On what possible basis is this not the top news story of the day?

[kpete]

Video of Al Gore's Speech

Al Gore gave an electrifying speech in Washington today. He said, "he president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently." The Democratic presidential candidate and the popular vote winner of the 2000 election called the actions of the current President unconstitutional and said a special prosecutor should be appointed immediately to investigate these illegal actions.


.............

On what possible basis is this not the top news story of the day? Every cable news outlet in the country should have covered the speech, instead none of them did. None of them!


The Democrats need to wake up to the fact that the cable "news" stations are the enemy. They are constantly propping up this administration despite the disastrously poor approval ratings of the President. They vilified Bill Clinton, who was immensely popular. They covered non-existent scandals under Clinton and refuse to cover grotesque ones under this administration.

Clinton had an approval rating of 72% at the height of his impeachment proceedings and if you turned on American television you would have thought the country hated him. President Bush's approval ratings are in the low 40s right now and if you turn on television, it seems like he is a well liked American hero bravely fighting two necessary wars. How long are the cable news stations going to cover for this administration before the Democratic Party rebels? They are cleaning your clocks and you don't even realize it!

.......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/video-of-al-gores-speech_b_13922.html

[mopaul]

1. it's just not sexy enough

and it's way too long and complicated and dry and dull and tedious. today we go with ray nagin's and hillary clinton's wacky statements.

[linazelle]

11. No. It's not tedious and dry--it's too damning. They can't fight Gore's

truths. It's much easier to blow Hillary's plantation remarks out of proportion even though she and Gore both said the same thing--that the House and Senate are subservient to the executive branch.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Picture the media to be an incredibly myopic creature.

Or, at best, it's sight is fine, but it has no peripheral vision. So what we need to do is find where the media is staring at, and then jump into their line of vision.

My suggestion? Filibuster Alito, because that's where the media is looking right now, and when they start asking questions, tell them that Gore's speech emboldened them.

[stray cat]

3. Most speeches aren't covered as major news beyond a clip

specially from people who are no longer in government.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Because the sabre-rattling over Iran might kill thousands of people?

I'd suggest that Iran crisis talks expose west's split with China is a more important story - though I suspect the American media didn't make that the top story either (British media is navel-gazing with an ongoing story about sex offenders being allowed to hold teaching jobs).

[neweurope]

5. Just as bad: Here in Germany it wasn't reported, either.

Europeans are getting the impression that everything is just fine in the US. Meanwhile the European countries are busy changing laws themselves, taking away more and more civil rights (under pressure from the US, but gladly nontheless, I think).

--------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Le Taz Hot]

6. Oh, don't be silly!

There are no missing white girls. Clinton's penis is not anywhere NEAR this story. No birthday partying lobsters. Waaaay too many multi-syllabic words -- where's the sound bite in that? I mean, really, it would have to be explaaaaaained and, well, you know, then we wouldn't have time for . . . what's that? We know the sex of Anelina's baby? Now I call that BREAKING NEWS!

[il_lilac]

7. ironicaly Gore called it

In his speech he talked about how the 30 second sound bits are controlled. The sheeple have been fed.

[Silverhair]

8. They didn't cover Gore much because it isn't really news.

Yes, those of us here on DU loved it. (I had to read it. Didn't hear it. Busy at the time.) But we have to face a rather unpleasant fact. Gore does not hold any government position, nor even any official position in the Democratic Party. He is now a private citizen who used to be a VP. He sets no policy. Nothing. His speeches do not signal any coming action. At most his speeches raise the question if he is going to try to run in 08. From the perspective of the media, they really are a non-story.

Yes, it sucks, but that is the way it is.

[sandnsea]

9. It is on MSNBC

We need to email and ask for more of the speech. And answer the Clinton charges as well.

[EuroObserver]

10. Quoting Al Gore:

(BTW, Such an important political speech, here in Spain, would undoubtedly be published in full in more than one major newspaper, and the whole country would be thinking and talking about it)

Quote:

And here there is cause for both concern and great hope. The age of printed pamphlets and political essays has long since been replaced by television - a distracting and absorbing medium which sees determined to entertain and sell more than it informs and educates.

Lincoln's memorable call during the Civil War is applicable in a new way to our dilemma today: "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

Forty years have passed since the majority of Americans adopted television as their principal source of information. Its dominance has become so extensive that virtually all significant political communication now takes place within the confines of flickering 30-second television advertisements.

And the political economy supported by these short but expensive television ads is as different from the vibrant politics of America's first century as those politics were different from the feudalism which thrived on the ignorance of the masses of people in the Dark Ages.

The constricted role of ideas in the American political system today has encouraged efforts by the Executive Branch to control the flow of information as a means of controlling the outcome of important decisions that still lie in the hands of the people.

The Administration vigorously asserts its power to maintain the secrecy of its operations. After all, the other branches can't check an abuse of power if they don't know it is happening.