The Center of Gravity

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By Bill Burkett (about the author) Page 1 of 3 page(s)

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For OpEdNews: Bill Burkett - Writer

The problem with America is now obvious.

Where is the nation's CENTER OF GRAVITY?

This Labor Day, a President that was delivered the first real mandate in a generation plots political decisions rather than policy decisions; based primarily on communicating his perception of the nation's center of gravity.

On morning television we here the talking heads continue to try to imprint that the nation is not a liberal nation in spite of this mandate, or deny that a mandate was even the outcome of the 2008 election. Their imprint is that America is a "center-right" America rather than acknowledge that a mandate was given.

All of these machinations are the root problem within American policy today, and the fuel of the often violent summer of 2008 as the minority voice has chosen to build perceptions that are not based in fact.

This is a fight for the Center of Gravity of America and the radical right's rhetoric is overpowering the policy focus of the average American - the single voter.

Well-funded campaigns have been waged all year long to regain the center of gravity of America. A review of the list of those funding these campaigns clearly indicates that they are corporations and individuals who stand to gain power beyond the one-man-one-vote principle which again reared its head in the 2008 election. Throughout the years, each of these individuals and factions have large lobby organizations in Washington and throughout the states. They have large advertising budgets and honestly many of them actually own large segments of the mainstream media - outright.

With all of this money, they also want undisputed power.

Nope, the little guy can only vote once every four years to express his or her opinion. And if the votes are rightfully counted as they usually are, their opinion is then heard. Or is it?

I contend that it hasn't been heard since at least 1980. I believe that this age of mass communications has been a boon to the corporate spin box that has not shaped, but force-formed the viewpoint of America.

All of the cries about the media being a left-leaning group of people simply hasn't been borne out since the late 1970s. Demoniziation of a Dan Rather was symbolism and nothing more. It was an outright attempt to shame America into moving opinion to the right, AND allowing more radical positions to be presented and accepted. This was a desensitization of the broadcast viewer who was far too busy and hard at work making a living to check facts, even when their gut told them something was wrong.

When it was Walter Cronkite, it was one thing. Walter was special and had a backbone of steel. But Dan Rather, Brian Williams and Katy Couric were certainly not Walter Cronkite. We used to simply depend on Walter Cronkite to explain what was really going on to us. He broke with all power structures. His media base was independently owned and was a news organization.

But Dan Rather, Brian Williams and most certainly Fox News are admittedly and proud extensions of business structure and their news rooms are simply propaganda machines; some of which are so patently partisan that they no longer even disguise it.

That is a reflection of the polarization of American, but polarization is the outcome not the driver of such change.

Each of these new entities don't want an independent electorate. They want the electorate to totally depend on them for their information to make decisions; and only then only once every four years. So it should be no surprise that even on the most left-leaning of the networks - MSNBC, a known and admitted partisan Joe Scarborough continues to build this image that he wants to make FACT that America is a "center right" nation.

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