CNN wants YOUR opinion: What is the greatest threat to Democracy?

They ask you to email WAM@cnn.com

Let's give them OUR opinions.

Simple as that?

This is what Bush is doing by controlling/silencing US. Media for world order plans.

He is the brains

Look in the mirror, CNN.

I liked your "mirror" line so much that I used it, too.
--------------------------------------------------------
Are you kidding? Look in the mirror, CNN. The biggest threat to democracy is corporate-owned media that prefers runaway bride/Terry Schiavo/Michael Jackson CRAPFESTS over REAL NEWS.

You want some suggestions for stories? Start with these:
-Did Bush and Blair decide to invade Iraq over the summer of 2002 and manufacture reasons to invade after the fact – per the London Times?
-How did Jeff Gannon/James Guckert, male hooker, get into WH briefings repeatedly – why were there so many days where he checked in, but didn’t check out?
-Why isn’t Tom Feeney being investigated for asking Clint Curtis in 2001 to write software that could manipulate the vote?

This is just a start. Get to work. You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

You hit every note I would have and covered the biggest hurdles we face: a lazy, pro-Bush media and crooked elections.
If only these opinions mattered out there in the "real world."

:hi:

that brings them in contention with the right wing.

Not the theft of our elections, not the culpability of the Bush administration for ignoring terrorism leading to 9/11, not the destructiveness, let alone the unfairness, of Republican tax cuts for the wealthy, not trying to dismantly Social Security under the guise of fixing it, not blatant Iraq war lies, not the Iraq war failures, not Iraq war graft, not outing CIA agents for political retribution, not Republican political thuggery, not packing extremist into the federal judiciary, not the corruption of Bush's cabinet, not their unmitigated secrecy and lies.

Not anything. It's all just a fleeting story on page 8 to them.

Everything is borne out of the failure of what's left of American journalism, from 9/11 to the Iraq war, from the debt through the eviseration of middle-class jobs. The America news media is worse than just a failure, it is complicit in the destruction of America. And now that Republicans know they have nothing to fear from scrutiny, they are emboldened to pillage as much of America as they can grab for.

CNN is a disgrace, and becoming more of a disgrace day by day.

and while watching it, I thought to myself 'there. is. no. way. this story would never break like this today'.

The media has totally abandoned its purpose and abandoned its integrity in order to run after $$$. The truth is a morphing entity and a lie will sell just as well.

* and the repukes wouldn't have power if someone hadn't enabled them!

:hi:

Is this serious, they want just raw e-mails?

But do me a favor and ask them about the missing almost $9 billion in Iraq.

News for profit is immoral and a stake in the heart of democracy. The very fact that a majority of Americans once believe that Saddam was involved in 9/11 should shout that the MSM is an abject failure.

badly weakened this country and allowed scum such as bush and cheney the opportunity to destroy our freedoms.

how does the media threaten a democratic republic???

There are too many media outlets consolidated into the hands of too few organizations. These huge umbrella corporations have many conflicting ownership interests- think a company making war materials also doing all the reporting on said war. Are they really going to report news that makes the war unpopular, given their parent corporation owns the company that makes the materials being used to wage the war?

Let's make it easier to conceive of. Let's suppose there's a company that owns the only three car dealerships in town, and also owns a controlling stock share of the local newspaper (which is the only newspaper available in, say, a twenty mile radius).

The owners of the car dealership are involved in some really seedy business deals including funneling money to operators of a meth lab by embezzling monies from the dealership, bribery of the local cops, etc. Since this company owns the only car dealerships in the area, everyone buys their cars there and deals with the dealship's owner, who always seems like a really nice guy about whom everyone has something good to say.

A reporter at the local paper (which, remember, has a controlling share of its stock owned by the company that owns the car dealer) discovers the dark underside of the whole business and writes a big investigative story about those deals. He reveals everything- the bribery, the meth labs, ALL of it.

His editor kills the report on orders from Higher Up- namely, the very same dealership that's going to be reported on- you know, the dealership that owns the paper. Maybe the owner of the car lot has the reporter beaten for good measure.

The moral of the story is that the myriad ownerships can be the corrupting force behind what we call "fluff reporting". Don't look there; look here. So you don't see what our parent organization is doing. So you don't get the information that would make the parent company look bad.

They get their war, and they get to report on it, and they make heaps of cash off both in the process.

The corruption ought to be obvious. It's not, because they won't allow that corruption to come to light, mostly because they themselves would be implicated. Media companies should be owned by persons in the media, not by persons involved in the very same shady dealings that that media would report on.

Hope I've made it clear- I did my level best. :)

to democracy.

media corruption, pseudo-news, tabloid news, is a problem in its own right for sure but I see apathy and censorship as greater threats.

and Certain Parties are profiting from it?

Suppose there's legislation in the works that would reveal all these connections to an ultimately-horrified public?

That's a major threat. A democracy cannot survive unless the People know the truth. In this case, the truth is obscured by cold hard cash.

Apathy and censorship are indeed threats, but the apathy comes from the media not reporting on issues of interest to all, and the censorship stems from precisely what I was talking about above.

They're both part and parcel of the same problem: consolidated media ownership. They'll report news that is profitable (!), not news that would cost them money in the long run. That's where the ultimate threat is:

"If they knew the truth, I'd get lynched." That's the attitude I'm talking about.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

society. Since we don't have a free press. Well, you figure the rest out.

I tend to think of a "free" press as one that is independent of government. as opposed to say Cuba or China. so I guess I need an interpretation of what you mean by "free".

on the top of my list of threats to democracy would be citizen apathy.

you write: "I tend to think of a "free" press as one that is independent of government. as opposed to say Cuba or China."

