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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 11/21/14

When Networks Snub a Presidential Address, Democracy Is "The Biggest Loser"

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Reprinted from The Nation

President Obama gives immigration reform speech
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Only 36 percent of Americans participated in the November 4 elections that determined the political makeup of the legislative branch of the federal government. That's a dismal measure of political engagement in the United States, a nation where voter turnout rates have in recent years fallen far below the levels seen in Germany and other European countries.

The Economist's 2012 "Democracy Index" dropped the US ranking on the list of the most democratic countries to number 21 -- with particularly low marks for popular participation in the political process.

How has the American circumstance so decayed in a nation that once so well understood the wisdom of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's observation that "democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men's [and women's] enlightened will"?

There's plenty of blame to go around. But let's start with broadcast media that are so indefensibly irresponsible that television networks cannot take time away from their relentless profiteering to present a short address by the president of the United States -- an address announcing an executive order on an issue that is universally recognized as consequential and controversial.

ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- four major broadcast networks -- all declined to interrupt prime-time programming to air President Obama's Thursday evening address on immigration policy. Though cable news channels, public television stations and Spanish-language stations cleared time for the president's speech, the big broadcast networks stuck with fare such as The Biggest Loser.

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John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.

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