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Edited on Sat Jul-21-07 12:26 AM by Lydia Leftcoast
DK threatens the status quo far more than the other candidates do, and the mass media are the Voice of the Status Quo. We don't have the range of opinions in our press that you do.
I volunteered for his campaign in 2004. The only way we could get any publicity for him in Minnesota was to nag the local newspapers and TV stations, and even then, only one out of four local TV stations covered his third public appearance in Minneapolis, the others choosing to air "news" about a rural police chief having an adulterous affair.
The New York Times and other national media acted as if DK didn't exist. During the 2004 campaign, the NY Times ran a series of articles about the candidates' positions on various issues: the military, taxes, the environment, health care, and so on. Each candidate--Kerry, Lieberman, Dean, Edwards, Gephardt, etc.-- received a paragrahp's worth of attention about his positions on these issues. The three who actually differed from the pack, namely Kucinich, Sharpton, and Mosely-Braun, were each dismissed with a sentence.
For example, there would be a detailed paragraph about each "mainstream" candidate's convoluted attempt to appease and subsidize the health insurance companies, and in the last paragraph, there would be a single sentence, "Dennis Kucinich favors a single-payer health care system." Period.
The only time I saw extensive coverage of him was when a young reporter who sounded like a shallow suburban brat was sent to shadow the campaign. I could almost hear a snide tone of voice as she implied that he was a ridiculous throwback to the 1960s.
In the presidential debates, DK received noticeably less time than the others. I recall that in the first televised debate, he got a total of 5 minutes of speaking time, while the other candidates averaged nine.
The DLC shills claim that DK wasn't a serious candidate and that the electorate rejected him, but most didn't ever heard of him. There WAS a media blackout.
In Minnesota, where we had an unusually energetic and creative bunch of volunteers, who leafletted the State Fair, football and baseball games, and any other event they could think of, as well as doing a respectable amount of freeway blogging. As a result, DK got 17% of the primary vote in the state.
He did well wherever there was a well-organized local volunteer group to get the word out but not elsewhere.
That experience shattered my remaining illusions about the electroal process in America.
I could have accepted it if DK had lost after receiving the same amount of media attention as the rest of the candidates, but it was infuriating to the only candidate who was noticeably different from the rest being consistently ridiculed and ignored.
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