A reporter comes to a government official with questions about a story he was writing which involved missing or diverted funds totalling in the millions and other illegal activities. Reporter has all evidence and records to back up, plus corroborating witnesses. He wants to get this official's comment before going to press with the story. The offical basically buys some time and gets the reporter out of there with the promise of meeting him later to discuss further.

Between the time the reporter leaves the official and sits at his computer at the paper, the offical has called the publisher and told him that if he ever wanted any cooperation for his paper from his office, he'll pull the story.

Is that a free press or one that is independent of government? This has happened here in the U.S. One doesn't have to look to communist countries in order to recognize that some of their tactics are being used here. The media, here, covers what Karl Rove tells them they may cover.

Why haven't the questions LadyLib's posted been answered? Government doesn't want to answer it, but the press should not be in colusion to keep it from being investigated.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

fairness doctrine, regulate the big media conglomerates, strict rules about accountability towards the public, etc etc. Why do you care? Apparently you don't see it as a problem.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

case here. It seems to me this country needs governemnt interference. Your Enron type pirates haven't been doing such a good job. Have they?

Afraid to tell the truth

A secret memo publicized in Britain confirms the lies on which Bush based his Iraq policy. Why has it received so little notice in the U.S. press?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050705X.shtml

to democracy in the USA

George W. Bush, et al.

Extreme rightwing religious dogma.

Corporations not paying there fair share in taxes to help make this country grow and take the burden off of the middle class.

A world class education for all children.

Health care.

Main Stream Media refusing to tell the truth, all the truth, even if it hurts us as a nation.

Dim Son alone. Now they've put their own neocon in at the World Bank and are working on getting another one at the UN. Oh, yeah, and remember what Negroponte's doing these days?

Don't forget that many people believe in this misadministration & think everything is going swimmingly. They are a big threat to democracy because they can't see how it's being destroyed by Poppy's Gang et al.

The biggest threat to Democracy is the uncontrolled FASCIST interests that have hijacked the Government. Unless we remove the Black Box from our voting and vote counting system we are hopelessly lost. The Corporate Controlled Media is muzzling the truth and allowing the rape of the American public, the bankrupting of working Americans and the death of Democracy.

NEWSWEEK, TIME WARNER, NEW YORK POST, WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEWSDAILY, GENERAL ELECTRIC, MURDOCK INC., CLEAR CHANNEL, SINCLAIR BROADCASTING, ETC., ETC., ETC...

:thumbsup:

As I sit here watching the "Local Weekend Anchor Show."

Starring my "Local Weekend Anchor".

Such cutting episodes as:

Local Weekend Anchor buys burrito.
Local Weekend Anchor thinks puppies are cute.
Local Weekend Anchor breaks donut shop corruption.
Local Weekend Anchor stands beside congested road saying it's congested.
Local Weekend Anchor makes joke.
Local Weekend Anchor reminds us they are the Local Weekend Anchor and
we're not.
Local Weekend Anchor reminds us to zip up our jackets.

I think you may be onto something FrenchieCat.

I wrote:

That's easy.

The Bush administration.

They're also the greatest threat to the economy, world peace, the environment, and fair elections.

Thanks for asking.

their total unwillingness to publicize the
atrocious crimes of the * administration against
the spirit of democracy.

Republican.

What's more dangerous than a group of people who elected this idiot?

I don't have time (I've got finals) to write to CNN.

Evil & lies, evil & lies, evil and more lies.

Murder and killing. Unjust wars without end.

and those that contribute to are must suffer the sad consequences of these acts in the end.

I wonder :wtf: hell is like?

:kick:

members that abide by his every theocratic whim!

I was too kind!

The destruction of the constitution in the name of making us safe is far more of a threat to this country than any group of terrorists.

The TaliBornAgain are dangerous enough all by themselves without any help from the implementers of an open secret plan hidden in plain sight, of world domination. We now have confirmation by way of an official document of a sovereign nation whose government has affirmed the accuracy thereof.

Did I leave anyone out?

Oh yeah! We can add the PNAC's stranglehold on the media, after all, an ignorant citizen is a happy citizen. There must be a causal link to the deafening silence because all the press had to do was cut and paste, a few phone calls and interviews and bang put it on the air.

I say let Sibel Edmonds Talk! NOW!

-Hoot

Its right on!

n/t

the greatest threat to democracy is your own Daryn Kagan shining Rush Limbaugh's knob while pretending to be a journalist.

good one

(with some obvious inspiration from others here)

The media's role in the dumbing down of America is the biggest threat to democracy. When the news allows pundits to repeat lies without challenging them; when they knowingly allow their own reporters to lie without correcting them, they perpetuate and add to the problems in our country.

I would like to see CNN (actually all media outlets, but since this is a CNN question, I address it to you) review the issues raised by Media Matters on a daily basis, and when it's been found that one of your shows is at fault, the person responsible should apologize on the next show, read the media matters complaint, and state the true facts without spin. If a guest made a factually incorrect or biased statement, the person interviewing them should clear it up at the next available opportunity.

Corrections should be a regular part of the news. Reporters who have a track record of making incorrect statements should be let go.

It is nearly impossible for us to try to vote intelligently on issues that affect our economy, our environment, and our security, when we are being spoon fed lies and omissions, or skipping real news altogether to hear about Michael Jackson, Terri Schiavo, or Blake nonstop for days on end.

