M76
January 24th, 2008, 11:55:36 PM
so as long as you have the money you win the election?
http://artvoice.com/issues/v7n4/finishing_in_the_money
What sets Kucinich apart from the other “losers” is the fact that he was winning debates and polls while the corporate media was writing him off as a loser and, more importantly, marginalizing his voice and keeping his populist ideology out of the presidential contest.
Let’s go back to the early stages of the race, when ABC hosted a full debate with the top 10 Democratic contenders. An ABC news poll showed viewers choosing Kucinich as the winner by a large margin, with 34 percent believing he bested Obama (22 percent), Clinton (14 percent) and Edwards (four percent). Most polls are of questionable accuracy, but this one was conducted by the same organization that later contradicted its own findings by declaring that Kucinich didn’t have enough support to warrant inclusion in subsequent debates. Kucinich was still polling strong in November when CSPAN’s viewers chose him as the clear winner of a seven-way debate. In that poll, 41 percent of those queried chose Kucinich as the winner, compared to 18 percent for Clinton, 15 percent for Obama and five percent for Edwards.
Last week NBC in Las Vegas televised a local Democratic presidential debate in advance of the Nevada caucuses. Their criterion for participation was for candidates to rank among the top four in national polls. There are a few problems here. First, polls are only as accurate as their methodology allows them to be. But even more importantly, this is not how democracy works. Democracy is not set up to limit debate—especially to those who are only popular before the public knows anything about them. The only way poll respondents can be equipped to pick a favorite is by hearing the views of all the candidates—not just those the corporate media determines are worthy of coverage.
What we wind up with here is a Catch-22. Only popular candidates get media coverage. Candidates become popular by being covered in the media.
Despite its own polls, however, CNN was no friendlier toward Edwards than USA Today. After Edwards upset the pollsters by beating Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, coming in as a strong second behind Obama, CNN’s David Gergen declared on January 3 that “John Edwards has no place to go…because he has no money.”
Get it? Third place in the money race just ain’t good enough. The next day the New York Times’ David Brooks declared that Edwards’ political career is “probably over.” By January 7, before 95 percent of the national electorate had a chance to vote, USA Today, the folks who sidelined Edwards in December, reported that “[t]he Democratic contest is a two-person race” between Clinton and Obama.
Interestingly enough, by contrast, while Edwards’ surprise second-place finish in the Iowa Democratic caucus condemned him to the trash bin of history, “Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran” crooner John McCain’s fourth-place finish in the Iowa Republican caucus was nearly universally celebrated in the corporate media as a victory and a jump-start for the McCain campaign. This media-manufactured momentum propelled McCain into a victory in the subsequent New Hampshire primary—the same primary that transformed Clinton from a loser into a winner.
The New Hampshire results aren’t necessarily indicative of anything other than how a small group of relatively unique (“Live free or die”), overwhelmingly white folks happened to vote in the dead of winter. And they might not even indicate that. In what threatens to be a harbinger of worse things to come, the New Hampshire primary ended with allegations of voting machine irregularities; Obama bested Clinton by four points across the state in districts with hand-counted ballots, while losing to Clinton by five points in districts where Diebold machinery tabulated the votes.
Maybe the horse race analogy is wrong. Maybe wrestling would be more apropos.
gotta love that corporate media determining everything in this country
http://artvoice.com/issues/v7n4/finishing_in_the_money
What sets Kucinich apart from the other “losers” is the fact that he was winning debates and polls while the corporate media was writing him off as a loser and, more importantly, marginalizing his voice and keeping his populist ideology out of the presidential contest.
Let’s go back to the early stages of the race, when ABC hosted a full debate with the top 10 Democratic contenders. An ABC news poll showed viewers choosing Kucinich as the winner by a large margin, with 34 percent believing he bested Obama (22 percent), Clinton (14 percent) and Edwards (four percent). Most polls are of questionable accuracy, but this one was conducted by the same organization that later contradicted its own findings by declaring that Kucinich didn’t have enough support to warrant inclusion in subsequent debates. Kucinich was still polling strong in November when CSPAN’s viewers chose him as the clear winner of a seven-way debate. In that poll, 41 percent of those queried chose Kucinich as the winner, compared to 18 percent for Clinton, 15 percent for Obama and five percent for Edwards.
Last week NBC in Las Vegas televised a local Democratic presidential debate in advance of the Nevada caucuses. Their criterion for participation was for candidates to rank among the top four in national polls. There are a few problems here. First, polls are only as accurate as their methodology allows them to be. But even more importantly, this is not how democracy works. Democracy is not set up to limit debate—especially to those who are only popular before the public knows anything about them. The only way poll respondents can be equipped to pick a favorite is by hearing the views of all the candidates—not just those the corporate media determines are worthy of coverage.
What we wind up with here is a Catch-22. Only popular candidates get media coverage. Candidates become popular by being covered in the media.
Despite its own polls, however, CNN was no friendlier toward Edwards than USA Today. After Edwards upset the pollsters by beating Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, coming in as a strong second behind Obama, CNN’s David Gergen declared on January 3 that “John Edwards has no place to go…because he has no money.”
Get it? Third place in the money race just ain’t good enough. The next day the New York Times’ David Brooks declared that Edwards’ political career is “probably over.” By January 7, before 95 percent of the national electorate had a chance to vote, USA Today, the folks who sidelined Edwards in December, reported that “[t]he Democratic contest is a two-person race” between Clinton and Obama.
Interestingly enough, by contrast, while Edwards’ surprise second-place finish in the Iowa Democratic caucus condemned him to the trash bin of history, “Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran” crooner John McCain’s fourth-place finish in the Iowa Republican caucus was nearly universally celebrated in the corporate media as a victory and a jump-start for the McCain campaign. This media-manufactured momentum propelled McCain into a victory in the subsequent New Hampshire primary—the same primary that transformed Clinton from a loser into a winner.
The New Hampshire results aren’t necessarily indicative of anything other than how a small group of relatively unique (“Live free or die”), overwhelmingly white folks happened to vote in the dead of winter. And they might not even indicate that. In what threatens to be a harbinger of worse things to come, the New Hampshire primary ended with allegations of voting machine irregularities; Obama bested Clinton by four points across the state in districts with hand-counted ballots, while losing to Clinton by five points in districts where Diebold machinery tabulated the votes.
Maybe the horse race analogy is wrong. Maybe wrestling would be more apropos.
gotta love that corporate media determining everything in this country