In 1984, I was the 18-year-old candidate for U.S. President - independent, maverick, mercurial, and "practical idealist." I was a cute back-page news story in a year when Ronald Reagan was coasting to his re-election landslide over the Democrats' Walter Mondale. I became a footnote or an asterisk in that year's election.
Of course, it meant more to some than to others. For those who paid attention, I decried the two-party system and made "People Are Important" into the bumper sticker slogan for a platform of Practical Idealism, which I described as "better ideas for a better future."
To fight with the mainstream media (MSM) was really not the point of my campaign, back in the day. In fact, one can argue that I was a "media creation" in the first place, because --what are the expectations for an 18-year-old in campaigning for President? None! Based on that, I was able to exceed expectations--popping up on talk radio everywhere, helped by attention from AP, UPI, USA Today, the New York Times, and People magazine.
So am I a sell out staple of the mainstream news media? No! My success was with print, radio, and affiliate TV. In the 1984 campaign, at no time did national networks--ABC, CBS, NBC--ever go near, nor touch the story of my candidacy. As a result, I was invisible on the networks, and confined to back pages as often happens to independent or third party candidates. (My big victory was to appear on page two of USA Today.)
Very clearly, the U.S. had "first class news" coming from Jennings and Brokaw and Rather; and then it had "second class news" coming from everywhere else. Jennings and Brokaw and Rather could do their own thing, seemingly in a bubble very much apart and removed from the news of everywhere else.
Let's face it -- mine was the first effort of a teenager. What I did was not even "the college try." It was post-high school and pre-collegiate. Not knowing what to expect, I could be pleasantly surprised to move the needle at all. So really, I cannot feel very mistreated, and I have not much basis to complain, coming away from my experience of 1984.
However, the media has only gotten worse since 1984. I can report back to the American people about their shenanigans getting more brazen and atrocious, while becoming indefensible, shameless, and disconnected from reality. They know that I am loaded for bear -- for some time, I have promised or threatened to finish my manuscript for the book, 'Genocidal Correctness.' In it, I have promised to ream a new orifice for the MSM.
The complaints that I have are mostly from a citizen perspective, and not from a candidate standpoint. But, when the complaint is about "disappearing" a presidential candidate, then I relate to both perspectives. It's because I belong to a lineup of the disappeared: John Anderson '80; John Kusumi '84; Ron Paul '88; Jerry Brown '92; Ross Perot '96; Ralph Nader '00; and in 2004, there were interesting candidacies by Nader, Dennis Kucinich, and David Cobb -- all "disappeared" by the MSM.
Since there is such a lineup, and we actually know about these prior vanished candidacies, there is no reason why we should give the media the presumption of innocence now. If they are creatures of habit, they will continue past patterns once again this year. The pattern is to find independent thinkers and the intellectually honest, and eliminate them. The independent thought and intellectual honesty goes "off the reservation," and departs from the page of the neo-corporate, neo-fascist control agenda of the "politically correct." The sell outs want to reward those who are "team players" for "team evil."
Hence, they want to arrange a disappearing act for anyone from "team good." This year, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel have already been caught under the wheels of their machinery in the service of evil. Their next target? --Ron Paul.
Tonight, we are being provided with a warning about the next upcoming fight of the Ron Paul forces. The bad guy du jour is Fox News. They are planning a forum of Republican candidates in New Hampshire on the eve of that state's primary. The forum is slated for January 6, 2008, and the word on the internet tonight is that Fox News will EXCLUDE Ron Paul from participating in that forum (debate). In addition to expressing outrage, campaign manager Kent Snyder said, “Paul supporters should know that we are continuing to make inquiries with Fox News as to why they have apparently excluded Dr. Paul from this event.”
That is a not-very-subtle cue to activate--or to call up the troops of--the "Ron Paul revolution borg," who will undoubtedly raise a hue and cry, bombarding Fox News with a piece of their minds.
For my part, I might think "gee -- where were all of these borg when I needed them in 1984?" Well, in 1984 there was no world wide web. For that matter, there was no Microsoft Windows. In 1984, the Apple Macintosh had just been introduced, and was the first instance of point-and-click computing for popular consumption. In 1984, modems tended to be 150 or 300 bps. That means 150 bits, not Kbits. (Divide by eight for the number of ASCII characters per second.) There was not much chance for political America, or activist America, to connect electronically.
Five years later in 1989, other people my age--Chinese college students--were giving it "the college try" in Tiananmen Square. Computing, while still primitive, had advanced somewhat more. Modems tended to be 2400-9600 bps, and the Compuserve Information Service had a political issues forum. Even without Windows, and without a world wide web, like-minded correspondents could find one another, and the China Support Network was able to be "born" on the Compuserve Issues Forum. It turns out that it was myself--yours truly--who was setting it up, naming the organization, and uploading the founding documents to Compuserve.
That indicates my other standing in the American scene. I am the founder of CSN, America's grass-roots organization in support of the Tiananmen Square Chinese dissidents. Pretty soon, I was called into Washington when a visit was happening by escaped Chinese dissidents. Like a political handler or campaign volunteer, I arranged their first press conference at the National Press Club. On the dissidents' behalf, I got on the phone and talked to the Bush White House. And, I have been watching America's news media play games with the issue ever since. They have "disappeared" the Chinese democracy movement, as easily as they disappeared Ralph Nader.
I have a prime standpoint from which to point out the games of the U.S. news media. And, as indicated by my book title, "political correctness" has added up to "genocidal correctness." The media has largely stood silent while three U.S. Presidents rewarded Communist China and the legacy of Mao; ignored genocide; and built up a new nuclear-armed, communist superpower. If America's enemies include nuclear-armed, communist superpowers, then their activities have met the literal definition of treason. And clearly, excess deaths are attributable to the atrocities and holocaust-like persecution to which they have turned a blind eye. Apparently, for the U.S. news media, crimes against humanity are business as usual. As I alluded to above, they of the MSM are working in the service of evil.
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