2008 Election is Being Stolen RIGHT NOW: Martin of FCC Bribing MSM With Ownership Rule Changes

[McCamy Taylor]

Just a couple of days ago I warned that this was coming in a post right here in good old DU. Actually, the post was addressed to the Democrats in Congress, but this time I hope that some of the people who read DU will pay attention, too, because this is the Republican dirty trick that cost Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004, and it will be the Republican dirty trick that allows a Republican to steal the for sure Democratic win presidential election next fall unless something is done to put a stop to it.

I am not kidding.

Seriously.

This is important.

Do I have your attention now?

This is what I wrote a few days ago.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/77

Bush stole two elections thanks to national news media bias. He sold the nation a war of choice, and he continues to be able to frame all national debates, with the help of an FCC which hands out favors to a compliant corporate media like doggy treats to Fido. If the current FCC bribe machine is not taken out of commission, the next presidential election will be just like the ones in 2000 and 2004. Whatever pathetic sock puppet the Republicans nominate with be lauded by the press as a maverick savior of the people, while the Democratic nominee will be held up to shame, ridicule and even out and out lies.

<snip>

There is still plenty that the FCC can do to buy the corporate media before the 2008 election.

<snip>

News Corp, always an administration ally, has a little problem with the Wall Street Journal being located in New York, where it already has other properties. That means it will need to be on unusually good behavior. The buyer of the Tribune Co. has discovered that the organization is way out of compliance with federal media regulations. Does that mean that his newspapers and televisions will be careful to walk a GOP line to discourage an unfavorable FCC ruling from Martin?

(In case you think my theories about the FCC buying the corporate media are off the wall, here is a second opinion:

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,984897,00.html )

I knew that Martin was going to do it. I just did not know that he would do it so soon. The virtual ink had barely dried on my post here at DU, before he launched a bold bribery scheme designed to keep News Corp and the Tribune Company on the side of the Republicans. And hey, maybe the New York Times Company would like to own a TV station or two in New York. And maybe some other companies that own radio stations would like to expand to TV or vice versa. And if they own one or two, maybe they think they need more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/business/media/18broadcast.html?ei=5065&en=3587dbb202bd2dcc&ex=1193371200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

The head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.

Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the next two months — a plan that, if successful, would be a big victory for some executives of media conglomerates.

Among them are Samuel Zell, the Chicago investor who is seeking to complete a buyout of the Tribune Company, and Rupert Murdoch, who has lobbied against the rule for years so that he can continue controlling both The New York Post and a Fox television station in New York.

The article goes on to say "In recent months, industry executives had all but abandoned the hope that regulators would try to modify the ownership rules in the waning days of the Bush administration." Silly corporate media. Did they forget that the Karl Rove play book includes bribing the mainstream media with promises of media mergers--which the federal courts will almost certainly strike down. But hey, the owners of the big TV news networks can always dream. And write news that is biased in favor of the Republican candidate, whoever he may be, while calling "Gore a liar" and "Kerry a waffler" and "Hillary a bitch" and "Edwards a phony" and "Obama black (why didn't we notice before the nominating convention?)"

In 2003, the corporate media lied to us about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. At the very same time, Michael Powell was making promises about relaxing media ownership rules. In June of 2003, the corporate media was rewarded for a job well done with those media rule changes. However, Powell and the FCC never had the power to do what he did. Maybe he knew it all along. A federal court struck down his gift to the MSM. In 2004, Kerry promised to restore the old rules. W. promised to go to the Supreme Court and fight for the new, relaxed rules---just as soon as he was re-elected. Recall the way that the media acted between September and November of 2004. The way CBS treated Dan Rather and Ed Bradley. The way everyone covered the Swiftboat Vets and the Kerry is a Waffler story. Then recall the way that no one would release their Ohio exit polls and how only Olbermann would discuss the possibility that anything suspicious happened in Ohio. The corporate media was bought. Bought with a lie, it turns out, since in January 2005, Michael Powell revealed there were no plans to go to the Supreme Court.

The same thing is happening again. Eventually a federal court will declare that Martin does not have the power to direct the FCC to make this kind of ruling. But in the meantime, the Republican presidential candidate will have made it clear that if the Tribune Company and News Corp and anyone else who favors unlimited media expansions wants to see their business prosper, they had better write copy that favors him and they had better slime the Democrat. And the corporate media, being short sighted and greedy, will fall for the same trick one more time.

And one more election will be stolen, and the war in Iraq will continue.

We have the power to keep it from happening. Speak out. Tell Congress that this is not acceptable. Demand that Congress do to the FCC what it has done to the Department of Justice. It is Congress's job to write laws, not the FCC's, and it is Congress's job to to investigate administrative agencies like the FCC when they are used as political tools by the White House.

[karynnj]

1. Thank you for putting all this in perspective

It took 2004 for me to see that the lies of NYT and the WP in the run up to the war were not just an aberration. Since then, if anything the media has moved more to the right. We lost PBS. My local paper which was is a Gannet paper went from a pretty good endorsement of Kerry to a strange endorsement of Kean, which admitted they had no idea what his positions were on anything other than his unproven statement that Menendez was a crook. The actually ended it saying they hoped his positions would be like his dad"s.

It scares me when so many here state that Clinton can't be swiftboated. They absolutely ignore that the media had everything they needed from the official records before August to know that Kerry was a war hero. That they were willing to play with this for political reasons makes me sick. Even Nixon didn't sink that low. As they could take something like that and distort it means they could take anything.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. the media is already got their choices picked and trying to influence voters

[McCamy Taylor]

3. If Congress can take back the power to write media rules from the FCC, then this will stop

This is Congress's right, after all, not the FCC, which is only in business to enforce the law. If Congress brings the hammer down hard on the FCC, then the corporate media will have to go back to doing what they used to do---lobbying Congress, giving money to Congressional funds. It is almost impossible to steal a Congressional election as Newt learned in 1998 and Rove learned in 2006. It is terribly easy to steal a presidential election.

I agree that the corporate media is getting behind one candidate and I think it is Rudi. Here is why.

Sam Zell, new owner of the Tribune Co. who is getting special favors from the Bush FCC but whose happy days might not last if someone like Obama or Edwards were elected is donating money to Guliani (and once to McCain)

http://www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/Sam_Zell.php

Bracewell & Guliani counts among its clients News Corp and AOL-Time Warner.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051400530.html?tid=informbox

They will not say a negative word about either Hillary or Obama until after the nominating convention, because Republicans are convinced that with the help of a compliant media sliming Hillary for being a bitch and a woman or Obama for being black and too young, Rudi will win.

Rove is probably making all the phone calls from Texas at this very moment. This is exactly how they played 2004, and Turdblossom's biggest failing is he loves to repeat himself.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. K&R