What is it going to take to get any of the Dems to take on the media bias?

Seriously, we all know that not only is a large portion of the media nothing but right-wing puppet, but the rest is corporate-owned-and-operated and has been bullied to act not much different than the right wing puppets.

AND YET, it is still only the Republicans who bash the media, still claiming a liberal bias (i.e. Pres Bush going around the "filter" a few weeks back.)

The Dema go debate on FOX News and don't mention it's bias. During the debate, a FOX questioner went to a "conventional wisdom" round, by which she meant the right-wing talking point personal insult round. Yet not one of the candidates called her on it. She told Kerry "conventional wisdom" is he's aloof, Dean is elitist, etc. And not one asked if she would criticize Bush or stood up and attacked the BS criticism - would Cheney let her insult him?

So, fellow DU'ers, I personally think no Dem can win if they don't take on the right-wing media bias the way Reagan attacked the "liberal" media. Yet no one seems willing to do it - they would rather be smeared and personally attacked with lies and yet say nothing and continue to go on FOX News Sunday.

Any thoughts on who might finally be the one to make this a front and center issue, or if it will happen at all (my guess is Clark might - he didn't put up with Fox's nonsense the other day, and I've heard his son Wes, Jr. slam FOX, and Dean mentions Rush Limbaugh at times as a problem. But I think the Dems may have to wait until 2008 when Hillary runs to find anyone with the balls - so to speak - to finally acknowledge this is the central issue affecting the party and electing Republicans and finally take it on.

That's my thoughts, yours?

Because it's sheer suicide to do so, IMO. If criticized, they exact their revenge.

The best prospects, I think, are for independent groups to take them on. Some have done so already--if you saw Bill Moyers the other night, you have to know they can turn in some impressive work.


Cher

The media didn't fight back against them, it panders and caves in... even Peter Jennings says he feels the heat. So why would it be different if the Dems did it?

right wing ideologues. What more needs to be said? The media is a magical land where they know they have the real power to influence. Nobody ever sees the work of Henry Waxman. But we all know the work of Brit Hume. This battle over content slipped away years ago and is not going to suddenly shift to a neutral perspective. The industrial/media/military complex is embedded.

the press to the point of stirring up a controversy. Once the issue is out there, the remaining candidates from that point must pick up the ball and run with it.


Gore brought up the subject of Rwing bias earlier this year but he stood all alone as media twits such as Chris Matthews sat back and called him "whiney".

This was Gore's biggest problem, he didn't take on the media whores - especially FOX News.

FOX News is NOT a conservative media outlet. It is the Bush administration propaganda machine. It is closer to the old Soviet style news agency then a true conservative channel. Roger Ailes started it to get revenge for what he though was biased coverage duriing the Clinton-Bush I race. They spend 24/7 in an effort to prop up Bush II. Oh, they may have a commentator on to criticize the Medicare bill or government spending but their TOTAL agenda is to promote Bush. Rove and Ailes are probably in daily contact if not weekly. The Thanksgiving Photo-Op is typical. I though David Asman would faint from sheer joy.

It is TIME someone called them on it. It is not a conservative media outlet. It is a Bush propaganda machine and it should be identified and called what it is.

Fox News - a wholy owned subsidiary of the Bush administration.

As long as we keep electing the Deans of the world, why should the candidates care more about us than the press. Until we wake up, they will continue to play nicey-nicey with the press.

They will push the American working class around as long as we let them, as long as we are politically isolated, as long as we allow ourselves to be willing receptacles for the extablishment propaganda. For example, look at the recent demo presidential debates shown on MSNBC and which are currently being replayed on cable. The questions that Browkaw asked are simply SCANDALOUS!

I could not believe how many of question revolved around minutiae related to the friggin' Israel-Palestine situation! Who bloody cares?! Yes, of course, it is a problem, but mostly for Israel and Palestine. We have enough problems in this country without making one dried-up goddamn piece of desert the focus of our foriegn policy!