If the news media were doing their job, people would know that 9/11 was unrelated to anything in Iraq. People would be educated about what is happening to whistle blowers like Sibel Edmonds. We would have heard an equal amount of John Kerry speeches as we did Bush speeches, and every media clip or discussion about Howard Dean wouldn't have been preceded by a clip of "the scream" - just as every clip of Bush isn't preceded by a clip of him reading "My Pet Goat" while New York and the Pentagon were under attack.

You sit on the real stories and report fluff, and ask US to tell YOU what the threats are? Shouldn't YOU be telling US?

:hi: miss ya at the meetings (we're in the group now).

DAMN GOOD POINT.

:thumbsup:

:thumbsup: I love how you write!! :D

Great point.

CNN:

Based on how you cover the news, I don't believe you actually care about what is a threat to our democracy but I'll play along.

The greatest threat to our democracy is the media's fixation on unimportant things like the runaway bride, Martha Stewart's homecoming, Michael Jackson's trial and various rich and spoiled pop tarts instead of reporting the truth about the invasion of Iraq, our economy which is in serious trouble, election fraud, how the Bush Administration has turned our country over to corporations, and the extreme right's fascist tendencies (see Bush lovers only church in North Carolina), and on and on. The media avoids reporting anything that would be an embarrassment to the corporations that own them. The media enabled all of the above, not passively, but by one-sided cheerleading coverage of the extreme Right's agenda.

The media -- no longer mainstream at all - is a propaganda tool for big business. The networks, CNN, Fox and major news magazines and newspapers are alike in many ways. They are entertainment vehicles at best and more often channels for the Bush Administration to disseminate their bs to the public. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or someone with a high school diploma to see the blatant skewing of the facts by the media.

If it weren't for a small, honest group of elected leaders in Congress, the media would continue to have Rove contractors on the air as news commentators, a prostitute posing as a journalist feeding softball questions to the president, and taxpayer financed VNRs that push the extreme Right's agenda under the guise of fair and balanced news.

Americans were not well served by the media during the campaign for the presidency. Instead of presenting the public with fact-based reporting on the important issues, the media took in billions of dollars in advertising, much of it hate-filled ads that further divided the country. Aside from three debates, Americans were never given a glimpse into what these candidates had on their agendas.

The few remaining members of Congress that haven't sold out to corporations spend the majority of their time watchdogging the Bush Administration -- a job that the media should be doing. Lately they've also had to watchdog the media.

For a current example, CNN reported the UK Iraq Memo today only after Knight Ridder picked it up. KR picked it up after Congressman Conyers acquired more than 80 signatures of fellow representatives asking that the implication of the memo be investigated. CNN chose to minimize the importance of the memo by saying it was reported by the London Times, a "tabloid." Heavy stress on the tabloid. Have you ever read the London Times? It is less a tabloid than the New York Times.

Despite best efforts to keep it hidden, many Americans now know that the Bush team conspired to "fit the facts" regarding Iraq.

The Fourth Estate? It's dead. Thinking people now rely on news reports from other countries and citizen researched and reported news via the Internet.

Thanks!

I would add to all letters...

.. I will return to watching CNN the day you tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! Till then, I will purposely not watch your shows or buy from your advertisers... and rest assured, I will send them letters too so they know why people are turning you off! Please, do the right thing, you will find more support than you think!

Dear CNN,

The following are what I consider to be the greatest threats to
freedom and democracy in the U.S.A.

1. The mixture of politics and religion. Attempts to erode the wall of separation between church and state.
   
2. The erosion of Constitutional rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
   
3. The underminding of the public's faith in that which most empowers them, an open and accountable electoral system.
   
4. An increased concentration of corporate political power.
   
5. The absense of independant journalism which is accountable first to facts, accuracy, and truth.
   
6. A healthcare system increasingly available only to the wealthy.
   
7. The control of culture by a small number of increasingly powerful corporate entities.
   
8. The bifurcation of society into two classes, those who have power, money, and influence, and those who do not.
   

Thank you for this opportunity to comment.

very succinct!

.. the greatest threat to democracy is a whorish, corporate cable news outlet. hehheh

Sue

There are several things that currently threaten democracy. The first that comes to mind us unverifiable elections, and the use of secret source codes for tabulators. Heck, the government (meaning, we, the people) has no legal authority to obtain these secret source codes from the private companies that manufacture the machines. These standards would never be acceptable in international elections because those who oversee those elections recognize that is only begging for fraud & tampering.
The second major threat to democracy is the merging of church & State. If you doubt this, look at the religion based governments of the Middle East, the exact places that we say that we need to 'spread freedom & democracy'. Faith based initiatives besides being unconstitutional & tearing down our social programs that the government should be providing for our citizens, are also illegal campaign contributions---paid for by MY tax dollars. This is exactly how Hamas came to power in Palestine. The corruption within their government left no money for social needs, and a radical fundamentalist Islamic group was there to fill the needs of the people. It is happening in the U.S. now,except that here it is some bazaar fundamentalist idea of Christianity, and I am truly frightened for the future of our Nation.
Lastly, lack of a free press, the fourth estate. This ties in with the growing corporate influence in government and it is killing our democracy. People have the right to hear the truth from the press, but instead we get nonstop stories about the 'runaway bride', the Pope, and Micheal Jackson. The leaked Downing Street memo story was drowned out by the runaway bride, and you're asking us what is the greatest threat to democracy? Thanks for asking.

:thumbsup:

>>The leaked Downing Street memo story was drowned out by the runaway bride, and you're asking us what is the greatest threat to democracy?<<

1. Republican-owned (and manipulated) voting machines (unverifiable)
2. Do-Nothing media (CNN at the top because you USED to be the best,but have sold out)
3. Religious nutcases trying to control everyone (but seem to have trouble controling themselves)
4. Congress that's owned and operated by lobbyists..(to the detriment of their constituents)
...

