Every four years, during U.S. presidential elections, the same thing happens,

except it’s always a little bit different.

From: Consortium News



Lather, rinse, repeat.

to account. The lies discovered on Iraq proved most of media's complicity in selling that war.

If the corporate media refuses to do their job - it makes it difficult for citizens to do theirs.

But....This time we fought them back HARDER. Hurray for us - WE grew stronger.

to see if Obama and his team can break this cycle. Everything will hinge on that. I think we've seen hints: Obama's race speech to break the Wright news-cycle, raising $100 mil on the Internets, etc.. but they're gonna need everything they (and we) have got to overcome the MSM crap machine. The swiftboaters are gearing up like never before. It's gonna be an epic fight...

and a more enlightened Matthews - both still on short leashes in 2004.

I believe Keith's 'Special Comments' only started in 2006, didn't they?

I don't trust Matthews. And Keith's viewership is what, 1 million? In a nation with 100 million voters? Even if you add Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Bill Moyers, etc... it's still a tiny piece of the propaganda machine. Can the Web drive some news? Can the campaign respond with staged events or throw money and ads into the right places, with the right message, at the right times? I dunno.

.

Who counts the votes?

Who has had 8 years to stack the judiciary with party loyalists?

Who owns the mass media?

We are no better off than we were a decade ago, nothing important has changed in our favor. Watch for history to re-repeat itself, as farcically as possible. Sure, more of us will be outraged for longer, but in the end we'll probably still go along like sheep because it's easier than doing something about it.

Even if our candidate wins the votes in a landslide, it's still gonna be a longshot getting those votes to count in the election.

clients aren't the American People, their clients are corporations, the American People are only customers or consumers. Corporations buy their ads, so de facto, the corporate media feel a fiduciary responsibility to represent the best interests of the corporations, not the American People. Thus if a candidate believes corporations should rule and the American People should only serve or be sold, that candidate will receive the most favorable coverage to the point of the corporate media overlooking serious, even dangerous short comings.

Ironically I believe this myopic view of their sacred role by the corporate media to dumb down the people instead of lifting them up, will ultimately strangle corporate power in the U.S. as it becomes increasingly starved for talent. Thus I don't believe it to be coincidental that U.S. children have fallen behind other industrialized nations in education while the corporate media have made so much hay demonizing the word elite when it comes to politics. They are in effect killing the goose that lays their golden eggs.

Thanks for the thread, Truth2Tell