Reply #54: I already supported that statement if you read the post. [View All]

You don't remember Dean constantly being called the "only" or "only major" anti war candidate? Do you not see that as an obvious attempt to drive anti-war voters toward the one anti-war candidate with an agenda not completely hostile to corporate power? Yes, Dean did eventually talk about breaking the media conglomerates in Dec. of '03, but the fact that Kucinich said the same thing at the first Democratic debate months earlier partly explain the difference in media coverage.

You don't remember story after positive story hyping Dean's online organizing? The media ate that shit up.

You don't remember Dean being promoted as the front runner before Iowa even voted? Also feel free to read the two examples in my other response.

And again, here's support for my view that Dean's early media coverage had more to do with his fundraising and a good press team than crowds. From a FAIR article in September of '03.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1153

Coverage of Dean illustrates sharply the media's central equation of money with possible nomination. By the end of June, various pundits began to describe Dean as a potential top-tier candidate--not because of any shift in his appeals to voters but because of his fundraising success. "Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) announced yesterday that he has raised more than $6 million in the second quarter of this year," Edsall declared (Washington Post, 6/30/03), "an achievement many of his competitors privately conceded will add new credibility to his insurgent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination."

Noting that Dean had raised $9 million in the first half of 2003, Nagourney (New York Times, 6/30/03) proclaimed, "The figure stunned his rivals and transformed Dr. Dean from a maverick into a more traditional contender." Gephardt and Lieberman, Nagourney added, "who had weak financial showings in the first quarter," needed "strong showings" for the second quarter "to erase any concerns among Democrats about their viability."