That's for starters..

If we want to know what's going on in the REAL world, we must look for snippets from foreign news sources, and even CNN-I when it accidentally airs stateside.
It's practically criminal what you do with the use of our FREE airwaves. CNN cheats the public daily by just showing DRIVEL, when there is real news going on.. News that we NEED to know about. Shame on you!

1. :thumbsup:
2. :thumbsup:
3. :thumbsup:
4. :thumbsup:

..... is threatened now, more than ever before, not by external evil empires, but by Bush and his fristian, theocratic, neoconster henchmen.

Peace,
xxxx


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - STOP THE ATROCITIES; INDICT AND PROSECUTE BU$H AND ALL THE OTHER WAR CRIMINALS

"I would think it would be abvious that the biggest threat to democracy would be for the media to use White House press releases as "real" news. The second biggest threat would be voter fraud; hmmmm, 2 out of 3; guess democracy is on it's way out in America."

What would make them think to ask such a question?

On the news, all I hear is "Runaway Bride" and "Michael Jackson." Are they BushCo operatives or something?

Ironically, if they WERE in bed with Bush, that is when the media would stop reporting on them.

Greatest threat to democracy?

Corporate media`s willingness to:

assist this administration in blurring the division between church
and state

put profit over substance

agree to so-called "press conferences" where media questioners
are decided in advance

accept this administration`s unprecedented secrecy

One of the biggest threats is you CNN and all the other coporate-owned media outlets who continue to spread lies and lies and lies and continue to protect President A**Hole, A.k.a. George W. Bu$h.

Last week your station had hours and hours of coverage of that bride down south who ran off b/c she couldn't be women enough to tell her family and friends she had cold feet about her upcoming wedding.

Why do you continue to focus on trash like this? Michael Jackson, who cares! Runaway Brides? Who cares!

Did we forget CNN that close to 1,600 troops are dead b/c they fought in a war that this country got involved in based on LIES.

That we've spent over $200 billion on said war that we got involved in b/c of LIES.

Our leaders (Bush and CO.) LIED to us about having to go to war. Your station covered and carried those LIES.

We're paying over $2.30 cents (on average) in my state for a gallon of regular gas. And now BU$H wants to tap into our natural reserve! But what the hell did people think when they elected an oil man as pResident.

What about Jeff Gannon, a male prostitute having access to the White House. Please investigate that. But you probably won't b/c Karl Rove has paid all you guys off.


Stop spreading lies CNN. Investigate the real truth. Get the real facts. That is something that your station has lacked in recent years.


You're one of the biggest threats CNN and all the other stations and news outlets that continue to support and protect the worst president this country ever had.

Dear CNN -

I believe the greatest threat to our democracy is the fact the the media is no longer the watchdog of the government. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and the networks would rather spend their time with stories about runaway brides, Michael Jackson and other fluff.

Your idea of hard news is reciting whatever the White House sends to you without any verification on your part. Where are the hard questions and followup questions? Whatever happened to investigative journalism? We, as American citizens, cannot be informed voters if we are not given the facts.

There are so many stories out there that affect real people, and I mean REALLY affect them, that get little or no coverage. We would not be at war right now if the media had been doing their job. Do you think we would have invaded Iraq if we had know that the president was manipulating the evidence, as recently proven in the secret British memos? What about the elimination of the middle class? Are we headed for a plutocracy? An economy like Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit? Or is our government going to be a melding of religion and government, like the Taliban? Do we really have honest elections here? Without an open and verifiable voting system we will never know.

If the main stream media were doing their job, Americans would not put up with the kind of problems we are now facing. I have no doubt that we can defeat any threats to our democracy from outside our country. It's the corruption from within that scares me. It wouldn't scare me if the media opened its eyes.

Good point about them not verifying what the white house sends them, and the real threat being from within.

The abdication of professional responsability by the media.

It surprises me that CNN would ask this question, but I expect that CNN envisions softball responses coming from it's typical audience, who might lay the blame on simplistic culprits like the perv, Micheal Jackson or that spoiled brat the runaway bride. Such an outlook would be unsurprising from anyone who habitually watches such "news", read by young women made up to look like expensive "professional escorts". The kind of garbage you, CNN and other mass media outlets feed to us relentlessly.

If CNN is truly interested in how to save Democracy, it will engage in the kind of self-reflection and correction that would result in a radical demonstration of integrity.

You have forgotten the critical role a truthful and intelligent media plays for the citizenship of a nation. You hire unintelligent but pretty faces to do your reporting. You value sexiness over experience and character, and most of all, you can be bought. The corporations and CEO's who run you are in a mutual relationship with the Republican Right Wing, focused on power and money. You and the rest of the media are simultaneously controlled by a bizarre fascination with a contradictory mix of fire-breathing punitive religious dogma, feel-good warm fuzzy personal interest stories and an omnipresent sleazy voyeuristic sexuality.

What's missing is real news, like the revelation that George W. Bush and his advisors had plans to invade Iraq long before 9-11; or the fact that Mr. Bush has repeatedly placed persons in high positions throughout government, whose ideologies are in direct oppostion to the interests they are assigned to protect. That there is a distinct pattern of Bush pandering to the interests of corporate Republican donors, regardless of the destructiveness of those interests to us, the American people. That anyone working in the Whitehouse or in media who points out the fascistic tendencies of this administration swiftly loses their job. That Bush has a pattern of promising safeguards for health and human needs programs, and then cutting those very programs he promised to protect or enhance. That Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11, the rest of the world warned against invasion, Bush broke his promises to pursue diplomacy and that the country of Iraq is now destroyed and the population, made up of over 50% children, has a 58% greater chance of being killed by Bush's invasion than they had of being killed by Saddam (according to the highly respected British medical journal, The Lancet).

