I often wonder why there are only three Democratic presidential Candidates being discussed 24/7 by the media, day in day out; Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, and John Edwards. Anyone who watches the news would dare think that there are no other candidates running! But yet, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Tom Vilsak, and that guy Gravel are running too.
Ditto on the Repug side. You hear about Giuliani, McCain and Romney. You don’t hear about much at all from Brownback (who?) Or Duncan Hunter (what?). Hell, they may have others running, but my point is...I have no clue as to who they are.
So why do we only hear about the “popular” three 90% of the time, while one or two of the others are mentioned maybe 10% alternatively?
What it is about those top three in either party that makes them so popular?
It’s the Free Publicity, Stupid!Yes sir, free publicity is what any political candidate lives for and sometimes dies from. It can elevate one’s name recognition to household level, which in turn will automatically make one poll higher (cause who wants to say that they will vote for the candidate they don’t know anything much about or one that they rarely hear about). Higher poll results then turns into more press buzz, which will, by Gawd, bring in the money needed to run a campaign.
And what does one do in large part with enormous money gained by contributions to one’s campaign? Well in large part.....one buys air time for paid advertising. And with California now in play, we are talking about obscene amounts of money!
So who receives the advertising dollars? The same media who allocates the free publicity. Yes they decide.....those 5 media conglomerate. We are talking about (1)Time-Warner (owns CNN, Time Magazine, other numerous publications and partners with (2) Disney (who owns ABC, ESPN, and countless radio stations), (3) General Electric (owns NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo TV, Universal Studios and partners with the Washington Post who also owns Newsweek and the Gazettes publications), (4) Rupert Murdock/News Corp. (Fox TV, Fox affiliates, The Sun Newspaper chain, Harper Collins, Times Newspapers, etc...), and (5) Viacom (who owns CBS, MTV, Paramount, Simon&Schuster publishing and Infiniti Broadcasting).
How do they choose? That, I am unsure of. Sometimes it may be because one is newsworthy. One might say something earth shattering, or one might be a “first” in reference to the candidate race, or one might be someone the corporate media is “comfortable” with; or one might be too qualified and perfect for the position and the media is compelled to promote such (yeah...right!).
Or maybe, the media has its own plans. Plans that they will make apparent at some point. Because as we all should know, the media doesn’t play favorites for nothing. There’s usually a catch.
What I do know is that this publicity game played by the corporate media and the candidates is undemocratic. It is so, because it only allows us to know information about the candidates who are constantly reported on....the others, not so much.
So just remember the next time you are wondering who to choose as a candidate to support, that what begins as never ending Free publicity one day, may be never-ending negative Free Publicity the next.
Just ask Howard Dean. He’ll tell you about never-ending free publicity and how it affected his campaign. Sources:Media Ownership- Does it Matter?
http://www.lirne.net/resources/netknowledge/meier.pdf
1996 article - Merger Mania in the Media: Can We Still Get All the News We Need?
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v7n1/mediacon.html
Media as Big Businesses
http://faculty.washington.edu/baldasty/JAN11.htm
Who owns What
http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/
What you can do
http://www.mediademocracyday.org/tiki-index.php?page=What+is+Media+Democracy http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/29/cf.00.htmlCrossFire Interview with Ralph Nader, Fred Smith
aired May 29, 2003 - 16:30 ET
NADER: It's amazing.
What he keeps ignoring, you can have 1,000 channels and a 1,000 radio stations. But five major corporate conglomerates run by five men make those decisions. By the way, I'm amazed. Don't you believe that you are part owner of the public airways? This isn't a market situation.
NOVAK: Let me address your contention that there's no difference between the corporate entities. I feel constrained with pounding Fox. Fox is a competitor of -- and Mr. Murdoch is a competitor of this network. Paul and I are both paid by AOL-TIME Warner, which owns CNN, WB Network, HBO, Cinemax, TBS, TNT, 64 magazines, including "TIME- LIFE" and, "People Warner" books, "Little Brown," "TIME-LIFE" books. Now, why is there no attack being made on AOL-TIME Warner, is it because people of your ilk don't consider it conservative and they do consider Murdoch conservative?
NADER: No, we criticize all conglomerate rats.
NOVAK: I don't see a commercial on AOL-Time Warner?
NADER: Wait,
you can see the more control of more radio stations all over the country and TV stations, the fewer local reporters, the less local news on radio and more music being dictated by companies like Clear Channel. NOVAK: You don't see a difference between AOL-TIME Warner and Fox?
You don't see a difference?
NADER: Tweedle Dumb, Tweedle Dee.
BEGALA:
The CEO of our company was a Bush appointer to a commission on social security that called for dismantling social security. The CEO of G.E. tried to influence the election night reporting over at NBC. I mean, this is across the board these five corporate conglomerates do exercise a lot of political influence. SPECIAL NOTE:
General Electric also owns:
GE Aircraft Engines
GE Commercial Finance
GE Consumer Products
GE Industrial Systems
GE Insurance
GE Medical Systems
GE Plastics
GE Power Systems
GE Specialty Materials
GE Transportation Systemshttp://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/ge.asp