How about health care?
Here's Clinton: "We’re going to try to do national health care as soon as we get in there."
This is her only mention of health care all night.
Here's Kucinich: "I have a bill for not-for-profit health care, where I’ve been able to get 72 members of Congress to sign on for it." Here's Kucinich again: "I’m the coauthor of a bill, H.R. 676, to provide for universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care, Medicare for all." He mentioned it again in closing.
Clinton is going to try to "do" national health care. Kucinich hyped his national health care plan like Don King promoting a title fight.
This is not a Clinton-bashing opinion. I'm just trying to make a point.
In the war of opinions, Clinton came off murky and oblique last Tuesday night. Kucinich advanced hard ideas that resonate strongly with the individual goals of average Americans. The audience rewarded him with laughter for his punch lines and galvanizing applause for his stances.
Yet, something crystallized when I recounted the live debate and compared it to the MSNBC post-debate analysis led by Hardball commentator Chris Matthews. Two very different victors emerged, and I realized the very extent our media is playing in picking the next monarch, I mean, president.
It's not that Kucinich appeared inferior in MSNBC's analysis of the debate; it's simply that neither his name nor his picture appeared at all--perhaps once or twice. It was all-Clinton. To top it off, Matthews invited Terry McAuliffe, Clinton's campaign committee chairman, on the show to help interpret the debate.
It is fair to guess that Clinton's name and picture were spoken and shown dozens if not hundreds of times directly after the debate on MSNBC. It seemed at times as if MSNBC were showing Clinton through a kaleidoscope--multiple images of her face revolving around one another.
And it doesn't matter whether the coverage is critical or supportive.
In the AP article posted on MSNBC's website Clinton's name appeared 12 times. Kucinich's name appeared zero times. (Full disclosure: counting the photo caption Clinton's name appeared 13 times and Kucinich's appeared once.)
In the New York Times write-up Clinton's name appeared eight times, and Kucinich's name appeared once. In the Washington Post write-up Kucinich's name barely made it into the article for being there while Clinton's name burned into the reader's eye 14 times.
The trend in print is mirrored in cable news, where Hilary's face is ubiquitous. Many Americans wouldn't recognize Kucinich if he slapped them in the face and said, "Hello, my name is Dennis Kucinich."
HE'S RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!
Obviously, the media doesn't have to change a damn thing, but it should. If these debates are really going to be about ideas and visions that will profoundly impact tax-paying Americans, let's have equal face and name time for all eight Democratic candidates.
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