You, the media, disseminate lies, treat Republican interests with kid gloves, attack at every opportunity Democratic initiatives to protect American citizens, and are keeping the American populace in a state of agitated, aroused ignorance and for that, you are profoundly culpable.

:hi:

Hey I just noticed that this CNN question on threat to Democracy was on the same show that reported the demand for Bush to explain the plan for war (crooks and liars link on another thread)

Way to nail it!:applause:

"Generally speaking, the biggest threat to democracy is the suppression of truth by those in power . . . as is happening in this country because of you and the other members of the extreme (incorrectly labeled 'mainstream') media. The 'news' coming from the majority of this country's network, cable and print news outlets is pure propaganda and/or deliberate distractions (e.g. Schiavo, the Runaway Bride and Jacko) from the real news.

The biggest threat to OUR democracy is the fascist-leaning government of George W. Bush and Co. and the lock-step of the aforesaid extreme media. What is happening in this country is so eerily reminiscent of Germany in the late 30s that the parallels are frightening.

But i think you already know this and are just looking to see if anyone else has noticed."

ellen fl

Succinct and all tied up in a neat little nutshell... PERFECT!

Dear CNN,

The answer to your question is easy: The current Bush Administration, backed by radical NEO-Cons, like PNAC. Under this regime we have seen the following :

1. The loss of independent un-biased journalism. All major networks and newspapers are owed and operated by massive corporations, eager to buy fake videos, paid commentators, and planted 'news' stories in return for more favorable regulation and uncontested monopoly power.

2. The extremism of the GOP has lead America to the brink of fascism. There are 14 different common symptoms of a fascist nation, and the USA now exhibits all 14.

3. The erosion of our basic civil rights...our right to sue corporations, our right to privacy, our right to dissent and assembly on public property, etc.

4. The raising of corporations to a status above the person. Corporations now have 'rights' beyond that of individuals and seek ever more protection from the government. All of these special exclusions from regulation and liability are paid for in corporate political donations.

5. The radical fundamentalist 'christians' who are demanding the overthrow of our democracy in favor of theocracy. And we have such things as HB 235 to support their efforts.

6.Deregulation and privatization of everything. No one but insiders are appointed to any oversight commissions. It's the foxes guarding the hen house. The public is being shafted ...scientists are excluded from environmental policy, the FDA is being controlled by those who want their religious beliefs crammed down the throats of everyone, our intelligence analysts have been replaced by those who spout the 'party line'.

7.Probably most disturbing is the lack of free and accountable elections. With all of the ballot counting being provided by just 3 GOP-biased corporations, there will never be another true election within the USA. I am demanding an end to machine voting of any type and hand counting of federal election ballots.

I truly believe that democracy is already dead in the United States. We are now 'blessed' with an ignorant and truly un-informed electorate, who are more concerned with 'reality TV' than being a democracy.

Sincerely,

Gee, I reread mine and I notice its pretty pedantic. Shucks! Oh well, I like getting florid sometimes--I was on a roll.

Glad there are alot of other emails going out to CNN that are more to the point than mine!

:D

our opinions. They have a wake-up coming to them when they open these emails! They are a major part of the problem.
:spank:

where most of us dismissed the fluff in a word or two, you were able to connect it to their presentation, as well - pretty mindless faces reading pretty mindless stories. It was a point that needed to be made.

I appreciate your comments. :)

I get into it; its sort of like writing analysis papers back in college--not much opportunity for it in my real life. Plus, I really like constructing a complex sentence or ten!!

Actually, I don't even watch CNN or any of the crappy propaganda shows. They make me hurl.

:hi:

just emailed and ended with this quote:

'Only Americans can hurt America.'
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dear CNN,
The greatest threat to our democracy is the lack of honest and informative televised news. News and reporters as we knew them, have been replaced with game show hosts covering topics viler than anything seen on the Jerry Springer show. It takes a lot of strength or just missing a brain to watch the stuff the 24/7 news outlet put out.

I tuned CNN and the other cable 24/7 networks off long ago because I realized that I was being dis-informed rather than informed by the talking head shows that are passed off as News programs. Your dishonest agenda, your lack of actual reporting on anything of significance without distorting the facts, and your corporate sponsored polls have made life miserable for the majority of Americans. It's truly sickening, and the faster Americans wake up to this manipulative travesty, the better.

Yours truly,
XXXXXXX
(I have 8 televisions, but none are ever tuned to your channel)

Good work! :bounce:
I hope they read this and choke on it!!!!!

(EIGHT tv's ?? yikes!)

The news media is behaving like the Jerry Springer Show and Jerry Springer is delivering the news.
Full circle, isn't it?

The greatest obstacle in most American's minds to progressive change is the (deliberately cultivated) conflation between democracy and capitalism.

The idea that political freedom = unregulated markets (and the converse conflation, that socialism = totalitarianism) serves to both inhibit domestic progressive reform in the US and serves to justify military intervention in the service of multinational investors abroad.

I don't think Iraq was about "spreading democracy"; nor do I think it was just "about the oil". Many autocratic countries and many countries with vast oil reserves (Saudi Arabia meets both criteria) have not been invaded.

Iraq nationalized it's oil and prohibited foreign investment into it's economy. THAT was why they had to be invaded.

