Dean's diagnosis re Big Media: acute failure

Howard -

First thanks to all SFA members who contacted the White House and Congress urging the reappointment of Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein to a full five-year term (per my post on September 30).

Against tremendous odds because he fought so valiantly with his fellow Democratic FCC Commissioner, Michael Copps, against even greater relaxation of media ownership rules, Adelstein's reappointment was approved by Bush yesterday.

This is a little noticed but significant victory in the long term struggle by ordinary citizens to take back American government from the special interests and relates directly to the incisive remarks Howard Dean made yesterday evening at Yale University about the sorry state of the US media (see story below).

In my experience this year working with both Dean and Kerry grassroots groups, I found that seniors understand this issue in ways younger generations do not and are poised to play a catalytic role across the country to educate and involve all Dean supporters in practical local efforts to address this central problem.

John Boyer
Media for America
www.mediaforamerica.org

Dean criticizes news media
Yale Daily News, November 17, 2004
By Yotam Barkai

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean '71, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke Tuesday at Yale about the shortcomings of today's print media and the importance of an ethical media in a working democracy.

In the symposium, titled "The Media and the Election: A Postmortem," Dean stressed corporate ownership of the media and the increased focus on entertainment as problems with today's media, and he emphasized the importance of diversity and regulation in fixing these problems. Panelists Evan Thomas, an assistant managing editor for Newsweek, and Martin Nolan, a political reporter and editor of The Boston Globe's editorial page, defended the media's integrity and objectivity.

"The media is a failing institution in this country," Dean said. "They are not maintaining their responsibility to maintain democracy."

One of the major problems Dean focused on during the talk is the media's increased focus on entertainment at the expense of investigative journalism.

"The Monica Lewinsky scandal exploded," Dean said, "and suddenly the way to get to the top [in media] was salacious gossip and sex scandals. There is no investigative journalism worthy of the name."

The television networks, especially Fox News, are most to blame for the increased focus in journalism on flash and entertainment, Dean said. Dean said these networks aim to entertain because "entertainment sells better than news." The infamous "scream speech," often blamed for Dean's loss to Sen. John Kerry '66 in the Democratic primaries, was partially a media fabrication because it was appealing for its entertainment value rather than its newsworthiness, Dean said.

"The media is trained to get the entertainment value and screw the facts," he said.

But Thomas said entertainment in the media is a necessary tool to attract the public.

"You do need to entertain a little bit," Thomas said. "You get people to read about serious issues by — putting a [famous] person on the cover."

During the discussion, Dean said the media has almost completely lost its objectivity.

"You can't read a piece of newsprint very often in this country without being told what to think," he said.

Nolan defended the media against Dean's claims of bias, and Thomas said while there is a slight liberal bias in the media, reporters generally search for objectivity.

The solution to restoring an ethical media, Dean said, is to ensure diversity and cap corporate ownership of media outlets. He

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Seniors for America was founded to elevate issues of special concern to Seniors and Elders in the national political agenda. Through a network of Internet-savvy Senior outreach coordinators of all ages, SFA strives to provide bridges at the community level to non-digital Seniors and Elders who wish to remain active in the political process.

'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida

"The difference was hundreds of votes in each of the different places we examined, and most of those were in minority areas. The pattern was very clear. The anomalies favored George W. Bush. Every single time."

By Thom Hartmann
CommonDreams NewsCenter
November 18, 2004

There was something odd about the poll tapes.

A "poll tape" is the phrase used to describe a printout from an optical scan voting machine made the evening of an election, after the machine has read all the ballots and crunched the numbers on its internal computer. It shows the total results of the election in that location. The printout is signed by the polling officials present in that precinct/location, and then submitted to the county elections office as the official record of how the people in that particular precinct had voted. (Usually each location has only one single optical scanner/reader, and thus produces only one poll tape.)

Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org, the erstwhile investigator of electronic voting machines, along with people from Florida Fair Elections, showed up at Florida's Volusia County Elections Office on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 16, 2004, and asked to see, under a public records request, each of the poll tapes for the 100+ optical scanners in the precincts in that county. The elections workers - having been notified in advance of her request - handed her a set of printouts, oddly dated November 15 and lacking signatures.

Bev pointed out that the printouts given her were not the original poll tapes and had no signatures, and thus were not what she'd requested. Obligingly, they told her that the originals were held in another location, the Elections Office's Warehouse, and that since it was the end of the day they should meet Bev the following morning to show them to her.

CLICK HERE for complete story at CommonDreams.

Wanted: Better Donkeys

OK, so maybe a left-leaning Massachusetts senator wasn't the right pick after all. Let the soul-searching over '08 begin.

By Howard Fineman and Weston Kosova
Newsweek
November 15, 2004

Issue Nov. 15 - Get ready for the real fight. Yes, the campaign was bitter and nasty, but with George W. Bush returning to the White House for a second term, another epic battle is already underway—inside the Democratic Party. Let the recriminations begin: John Kerry was too liberal! He was too conservative! He should have been more pro-war! He should have been more antiwar! The losing side always goes through a period of wailing and teeth-gnashing after an election, as the various factions grab for power in anticipation of the next election. It will be especially intense after two narrow, bruising losses. Ultimately, all the soul-searching comes down to one all-important question (one that most normal people can't even bear to think about at the moment): who gets the nomination in 2008? In the age of the permanent campaign, politicians live and die by a single axiom—if you're not already running, it's probably too late. The list of candidates who are positioning themselves for the next go-round is longer than you might think.

In defeat, Kerry and his crowd are already being dissed and dismissed as the last hurrah of the baby-boom generation of accommodationist liberal careerists. Mondale couldn't do it. Neither could Dukakis. Kerry was strike three. But what takes its place? Will it be the unabashedly liberal Howard Dean wing, with its youthful army of outside-the-Beltway activists, or a return of the Bill Clinton centrists? "Those are the two extremes, I guess," says Democratic pollster and strategist Harrison Hickman. "Most people are in the middle—but it is the extremes who will now dominate the argument we will have."

One virtual certainty: Dean will live to scream another day. Love or hate him, the former Vermont governor forever changed the way future campaigns will be run. He'll try again next time—he's already got a new book and a busy speaking schedule. But even if he flames out, the Deaniac method—let a thousand bloggers bloom—will be Campaign 101 for all candidates in 2008.

CLICK HERE for complete story in Newsweek.

White House Deal Could Save Adelstein

“They made that deal before the election, and they think they need to keep it,” a Senate aide said Friday.

By Ted Hearn
News MultiChannel
November 12, 2004

November 12 - Reports of commissioner Jonathan Adelstein’s imminent departure from the Federal Communications Commission might have been premature.

Adelstein’s term expired last year, and the Democrat from South Dakota is required to leave when Congress adjourns in a few weeks.

But a deal between the White House and Senate leaders could result in a new five-year term for the former aide to Sen. Tom Daschle after so many had written him off.

The Senate Commerce Committee has tentatively scheduled a Nov. 18 hearing on Adelstein’s reappointment. In all, the agreement covers about 85 White House nominees, including federal judges.

Senate Republicans want to include Adelstein in a package that would include a Republican nominee for the five-member FCC, which is now under GOP control by one vote.

Earlier in the week, FCC chairman Michael Powell told reporters he was in no hurry to leave the agency. Powell -- who joined the FCC in 1997 and became chairman in 2001 -- may remain at the commission until his term expires in 2007.

But a senior Republican communications attorney said Powell is expected to leave within six to eight months, calling his recent comments about staying an attempt to avoid lame-duck status.

GOP FCC member Kevin Martin is considered a candidate to replace Powell as chairman.

CLICK HERE for complete story at FreePress.net.

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Dean's diagnosis re Big Media: acute failure