Awesome turnout of Kucinich supporters at Office of the Americas event

[genius]

Last night the Office of the Americas had their annual awards ceremony. Two of Dennis's endorsers, Danny Glover and Howard Zinn were honorees. Blase Bonpane, the head of the organization, has also endorsed Dennis. Kucinich buttons and T-shirts could be seen throughout the room, which appeared to be packed with Dennis's supporters. No other candidate appeared to be represented last night. In California, there is a tremendous amount of support for Dennis among political activists. This activism just needs to be translated into votes on March 2nd.

[Mikhale]

1. I hope

that Dennis remains a determined voice through the support of great friends like these.

[The Sushi Bandit]

4. Cool!

Wish I was there!

[snoochie]

2. I hope...

somebody taped it. I'd love to see the speeches at that ceremony. :)

[Desertrose]

3. fantastic!!

Hey...
anybody check Dennis' book on Amazon?

...is it really #7!


Peace

DR

[LWolf]

5. Great!

With book sales on the rise and fundraising exceeding goals, we should become more and more visible.

:kick:

[genius]

6. The news media is working overtime to keep Dennis invisible

If the word is going to get out, it's up to us.

[redqueen]

7. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

DON'T MOURN MEDIA COVERAGE, ORGANIZE!

By Jeff Cohen , Campaign Communications Director (May 2003)
Many Kucinich for President activists have complained about how mass media marginalize our candidate, belittle our chances, attack our policies. The complaints are valid, but such coverage is exactly what we expected. Given their bias and boosterism on the war, one could hardly expect these same outlets to fully and fairly cover the presidential candidate who led antiwar opposition in Congress.

The Kucinich campaign is no ordinary campaign; it is a movement campaign. The mainstream media are not going to be any friendlier to us than to the movements that animate our campaign: peace, labor, environmental, family farm, consumer rights and every civil rights movement for equality and dignity.

Kucinich supporters have to be brave enough to keep building, recruiting and organizing our grassroots campaign without validation from mainstream media. "Don't count on the mainstream media to lead a social revolution," a former New York Times reporter once said. "They won't even know about it for six months." (In Seattle in 1999, when Kucinich joined thousands of labor and environmental activists in protesting the WTO, no group was caught more off-guard by events than mainstream media.)

We will of course continue fighting for access to mass media forums, reaching out to conscientious journalists who work in the mainstream, and responding to media attacks (hopefully with your help) -- but our strategy must rely in the coming months mostly on grassroots organizing, plus independent, alternative outlets and the Internet.

Let's face it: as a result of deregulation that Dennis Kucinich has long opposed, today's media are dominated by huge conglomerates. The three cable TV news channels are now right, righter and rightist, and conservatives dominate opinion shaping from radio and TV talk to syndicated columnists. Outlets formerly seen as "liberal," including public broadcasting, are corporatized, timid or both, and the spectrum of mass media opinion typically extends from GE to GM. U.S. coverage of the war was denounced worldwide, even by the head of the BBC, as sanitized and propagandistic.

Given the narrowing center-right media spectrum, when Dennis Kucinich proposes common-sense programs that are popular with most Democrats, and often most Americans -- national health insurance, ending unfair trade treaties, returning Social Security's retirement age to 65, cutting the bloated military budget, reversing a reckless foreign policy to conform with international law and treaties -- he is deemed beyond the pale by elite punditry.

To mainstream pundits, Lieberman has "serious" foreign policy views...because they're so indistinguishable from Bush's. Gephardt has a "bold" health plan...because it keeps the private insurance bureaucracy in the center of healthcare. Dean is the "peace candidate"...because of a shallow critique, free of any talk about cutting a military budget that almost equals the military spending of all other countries combined.

Due to the grassroots nature of the Kucinich campaign and late start, our fundraising and organizational apparatus are just getting going. Both will be upgraded in the next months. While mainstream media may take note of that, we should not count on mass media to legitimize a progressive campaign that -- unlike those of Dean and Gephardt and Kerry -- seeks to transform the policies of the Democratic party and the nation.

The insurgent campaigns of Jesse Jackson in '88 and Jerry Brown in '92 got little help from mainstream media and a lot of ridicule -- but they persevered in spite of media attacks, and rocked the political process.

In recent weeks, Kucinich has been attacked by leading conservative commentators and operatives -- including George Will and Mary Matalin. This is good news. Let's keep building, recruiting, fundraising, organizing in Iowa and elsewhere, and we'll earn more such attacks!

But don't count on the mainstream media to help us build a movement to transform the party and country. They won't even know about it for six months...until we rise up in the Iowa caucuses come January.