Domestically, the raiding of the public sector and the privatization craze are done under the guise of increased freedom, but no one askers "who becomes more free and at whose expense?". The answer is that people who receive income from investments and ownings become wealthier and more free, and people who receive income from their labor become poorer and less free. If unchecked, this trend continues until "third worldization" is achieved, where high unemployment, and more significantly UNDEREMPLOYMENT, work to produce a social order that has in inherent economic coercion that is more cruel and more forceful (albeit less obvious) than a full-blown military dictatorship.

Political behavior is free - there are free elections - but social behavior and life overall is largely constrained by an economy that forces people to scramble to make ends meet

and all the "neo-cons".... THey will get my opinion in a couple clicks. thank you BigBearJohn and everyone else here at DU !

please read this beautiful post about the DU community
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1768573

:yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock:

I can't find it on the CNN website. I'm wondering who or what WAM@cnn.com is. I'm also wondering if we're wasting our time doing this instead of writing to Jonathan Klein. (In re-reading this as a draft, I notice that this could be read as a confrontational post. That's not my intent. I'm just asking for information. Just the facts, ma'am. Ah, the perils of plain text.)

for emails with answers to the question.
:hi: edit to add :
please read this beautiful post about the DU community
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Looks like you somehow clipped off the end of the link or inserted a space in the middle.

Working on a response to CNN. Actually I've been working on a longer, more comprehensive letter to Klein but I'll do this first and more quickly.

I didn't look at the CNN website, but I thought it was funny I was going along with it without knowing where they asked.

But then I thought the worst that would happen is they get flooded with people telling them what their concerns are, including a bunch of notes telling them they are threatening our democracy. And, frankly, the thought of them getting a bunch of those notes - even if unsolicited - perhaps especially so - pleased me. So I wrote one.

" I'm wondering who or what WAM@cnn.com is...?

I wonder if these e-mails are gonna go any where.
and if they do, would CNN have the guts to post em ???

any body got a link to the CNN page that has the WAM@CNN

----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Bray
To: WAM@cnn.com
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2005 10:30 PM
Subject: What is the greatest threat to Democracy


I don't fully comprehend the necessity of your asking such a question. Shouldn't your investigative reporters be alerting the American citizens about these threats. Are they not students of history and understand the principles of cause and effect? Anyway these are my thoughts on this question and my answer is based on events that are already taking place: If you are a senior citizen over the next four years you will find that your pensions or social security will be gobbled up by higher costs for drugs, health care, and heating your home. If you are a young person of draft age and a minority you will find yourself in the military and more likely headed for Iraq or Iran. It won't be to fight terrorists, but to protect oil fields and pipelines. If you are a mother or father your will see your children dying for the rich corporate establishment on a job or in the military. If you are now employed you will see your job outsourced to China, India, or some other foreign country. If you do find employment you more than likely not have any benefits( health insurance, overtime pay, etc.), and the job will pay minimum wage while the cost of everything will continue to rise. If you own a home you more than likely will join the ever growing record number of foreclosures and bankrupcies because you saw your white collor job outsourced. If you are near or at poverty level you will be joined by hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens heading in that downward spiral from middle class. If you plan on going to college you won't be able to afford the ever escalating cost and if you do scrape up the necessary funds you won't find a decent job after graduation unless you become a citizen of an emerging nation. If you remain in this country, you will live in constant fear of an attack by terrorist because we have an administration that has made our nation despised and hated by our foreign policy ( not because of our freedom). If you are a journalist, columnist, or anchorman be prepared to be censored for any statement or commentary contrary to or criticizing of the Bush administraion. These are just the beginning of world war II crimes being revisited on our freedoms. Suffice it to say, when we fall from within we will take the world with us.

Great post

:toast:

..... so, urge CNN to do the same.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3616363

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us



Sketch by Fernando Botero

n/t

1. George W. Bush

2. Electronic voting machines with no auditable paper trail manufactured by companies in bed with Repbulicans who refuse to open up the source code for review.

3. Corporate controlled media.

4. Conservative Christianity that is actively tearing down the separation of church and state.

That about sums it up.

Not Islam.
Not same sex unions.
Not abortion.
Not Social Security *cough* reform.

1. GWB

2. MSM

3. Right wing Radio GAS BAGs

4. neo clowns(cons)

5. corporate monopolies

6. sheeple

7. Patriot ACT

8. loss of privacy

1) A weak-kneed, sycophantic media that fails to perform the vital functions which are deserving of 1st amendment protections.

2) Obvious violations of the separation of church and state

3) Religious zealots are being given political power.

4) Rich oil men raping our treasury and our citizens for personal profit.

The biggest threat to this country right now is the republican party and the so called "Christian Conservatives". Followed by a media (including CNN) that lets Bush off the hook for such things as the male hooker that visited the White House almost 200 times and was allowed to take part in Press Briefings, the leaked CIA Operatives name, the lies about WMD's in Iraq, the budget deficit, the trade deficit, and the never ending attack on our environment. Why doesn't CNN just kneel down before Faux News? Why do you not hold Bush accountable?

Fundamentally, the greatest threat to democracy is the lack of intelligence displayed by the humans around the world.

Practically, for profit, corporate owned, power serving mainstream media which propogandize and choose what is news and what is not is unquestionably the greatest threat to democracy.

Or, it could be argued that politicians (especially at the national and state levels, but this is trickling down too) are equally threatening to democracy. They increasingly cease to represent out interests and instead are creating and selling policy to the highest bidder. Collectively "We the People" have lost most of the power we thought we had.

