T-shirt given to Dean said "Establishment Media" on the front, "We have the power" on the back.

[madfloridian]

And the Establishment Media gave it to Dean as a parting shot and a parting gift when he left the race in 2004.

On the front it said "Establishment Media"...

And on the back:

"We Have the Power, Dean Press Corps 2004."

Rose Siding here today reminded me of when this happened. We need to keep in mind that though we have made progress with the internet media...THEY still have the power for now.

Hubby and I have had that uh oh feeling watching the media lately. We know what happened in 2004, and we fear it could happen again.

From February 2004, when Howard Dean left the race.

In The Northwest: Media critic Howard Dean bows out with humor

An edgy moment of own-expense laughter is the best that reporters and an about-to-drop-out presidential hopeful can hope for, as a campaign enters what everyone knows is its final hours.

Hence, candidate -- and media critic -- Howard Dean reacted with humor Tuesday in Milwaukee as journalists presented him with a long-sleeve white T-shirt. It carried the motto "Establishment Media" in front, and a slogan swiped from Dean in the back: "We Have the Power, Dean Press Corps 2004."

On the Newshour not long after that, Matea Gold told of his response when they handed him the shirt:

You know actually, Gwen, when we gave him that t-shirt yesterday he said the establishment media trumps the Internet but not for long.

I have a lot of concern about the way the media will handle this primary. It appears at times that the Clinton campaign is becoming buddy buddy with the right wing media moguls. Maybe she did it to survive, but an endorsement from Richard Mellon Scaife and a huge fundraiser with Rupert Murdoch give the appearance of too much coziness. Murdoch's Fox News has zeroed in on Barack Obama far more than Hillary Clinton.

There is no doubt her campaign is targeting Howard Dean as well as Obama. I just did a search tonight on "florida, delegates"...and the move is on. There are petitions and polling sites, there are rallies throughout the state, there are buses rolling to DC at the end of April. There are lawsuits as well, more of them.

The pressure is on for those delegates. This is a time when a party made rules, enforced rules, and a candidate agreed fully to abide by them. Now the candidate is breaking them. This is not whether Dean is in control...but whether the establishment is no longer in control. If she gets the delegates, we will know.

In an interview with Vermont's WCAX, Howard Dean reiterated his stance that he wants the delegates seated but not counted unless the nominee is chosen. There is a video as well, part 1 of the interview is at the bottom.

Democratic Divide

Dean once thought there was a 2% chance of a convention fight, now he says its more like 30%. If voters declare a tie, he says it's hard for party officials to pick a winner.

.."Dean is taking a hands-off approach with Florida and Michigan. Both states violated party rules when they voted early. Dean says at this point he doesn't want to seat them at the convention and have that change who wins the nomination. He's hoping a nominee emerges because a convention fight in August puts Democrats at a disadvantage-- then they'll only have a few months to campaign against Republican John McCain.

An interview is out that he did with the Financial Times UK. He said there was nothing in the rules that kept superdelegates from overturning the choice of the voters, but he doubted that would happen. He has been scrupulous about stating what is in the rules. Others are free to say the SDs should vote for the one who is ahead, but he does not have that luxury.

One thing stood out in that interview today. He made his view clear on anyone asking anyone to get out of the race.

Financial Times interview

Some commentators have speculated that if the race remains deadlocked after June 3 then a senior figure such as Al Gore, the former vice-president, or Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, could prevail on one of the candidates to withdraw - with most people focusing on Mrs Clinton.

But Mr Dean, who some have criticised for allegedly mismanaging the
drawn-out primary calendar, dismissed that scenario as “total bullshit”.

He said the last such figure who had the authority to do that was John Bailey, a Connecticut Democrat who was chairman of the DNC from 1960 to 1968.

“That person has been a figment of the punditocracy’s imagination for 50 years or more,” he said. “It is great drama to think of such a thing and Washington loves drama. But the truth is that as a former candidate I can promise you only you know when it is time to leave.”

