I enjoyed reading
the Viewpoints article on the Democrat and Republican parties'
disrespect for a free press and how much disdain they have for it.
Critical press has
never been popular with the ruling class. Especially now with the
obvious and painfully evident hostility of the working class towards
the two … twits? I have no idea what to call them other than
control freaks, predictable, and boring. (Can we fire them both and
ignore the Democratic and Republican Parties for fronting them?
Please?)
Trump is playing
reality show TV. It's all he knows and man does it show.
Clinton is so
managed in her message that she sounds more plastic than my bank ATM
card. Her talking points are about saccharine and I've shoveled less
BS in all the years that I worked on my neighbor's farm when I was in
high school.
And if the media
dare fact checks and calls those two candidates out on it – forget
it. Their true believer followers will be all over them. (BTW -
Read that book and carefully. It could easily be rewritten now for
the Democratic and Republican parties and their followers. It was
originally written as a hit piece on communists and socialists.)
So, what should the
press do?
I say screw the
Democrats and Republicans. Send a token reporter and give them a
story in the election coverage section.
And what to do with
the rest of the space?
Easy. Report on the
other political candidates that are running for office. I know of
several people that are “Never Trump” and are into the
Libertarian and Constitution parties. Never heard of them? It's
because the media fails to cover them. In a truly democratic society
with a media that followed the idea of educating the electorate,
they would.
Then there are the
jilted Sanders supporters that are looking at Cinton with the “ick”
factor going as well. I have heard several say that they would never
vote for her. (Vote for a qualified woman? Yes. Her? No.) Several
news stories that I have read on-line state that 25% of the Sanders
supporters would not vote for Hillary. I'm sure that number would be
larger if the media did something other than report the Democrats as
the political left in this country. (Hint: It's not.)
It is interesting to
see an article every here and there that covers the Green Party.
Interesting that the reporters go off on the Green Party's candidates
support for homeopathy but fail to give the same level of critical
examination to tax cuts for the rich that fail to produce the
promised jobs and economic boost. (Two words – EPIC FAIL.)
And there are actual
socialists running for president. As a member of Socialist Action,
I will blatantly plug our candidates – Jeff Mackler for President
and Karen Schraufnagel for Vice President. We have a platform that s
readily available for all to see and I'm sure that they would love to
answer questions from the media. They would probably bend over
backwards to accommodate the media.
But the media has
already made a decision – these third party candidates are
unelectable, so they are not going to take the time to cover them.
And that is part of the reason why people are blowing off the Buffalo
News and other corporate sources as serious sources of news and other
information.
The responsibility
of the media is to inform and educate the citizenry about issues that
matter to them. Not to act as gatekeepers and decide what is
realistic and what isn't in an election year.
If the media took
third party candidates seriously and gave them the same coverage, or
at least some coverage beyond the pithy and token coverage that they
now receive, then the two main parties would have no choice but to
grow up and act responsibly. And people would be more inclined to
pay attention to the media.
But given the fact
that the media has Stockholm Syndrome, I am not confident that I
will see anything other than the drivel that I see now. That's why I
go to the independent media on the web and subscribe to independent
magazines and newspapers.
So, the media has a
choice – break the Stockholm Syndrome or stop complaining.
I expect that all I
am going to hear from them is more complaining.
Sadly.
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