Cheers,

There are many threats to our Democracy, but here are the two greatest, which are interlinked:

1. Rigged elections in America: There is abundant evidence that the 2004 presidential election results were the result of electronic voting machines that were tampered with or hacked, owned by partisan voting machine companies that support Bush and intentionally ignored all requests to provide even the most fundamental security safeguards. Numerous statisticians have shown that the odds against such vast differences between exit polls and actual results occurring by sheer chance are astronomical. Exit polls in the past have been considered reliable--so reliable that in many countries, exit poll discrepancies are considered prime evidence of election fraud. A software engineer who said a Republican Congressman hired him to create vote-rigging software has passed a lie detector test. I received a warning two days before the election from an acquaintance in Texas who did early voting. She said that on the review screen, her vote changed from Kerry to Bush before her eyes. She complained, but the same thing happened a second and third time. She asked that the machine be removed from service, but the pollworker refused. She complained to the Austin Democratic Party--and was told that numerous complaints of this nature had been received! Bush's "mandate" is as phony as a $3 dollar bill. Moreover, even many votes cast were never counted. State after state has piles of absentee and provisional ballots that were simply ignored, including many military ballots. . We need a right to have our votes counted--as well as a right to vote.

2. Biased Media: The mainstream media's total blackout on the election fraud/rigged election story is unconscionable. As a result, we now have a leader who is pushing through policies that are dismantling our civil liberties, Constitutional rights, economic security, social safety nets, and environmental protections. His alignment with the religious right violates the Constitutional protections requiring separating and state. He and his fellow right-wing neoconservatives are taking us into a state of endless war and turning America into a Theocracy. But it all comes back to the stolen election. Expose this fraud, so that the people will demand change! In Congress, Democrats are trying to enact legislation to restore integrity to our elections, but Republicans are blocking the bills at every opportunity. We need public pressure on Republicans to approve the Democrats' bills -- not the phony so-called "reforms" that the GOP proposes, which only serve to deny more votes. The European media, including the BBC, has reported on the stolen election extensively, yet the American media is silent about the greatest fraud ever pepetrated on the AMerican people. No wonder so many Americans are tuning out TV news and turning to the Internet instead.

I am active in the California Election Protection Network and am co-media chair of Voices For Open & Truthful Election Results & Reform. If you would like to interview some of the leading national experts on voting fraud in the U.S. presidential election, I would be happy to arrange interviews for you. I'd also be happy to forward reams of documentation to back up the assertion that there is a concerted effort on the part of the GOP and the partisan-owned voting machine companies to rig our elections. New efforts are continuing as we speak to force unverifiable, easy-to-hack voting machines into yet more states and counties.

There's a Pulitzer waiting for the first network reporter brave enough to tell the American people the truth -- namely, that our elections are no longer free and our Democracy has been stolen.

Dear Sir:
In response to your request, I have compiled the following short list. It is by no means complete, but should be enough to provide a frightening snapshot.


1) The US Media has completely abrogated its Constitutional responsibility to be our watchdog, and now only broadcasts infoganda that is pleasing to their rich Corporate Owners! Jefferson would be ashamed of you.

2) The extreme Right Wing government now in power is in the process of dismantling the Bill of Rights.

3) A handful of Corporations owned by a small, incestuous group of Conservative Republicans now control the process of counting the votes in the USA. These machines are DESIGNED so that no paper record is created to verify the vote count. By DESIGN, independent ballot counts are now IMPOSSIBLE.
"Its not who votes that counts, its WHO COUNTS the VOTES!"--Joseph Stalin

4) Legislation is FOR SALE in Congress. Executive Branch protection is also FOR SALE. The RICHEST and MOST POWERFUL openly BUY their legislation and protection from this Republican administration. They don't even TRY to hide it.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism ."---Benito Mussolini


The overwhelming FAILURE of our Media to inform the public is by far the BIGGEST THREAT to our Democracy. Without the active cooperation of the MEDIA, the other 3 in my list would not be possible. SHAME ON YOU!!!



Thank GOD for the InterNet and the foreign press.
Without them, all I would know is that Paula Abdul might be sleeping around,
and somehow THAT'S supposed to be IMPORTANT!

XXXXX
St Paul, MN

Look what the stolen elections of 2000, 2002, and 2004 have done to this country.

believe that Bush won any real legitimacy in an election that clearly was fixed. You cannot have a democracy with a shroud of manipulating the vote. Exit polls work, electronic voting machines without a paper trail do not. The truth someday will come out that Bush was never America's president, he will be the Corporation president. Bought and paid for by Dibold.

I had seen CNN's request but ignored it out of hand because I thought it wouldn't make a difference.

But seeing all these intellgent, well-thought out letters makes me hopeful that they will get the message.

It's up to them to react and right themselves or go the way of the dinosaur.

NUMBERS mean something in the broadcast world!!!

Thanks for your acknowledgement!

right here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1771715#


Heartbreakingly unsurprising.

I feel nauseous.

Right before they broadcast the memo, the lady announcers
says, "We want to know what our views feel is the greatest threat to democracy. Please email... etc."

"NeoCons and y'all corporate media types...."


they'd post it on the air?

Top three would be : CNN and all of the other media whores, the Bush administration and the complacent American populace.

where CNN actually asked for our opinion and gave the above email for responses?

Where CNN asks this question.

bush.

Yeah I know, very boring of me, as it just puts me in with the vast majority of the world.

Democracy died on December 12, 2000 by a vote of five to four in the United States Supreme Court.

What is the greatest threat to Democracy?

In short: the corporate media and it's willingness to torpedo stories of meaning to its viewers/readers/listeners in favor of stories that belong more in People magazine or the National Enquirer.

