(Brad Friedman) MSM to American Democracy: Drop Dead

[MelissaB]

It's been a full two weeks now since the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO came out with their 107-page report confirming what so many of us have been trying to ring the bell about for so long: The Electronic Voting Machines which are proliferating counties and states across America even as I type, are not secure, not accountable, not recountable, not transparent, not accurate and not adequately monitored or certified by anybody.

To quote from the alarming landmark report:

Concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.
The Mainstream Corporate Media couldn't care less.

The report was requested by several high-ranking members of the U.S. House of Representatives. It culminated a year-long investigation into the secret Voting Machines and Software now being deployed to the tune of millions of tax-payer dollars to privatize our American Democracy.

The release of the report was accompanied by a bi-partisan News Release which lauded its findings.

That's right. Six high-ranking U.S. Congressmen (3 Dems and 3 Reps) issued the incredibly rare joint News Release together. Two of those Congressmen were Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee respectively. You do understand how rare it is that those two can agree on anything much less issue a joint press release, right?!

And yet, none of the above has been carried by even one wire service or one major American Newspaper. Not one.

News of the landmark non-partisan report and bi-partisan news release was carried on a few Internet sites (here here, and here) in a few tech journals (here , here and here ) and a couple of tiny independent newspapers (here and here ). But there has not been a single wire-service (not AP, not UPI, not Reuters, not AFP etc.) nor a single mainstream American print newspaper (not NYTimes, not Washington Post, not any of them) to run even a paragraph on any of it. Not one.

...snip

I'd encourage you to do so as well by dropping a polite request to E&P that they inquire and report on the matter. Perhaps that'll help get some action. And some coverage. Their address is: [email protected]

I hope you'll help. This democracy ain't gonna save itself, ya know. I hope you realize that.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/mainstream-media-to-ameri_b_10094.html

[xchrom]

1. there's nothing ''main stream'' about our media.

it's as radical as scalia, pat robertson and ann coulter.

[depakid]

6. It most certainly is

and it's ripe for re-regulation should the Dems ever manage to regain power again. I'm thinking that licenses will need to be yanked and cable "news" will need to be regulated with a new and enhanced fairness doctrine.

I think such rules would be supported by a large majority of Americans- somewhere in the range of about 70%

[tofubo]

8. the cccp has helped 'the cause'

the complicit corporate controlled press has been blowing the President of Vice Cheney's horn since he 'found' himself a Resident in Bush

Vice President Rumsfeld's 'Commission' in 1998 has all the players needed for the takeover and assault on this country, they were tasked to look into the threats on america, and behold and lo, they found one, facilitated it, and are reaping rewards on a grand scale

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Wow. CCCP.

Complicit Corporate Conrolled Press. Perfect.

[SoCalDem]

29. back in the..back in the....back in the CCCP.

[markbark]

19. Ahhh, but

the reason it's referred to as the main STREAM is that, as a rule, streams are usually very shallow.


--MAB

[ClassWarrior]

27. Don't rationalize using a RW frame. Just drop it and walk away.

It's like rationalizing sucking on a razor blade.

They're the Corporate Media, plain and simple.

NGU.

[Mnemosyne]

2. .

:kick:

[GrpCaptMandrake]

3. Kick!

"Nothing to see here, move along."

"These are not the droids you're looking for."

:banghead:

[jsamuel]

4. absolutely!!!

[KoKo]

5. Kick....

[Dhalgren]

7. K&R! I also emailed E&P....

[William Seger]

10. Kick

[HootieMcBoob]

11. This should be the most recommended post of the day

:kick:

[bunny planet]

12. You know, it occurs to me that we need to combine 'The World Can't Wait'

kind of campaign with a kind of consumerized civil disobedience. What if the word was spread that the American people, en masse, would just turn off their television sets. Talk about your war on drugs. Television is THE drug that has allowed, above everything else, the brainwashing of the US population. Even when trying to just watch political programming to stay up on current events and be aware of what's happening we are daily subjected to the 'catapaulting' of the propaganda. It is fresh outrage everyday, as those of us paying attention see so-called 'newscasters' lie, obfuscate, mislead, and in general act as shills for the administration constantly. Why not stop watching, but not as individuals, in a large, organized movement, the same way we organize the protests and marches that never get covered on the very same news we are outraged about. Can you imagine how they'd pay attention if say on a certain day, and up until they started covering the news in a real way beginning with reporting the GAO's findings on the 2004 election, millions of informed people just stopped watching television completely, but made it public their reasons for doing so.

I think it could work, just needs a catchy slogan and of course, an organized internet based grassroots spreading of the information about date and time of the tv boycott to start. It also needs a very strong public relations component to get the word out about the boycott and the reasons behind it.