I want the race to end before the media's meddling destroys our primary. I hope that when the time is right, the proper thing will be done.

Have the activists reached the point where we have gained enough power? Would they be able to give another t-shirt to another candidate as they exit the race?

[Irishonly]

1. I Was Hoping It Would Be Done By Now

The proper thing must be done but it is too much to hope corporate MSM will let the primary play out. I hope the activists have enough power now. Senator Clinton spits the word when she says it and it's disgusting. If I thought it would work I would say we need to send her t-shirts that say something snarkier than I am able to think of this evening.

[DaLittle Kitty]

13. The CORPORATE MEDIA Make No Mistake, "SELECTED" The Remaining Three From Which We Will Choose...

The American people... subjected to the Endless and Mindless PROPAGANDA... FELL PREY early in this process.

No sane person can deny that The Corporate Media DECIDED/DECIDES just WHO WE See... WHO We Hear... WHAT WE Hear and See, and HOW MUCH... WE HEAR and SEE of WHOMEVER "They" DECIDE that We will be exposed to.

The Corporate Media also DECIDES just WHO... WE DO NOT SEE OR HEAR.... eg., Edwards!

This "manufactured" Presidential Primary WAS DECIDED long before it got to us!

It was deemed "historic" in some meeting in LA or NYC a LONGGGGGGG time ago.

This IS FASCISM folks... and THIS was not even the beginning... there is much WORSE ahead.... :think:

[madfloridian]

2. In March, Bill Clinton said some awful stuff....I missed it. They are shameless.

Bill's Story Time

He calls the rules being followed by the DNC as a "strategy"...how dare he.

Even though Clinton’s spinning skills haven’t been put to such use in a decade – for reasons we don’t have to dwell upon here – he proves he hasn’t lost anything on his fastball. Consider one of his latest creations, involving his wife’s presidential campaign’s desperate efforts to convince people that the powers-that-be in Florida and Michigan had no idea that the Democratic National Committee would actually stick to its guns and refuse to seat those states’ delegates if they insisted on holding their presidential primaries outside the DNC’s voting “window.”

The ex-president’s most recent foray into rewriting history came on March 24, when he appropriately spoke before a South Bend, Ind., Dyngus Day celebration. There, according to a report in The Hotline, Clinton actually referred to “this new strategy of denying and disempowering and disenfranchising the voters in Florida and in Michigan” – a “strategy” he called “a terrible mistake.” Not for nothing, but didn’t his wife sign up for a front seat on the No Florida or Michigan Bandwagon back in the days of her inevitability?

Then, Clinton being Clinton, he deftly threw something under the bus, this time New Hampshire and Secretary of State Bill Gardner.

He told the crowd that the DNC “let New Hampshire go out of turn,” a cake to which he added the mysterious, highly questionable, icing of claiming that for some reason the Granite State got special privileges because Gardner is a Democrat.

This not only angers me, it breaks my heart to see them act this way.

[crankychatter]

3. k/r

hey Mad... remind me not to get on your wrong side, eh?

[madfloridian]

4. That's funny.

:-)

Guess I am pretty passionate about all this. I fear I see the same things happening...deja vu.

[madfloridian]

5. Wow, I missed what Richardson said on Larry King. He did not spare them.

I don't watch Larry King, so I missed this. LK asked Richardson how he reacted to Carville's calling him a Judas.

"KING: How did you react to it, Governor?

RICHARDSON: Well, I said I wasn't going to respond and get in the gutter. I feel very strongly this is typical of the reaction of many of the Clinton supporters. They feel that they're a dynasty, they're clinging to the throne. Anybody that disrupts that dynasty or challenges it -- I ran against Senator Clinton. I served with President Clinton, very honorably. And I'm grateful to him.

But, you know, I had a larger loyalty to the country, to doing what's right for America. I think Obama is the candidate who can bring us together.