Something like 5000 Americans die EVERY DAY of cancer, heart disease, old age, etc. Let's focus on getting universal health care before we give more of our attention to Israel.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=237655

Here's the DU thread where he complained about it, at least
as it pertained to his campaign, and some DUers responded
with nuggets like "Only losers blame the media."

Outside of the candidates, President Gore is certainly
dealing with the issue, both in speeches and via his
attempts to get a progressive radio network going.

and end the loosening of rules that is allowing more media consolidations.

If Clinton hadn't made the same claim and stabbed us all in the back with his lack of effort on the issue, I'd probably be more trusting about Dean's claims.

:shrug:

I am a 33-year career journalist and media executive with experience in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Miami. I have been published nationally and internationally in more than 100 newspapers and magazines.
I am also the journalist who broke the "Bush-Nazi" story in The New Hampshire Gazette (www.nhgazette.com), the oldest paper in America, AFTER The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, ABC News, CNN and every other "major news outlet" in America refused to look at the US government documents I discovered in The National Archives. Then AP managed to misreport and thereby "kill" the story, even though it did run in major papers around the world.
As a result of all this, I am running as a Republican to challenge Bush head-on in the primaries, beginning in New Hampshire.
My issues are: 1) breaking the strangehold of the big corporations on politics and government, 2) ending war profiteering by former government officials, and 3) reforming the media to achieve a better informed electorate.
My web site is www.johnbuchanan.org.
I need all the help I can get across all party and ideological lines. People who 1) hate Bush, and 2) loathe the media, should rally behind me. I WILL make a campaign issue of media bias and the "news blackout" put in place by the neo-cons under Karl Rove.
It is un-American and must be stopped. Please help me.

Who aren't afraid of writing letters to the media.

Please help in mounting a serious anti-media letter writing effort. Please send me your e-mail so we can correspond directly. There is no more important issue facing us than medis reform in my opinion. Thanks.

I'd love to hand out your materials to any Republicans I talk with who won't be persuaded to vote for my candidate!

Outside of Congressman Bernie Sanders few speak much about this issue at all.

In his speech today, "Ending the Era of John Ashcroft"
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2003_1201.html

"As I talk to people around the country, it’s clear there is a broad based fear that the ideologues of this Administration will stop at nothing to get dissenters out of the way. Already, they are summoning the full-power of their communications network – the attack ads, the Ann Coulters, the Sean Hannitys, the Rush Limbaughs – to try to stifle dissent. In the name of the War on Terror, they are attempting to diminish the very rights that define us. They turn civil debate into a shouting match of personal mudslinging that does a disservice to the quality of our democracy. These pretender protectors of our Constitution are trying to intimidate those who dare to speak out. We will not be silenced. We will be heard."

and also speaking out on specific civil rights violations:

"After September 11th, this Administration gathered and used broad new powers to investigate the private lives of people in this country. The powers were supposed to be used fight the War on Terror. But George Bush and John Ashcroft have gone beyond that. They have used police powers in secret ways and for political purposes. John Ashcroft has authorized his agents to monitor church meetings and political rallies without any cause and without the need to get approval. Thirteen FAA employees and a high-tech Homeland Security tracking system were used to help Tom Delay track down Texas State Legislators who were resisting his plan to give Republicans more seats in Congress.

And the FBI investigated peaceful demonstrators who spoke out against this Administration’s policies in Iraq. I know what it’s like to be spied on by the government because it happened to me under Nixon when I came home from Vietnam and said that war was wrong. And one thing we don’t need in this country is an Attorney General who spies on Americans.

Consider the story of Barry Reingold. Barry is 61 – a retired phone-company employee who lives in Oakland, California. One day in July of last year, while at his local gym, he got into a heated discussion about George Bush. He didn’t say a threatening word and all he did was criticize the President’s policies. But soon thereafter he was visited at home by two FBI agents who were investigating his criticisms of the President."