I can't remember a time when I was younger that I didn't want to be a journalist. Unlike most college students, I never changed my major and continued through the Communications program at my university with zeal, learning from retired journalists the inverted pyramid, communications law, the art of asking questions, and, most importantly, the media's role in keeping government accountable to the people it allegedly serves. I worked for 10 years as a reporter for a variety of mid-sized dailies and have lost count of the number of times I broke stories of importance to my readers.

I left the profession, in part, six years ago when my son was born. I freelanced from home for a couple of years, but became increasingly frustrated by the downward quality of most news organizations, particularly on the heels of Fox "News." I read with gnarled teeth as more and more corporations bought up networks and transformed their news departments into entertainment engines and, when Ted Turner sold his interest in CNN, your network suffered tremendously. Newspapers followed suit, as their organizations, too, were snapped up by the rich who also wanted to be powerful.

I left the profession, for good, four years ago, and rarely tune into any of the corporate "news" shows because there is rarely any news.

I couldn't care less if some Georgia woman got cold feet just before her wedding; I wonder from time-to-time, why I even know the name, "Scott Peterson;" I searched for information about the attempted Abu Ghraib prison take-over during the 24/7 Pope-A-Thon (yes, the Pope's death was news, but so are the deaths of soldiers in Iraq) to no avail; I attempted to find investigative insight as to why our government would allow paperless voting machines, owned by the members of one party, and then was left to ponder why the Ukraine was able to get a new election based on exit-polling numbers that didn't match the outcome and why there weren't such calls for a re-vote here; I scoffed at the coverage of the same 50 protesters in front of Terri Shiavo's hospice while thousands of Americans marched against the Iraqi War, mostly unnoticed by the American media; I was saddened when Dan Rather was made a scapegoat for a memo that still has not been proved false despite a story regarding George Bush's TANG and AANG service - or lack, thereof - which has been proved true.

Is it any wonder CNN - and most of the other networks, as well - is losing viewership? Intelligent viewers want news and not tripe. We want to know more about why 13,000 soldiers have been killed, wounded and/or maimed in a war and we want to know why we are there at all. We want to know the views of ALL the presidential candidates during the primaries and not just the corporate flavor of the season - and we want to hear them without distortion. We want to know more about the deficit and the number of our bonds owned by China and Japan and we NEED to know why America is fast-becoming less the great bastion of democracy and fairness she once was.

I now get my news for foreign news sources and from Internet bloggers who show, exactly, how they got the proof to report what they do, since I can no longer trust those with whom I shared a profession.

The greatest threat to democracy is not knowing there's a threat. And you've contributed to that. Shame on you.

If you are interested in knowing what the biggest threat to democracy is--I'd like to share a few thoughts.

Voting accountability in the United States is the greatest threat to our country and the Constitution. In 2000, the election was manipulated in Florida by hiring companies to purge voter rolls and rob citizens of the right to cast a ballot in the election. The use of electronic voting machines--a practice adopted by states with republican governors--were also used in Florida in 2000. It is documented that votes were stolen from Al Gore and given to Bush and other obscure candidates to give Bush the lead using these machines which are privately owned and that have software which can be tampered with remotely or otherwise.

In 2004, we held another election. Voter disenfranchisement was more widespread, and rampant. In key states where the election hinged, fewer voting machines were made available despite predictions of higher turnouts. After the elections, the "media" stated people did not show up when in reality they were made to wait excessively long amounts of time in order to vote. People should not have to choose between their job and family and election polls to cast a vote. That's what we pay taxes for--to make sure equipment and facilities are available so that citizens can vote.

Additionally, exit poll declarations for the 2004 election were the exact opposite of votes cast--in Bush's favor. (Funny how all the mistakes are in Bush's favor--the Supreme Court ruling, the errors in 2000 and 2004 all favor Bush. Is he a lucky guy or what?)

Election irregularities were reported nationwide via the internet and to legislators who compiled them. These irregularities were not given the light of day by the press while the public is fed trash about runaway brides, Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson and Paula Abdul.

As you can tell, the press and media run a close second as the greatest threat to democracy.

This is what I sent:



It depends on whose democracy you mean. If you mean democracy in Iraq, the greatest threat is to the resistance who is comprised of members of the minority in Iraq who have wielded power for decades. They are not willing to give up that power so readily and are fighting fiercely against the forces they deem as occupiers and against any Iraqi who collaborates with the occupiers. There's also the underlying fabric of a U.S.-derived government of Iraqis who have not lived in Iraq for many, many years and don't even have family in Iraq.

If you're referring to democracy here in the United States then the greatest threat would be one political party controlling both houses of the Congress as well as the White House and moving to fill the judiciary with judges deemed by that one political party as ruling in favor of their ideology. Related to this, also, is the lack of honest debate in the government. When staff and advisors are selected to ask "How high?" when told to jump or are only there to provide glad-handing and back-slapping then our government is performing a heinous disservice to its citizens.

Another great threat to our democracy is the rise in recent decades of corporate interests and lobbyists wielding their influence on elections and legislation. Our elected Representatives are supposed to vote based upon on the needs and wants of those people whom cast their votes. And, yes, if any industry falls into that Representatives district, that particular company's interests can be considered when determining which leglislation to vote for or against. Our elected Senators are supposed to represent the best interests of the State from which they hail, not the lobbyists that funnel the most money to their campaign funds.

I fear a political revolution will occur, perhaps even in my own lifetime. The current state of our government, Government of the people by the corporate interests, is doomed to fail, no matter which political party rules the roost.