So it's typical of the negativity that the Clintons right now are using against Senator Obama. And I think it's wrong. It's going to divide up the party."

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/23/lkl.01.html

[anigbrowl]

6. I miss the UK press...imagine Dean saying 'total bullshit' and having it printed in a US paper

People would probably call for him to be publicly dismembered or something. If I can put on my euro hat for a minute, Americans are so prudish sometimes. When I read a news report along the lines of 'Howard Dean said Dick Cheney is an ' I damn well want to know what he said.

[madfloridian]

7. You would not see that in US media.

I think he expressed himself well. :hi:

Loved it.

[Sunnyshine]

8. Boycott Cable/Networks /Rags/Sponsors- Turn it off and cancel them out.

That is exactly how we stop them, and the only way to stop them.

MSM sustains itself by "manufacturing consent" as a means to "divide and conquer" the people on domestic and national issues. It works like a charm every time. Guaranteed.

They serve the corporate cartel and their favorite political giants. These private interests are consolidated behind closed doors, paying people to skew the news coverage and fix the message content according to their desired agenda. It's a mass PR machine for elite schemers.

Platform + propaganda = perpetual power.

The media opportunist are beyond abusing their direct access to the public. Traditional free press is no longer operational. Yet, we keep "watching" them actively distort our democracy. Every day and every election cycle, they inject hysteria into our public dialog and policies. Distracting us once again, from what is blatantly obvious:

Our people are being hoodwinked and our nation is their's to squander.

We get the fourth estate back by taking it away from the oligarchs. We simply stop giving them an audience to pander to. It would be too cool to see us stand up and refuse to take it anymore. IF everyone acted together in solid dissent- we would be hitting them in their profit margins. Alternative: Invest in new independent media outlets and shed the corporate sponsored media.

It would be more than cool. It would be historical. Imagine that!

I want another Dean scream after this exclusive breaking REAL news story:
U.S.-FREE PRESS IS RETURNED TO THE PEOPLE AND REPORTS FACTUAL & RELEVANT INFORMATION.!

[txwhitedove]

9. K&R thread, and your post. Welcome to DU!

:thumbsup:

[madfloridian]

10. Nice post.

We are more and more refusing to watch. They are going to screw this election up for us.

[madfloridian]

11. Another "captivating outsider" flattened and embedded in the asphalt.

Could it happen again.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1176

When the 2004 campaign is finished, some might look back and marvel at the trajectory of the Dean campaign. Time's Karen Tumulty (8/11/03) might have inadvertently captured the mood of reporters toward Dean:

"Look back at nearly every campaign trail to the White House, and you will find embedded in the asphalt the flattened form of a once-captivating outsider. The story line plays out as follows: He seizes the imagination with a compelling message and personality; he upsets the dynamic of the race; the media lavish attention and praise on him (there is talk that he has created a phenomenon that will change politics); he makes a rookie mistake or two under the TV lights; the reporters turn on him; his fanatical legions realize he wasn't the guy they thought he was; and finally his demise becomes part of the winner's heroic backstory."

[madfloridian]

12. Speaking of the Financial Times interview....talk about incomplete quoting??

I have two people here and two supposedly major bloggers quoting the FT interview. I posted another section in the OP, but now I see most people never bothered to register to read the whole article. They are just quoting the first paragraph.

Here is the first paragraph:

"The Democratic party’s “superdelegates” have every right to overturn the popular vote and choose the candidate they believe would be best equipped to defeat John McCain in a general election, according to Howard Dean, chairman of the US Democratic National Committee."

Now..read down a short way and you see this:

"However, he added that it was highly unlikely that the superdelegates – of whom roughly 300 out of 800 remain undecided – would go against whichever candidate was ahead on the popular vote and among pledged delegates in practice. “I think it is very unlikely – I have never seen it happen. In fact it has never happened. But it is possible and they have every right to do it.”

What a difference quoting completely makes. He is quoting the rules, not his own opinion in the first paragraph. In the latter he is saying his own view.