It would be even better if we picked one program that we would all turn the tv back on for, and then turn it right off again. We would spread the message that we refuse to listen to compromised programming, but will reward those programs that are really 'fair and balanced' about giving us news. I nominate Keith Olbermann's Countdown as being the only program we all still watch (ok, maybe the Daily Show too).

Take back the media, then the WH. Hit them in the pocketbook and let them know we've kicked their drug, tv.

[bloom]

20. I've started thinking about

canceling my satellite connection - which would leave me with next to no stations. Sometimes I would get PBS.

If large numbers of people all canceled on the same day/week even - that would make a point. If enough did it - it might be like the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It would take a lot of people to make the point.

The corporate TV culture is pro-war and anti-liberal which includes being anti-women (at least anti-equality which translates as anti-women). O'Reilly was the most blatant with his comment about reducing a woman on his show to "eye-candy" - but actually - I think the Daily Show could be better equality-wise.

Democracy Now is the only show I would really miss and I can listen to it on the radio. Sometimes there are other things on LINK and such - but if there was going to be a massive boycott - I could give them up to.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

30. Also their treasured...

... sponsors can and should be targeted for their patronage of corporate media. We have the numbers to make corporate media feel our wrath, just not the organization---yet.

[symbolman]

33. Take Back the Media

Kinda catchy.. HEY, wait a minute, that's the name of MY SITE!

We sort of do that thing y'know :)

Nice to see that string of words we've used to kick some corporate news asses over the last 4 years - right now I'm pushing my "Rove's War" film at Takebackthemedia.com to get the whole Chronology out to the masses..

We DID screw Limbaugh REALLY BAD once with a Boycott.. I wanted to get this film out of the way so that we could set up a State by State Limbaugh Corporate Sponsor watch at our site and TAKE HIM DOWN..

Boycotts are the ONLY thing we have left, bunnies and bunnettes.. the Gandian Money Principle..

[Benhurst]

13. Recommended NT

[long_green]

14. WHEN we bust these guys...

I don't want any of them to go to jail. For their sentence they can spend every last dime and every last moment of their lives registering African Americans to vote AND seeing to it that they get to the polls.

[jsamuel]

15. hehe

[mod mom]

16. Sent a letter to E + P and others in the media plus forwarded it thru my

networks. One of the most important issues that face our nation!

[jsamuel]

17. thanks mod mom!

[hvn_nbr_2]

18. Editor and Publisher

They're the only outfit (besides, to some extent, Knight Ridder) that have maintained any kind of journalistic integrity throughout this whole mess.

[Wilms]

21. kick n/t

[BigBearJohn]

22. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! /nt

[IndyOp]

23. I emailed E&P -

:kick:

[NoBushSpokenHere]

24. !

[Amonester]

25. Kick + Recommend & Act (n/t)

:kick:

On edit: Kick + Recommend & Act (Thanks!)

[autorank]

26. Brad, you're rokken...take it to them, again and again.

I hereby nominate you for the e-Pulitzer!

[grannylib]

28. Will be sending this to every paper and TV outlet I can think of. Internet

too.
My money's on Olbermann to be the first on MSM TV to cover.

[Der Blaue Engel]

31. Does anyone know how to issue a press release?

I've never understood exactly how they work, but it seems like press releases get published widely because someone pays for them to be published. Is that something we could do? Do you have to be a corporation to issue a press release?

[AbbyR]

34. Anyone can issue a press release

I get press releases from churches, Red Hat groups, everyone you can think of. There's even a template for one in Word, I think. What we look at is who issues the press release. And no, you do not have to pay to get them published. The problem is, as always, getting them noticed.

What might be useful is what PR types use - a really complete press list so that every time something comes up, you know exactly who to contact. The list would include all media outlets, information on who the person is who needs to get the press release or notification, snail mail, e-mail and telephone contact numbers, and if you're a group with an announcement of an upcoming event, a time and date deadline for publication.

Might be something for someone here to undertake and keep on file.

[Nothing Without Hope]

32. This little community paper carried it - but the major media ignored it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x399605
thread title(11/3): GAO report upholds Ohio vote fraud claims

The name of this brave, truth-telling community news venue (which may be published only online - I'm not certain): the Rock River Times, of Rockford IL. The article was written by its multi-tasking senion editor, Joe Baker.

Goes to show - the failure to mention this in the major media is quite deliberate and is, as you say, a message to US democracy to drop dead in decent silence. Or, rather, since both the last elections were stolen, to STAY dead.

[Kurovski]

35. Most of the corporate media is now clearly complicit

in the dismantling of the most basic elements in a democracy.

Stunning, no wonder so many people don't want to believe it. I'd rather it weren't true, but there it is.