Article: Media Blocking the Reformist Message of Congressional Candidates

Media Blocking the Reformist Message of Congressional Candidates

While there has been some breaking of the barriers blocking the reformist message in the mainstream media, overall reform issues and candidates are not getting their messages covered. Voters are being denied information they should have before going to the polls.

Cable news networks are divided sharply. CNN has started covering the reform agenda after years of relative silence. MSNBC has largely ignored efforts to reform government and candidates pushing serious institutional reforms. They have started covering some of the problems but not the solutions. FOX News has been basically asleep at the wheel at best or actively complicit in a cover-up of the corruption crisis at worst.

Major newspapers and magazines are showing their Corporate bias in their coverage of Election 2006. These media outlets have completely ignored some of the best Congressional candidates in the nation. Candidates with amazing stories, positions and ideas are being shut out by the press.

Tony Trupiano in Michigan has been ignored by the national press. Trupiano is widely known in Michigan as a popular talk show host. He is the best informed and connected reform candidate in this battleground state.

If elected to Congress, Trupiano would be pushing for investigations of outrages that political insiders would never touch. He is willing to tackle issues that really matter to the day to day lives of average citizens. Trupiano is not afraid of taking on the Super Wealthy or the large international corporations if the need arises.

Trupiano will broaden the political debate in Congress. He will touch issues that political insiders have intentionally failed to address. Trade policy, national health insurance, educational opportunities, debt issues, consumer rights, voting rights and much more will be approached in entirely new ways. Tony Trupiano will be a real breath of fresh air.

Clint Curtis in Florida is another Democratic Congressional candidate with a shocking story to tell. His campaign has a story about vote fraud and election rigging to tell that should be the top, front page story on every major publication in America from the Washington Post to Time magazine. Readers of the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, etc. should be reading headlines like, "Curtis reveals opponent Feeney's role in vote rigging software scandal." Unfortunately, these publications are ignoring the story.

Why has Newsweek not put the Curtis race on their front page? Where is US News & World Report on this race and issue? Where is the broadcast media? Where is your local newspaper? All seem to be missing in action! In my opinion, this oversight is a serious journalistic failure in the same league as the media's failures to inform voters as the Bush Republicans pushed our nation into invading Iraq.
The Curtis-Feeney race in Florida should be educating the voting public to the very serious threat to American Democracy posed by electronic, partisan vote fraud organized by politicians in power. The issue should not be subject to a media blackout.

I wonder why the candidacy of Dan Seals has been ignored by the national press. Almost nobody knows that he is running for Congress in Illinois this year. Along with the two candidates mentioned above, Seals has a very good chance of winning.

Seals has expressed a serious willingness to take on the Bush Republican machine running our federal government. Seals is willing to take on the largest corporations and Right Wing fanatics on our behalf. Seals is crusading against corruption. He is a strong opponent of Bush's approach to Iraq. Politically, he is fearless.

Overlooking Dan Seals seems to be deliberate. He has real potential to be a rising star in Democratic politics. If potential rising political stars run as Democrats, the mainstream media ignores them. This shows that Corporate control of the media is undermining our democratic process.

Voters have a right to hear about and from reform candidates like Trupiano, Curtis and Seals. They are good stories and interesting interviews. You should contact your local newspapers, radio stations and television stations to demand better coverage of these kinds of Congressional campaigns. You should do the same with national magazines, cable news stations and national network news programs. The media has an institutional duty to inform voters!

Written by Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail: P.O. Box 283, Earleville, Maryland 21919. Email: midsouthcm@aol.com . Phone: 443-907-2367.

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