignorant at the same time they embrace the illusion that they are the best informed nation on earth, shackled while they assume they are the world's freest people.

American ignorance is the direct result of a consolidation of the media that has given a handful of giant corporations a choke hold on the distribution of information. A half dozen corporations control most of the media - not only newspapers, radio and TV stations, and cable networks, but book publishers, music distributors, film studios, and to a lesser degree, the Internet.

-snip-

more articles by this guy:

http://www.swans.com/library/art8/rdeck022.html
http://www.swans.com/library/art8/rdeck031.html
http://www.swans.com/library/art7/rdeck008.html

[ChiciB1]

1. Well....

Some of us DON'T have a lot of money to throw around. My husband is retired and I recieve a Disability check each month. We also care for his mother who has Alzheimer's and she has lived with us for over 5 1/2 years.

I agree MONEY is what talks, but if you're not rich it's hard to "take" anything over. The media isn't our friend, and most certainly not LIBERAL, but I feel like my hands are tied. I can only do so much, and am willing to PROTEST BUSH, but money isn't a way I can do it.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

7. A share of stock costs as little as a dollar sometimes.We each buy a share

Those who can afford it can buy hundreds of shares.

[msgadget]

2. Actually, I think it's logo politics and the issues

Why do we throw our support behind one party or platform and give these people power over our destiny? If we begin to hold all candidates and elected officials accountable issue by issue we might actually get somewhere.

What good does it do to point out how unfair the media is when we race to the knee jerk defense of any politician or party just because they're on 'our side'? Oh, really, check their voting records and dig into your memory to last time you heard from them that wasn't a splashy photo-op or campaign enticement. Issue by issue, has your party or official earned your loyalty?

There are currently issues both sides feel the same way about, yet party affiliations keep us from working together as citizens. If we know they're pissed about something, it's the time to join them in that battle. Support them on that issue. If the media is biased toward them, it works to our advantage. It's not compromising, it's playing the hand that's dealt you.

These are critical times and we have to seize opportunities as they arise.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. CORPORATE MEDIA the 4th branch of United States of Corporate America

[kerry-is-my-prez]

4. We have to be united and the media doesn't report the protests.....

n/t

[msgadget]

8. I get that

but do you get what I'm suggesting? This omnibus bill, for instance, is full of poison pills. We can't get a voice but if there's someone on the other side getting a voice about something in there, it's time to reach for that common ground.

What has loyalty earned us?? It's not us against them (well, it is, but...). These *politicians* - Democrat and Republican - hold our quality of life in their hands and if they don't hear us when they think we're saying the opposite of those they listen to, it's time to chime in when we're on the same page.

How else are you going to be heard by the media?

[noiretextatique]

6. on what issue should we join with our conservatives friends?

the war? even though many admit the reasons given for starting this war were outright lies, they still support "the war president" and "the troops."
abortion? sure let's 'compormise" with people who are against any form of contraception and who value the *potential* life contained in microscopic cells vs. actual, viable, adult females.
gay marriage? why not just make homosexuality illegal? that will solve the entire problem. i hear delay has been talking abut introducing such a bill.
support them on WHICH issues?

[msgadget]

9. Absolutely not,

I'm talking about an issue like mandatory psych testing for kids - they don't like it and neither do we.

[DireStrike]

10. Without proportional representation you get a two party system.

Without legit voting and media you get a one party system.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. You can not have a democracy

without a free press.

RIP
USA

[sangh0]

11. I'm not too big on the idea that there is ONE REASON

why we lost. I tend to see a bit more complexity in the world we live in.

[msgadget]

12. Right on!

It's too easy to blame the media or the candidate for not saying the right thing. It's a way bigger deal than that.