It was my pleasure earlier today to visit the new blog of The Consigliere (A Different Take). Writing about the recent debate in Philadelphia between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, The Consigliere takes Charles Gibson and George Stephenopoulos to task as moderators for the trivial and inconsequential questions they were posing to each of the candidates. Then he poses some of the questions they should have asked.
In a democracy, it is a given that the media should operate free from governmental control. Democratic governments do not have ministries of information to regulate content of the media. Today, however, our media are controlled by a few large corporate interests with the result that our citizens are poorly served by the journalists who work for those companies. Our media thus have ceased being the watchdogs for our democracy and instead have become the lapdogs of their corporate masters.
Video 1. Entire Obama/Clinton Philadelphia Debate Summarized in 30 Seconds.
Video 2. ABC Asks Debate Questions Fed By Sean Hannity. In the Philadelphia debate, Stephanopoulos asked a question that mirrored almost word-for-word what Hannity pressed him to ask:
Now let 's read today's blog post on Blogstream by The Consigliere (A Different Take). This post is used with his permission.
Are You Kidding Me??? - ABC Debacle
“MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator, two questions. Number one, do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do? And number two, if you get the nomination, what will you do when those sermons are played on television again and again and again?”
Are you kidding me? This was on ABC? One of our main networks with supposedly a high reputation? What would Howard K. Smith have asked? The moderators, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, must have received some recent training from The National Enquirer or even lower, Fox News. Also what on earth is George doing there as a supposedly impartial moderator? Doesn't anyone remember that he was once part of the Clinton team some years ago?
Why weren't the candidates asked questions like these:
"How is your healthcare proposal actually going to meaningfully lower health insurance rates without having to lower the comprehensiveness of coverage?" - to both candidates
"How on earth can you mandate the purchase of health insurance and compare it to auto and homeowner's insurance when the rates for health insurance are so much higher and this country hasn't seen a significant rise in real wages for so long?" - to Sen. Clinton
"How would you approach the Middle East situation especially in Iraq and Afghanistan in your first ninety days in office?" - to both
"What would you do to replenish and re-strengthen the condition of the US troops morale and ability to respond to other potential needs if we are still going to be in Iraq for at least 1-2 years before any withdrawal is even attempted?" - to both candidates
"Is the US government going to continue bailing out large financial entities who get into trouble and not thoroughly address the woes of regular people with their home mortgages?" - to both
"Because you are of a minority racial part of our populace, how can you address any fears that the majority might have regarding your showing any favoritism to that minority part to make up for biases they have endured?" - to Obama
"In your approach to taxes, are you going to commit to the idea that the middle class will not feel the brunt of any reversion to previous income tax rates and including estate taxes? How would you define the middle class economically?" - to both candidates
"How will you assuage the real estate home market and restore the goal of reasonable home ownership to the American people?" - to both
"Are you going to address the extremely high, some call usurious, interest rates that credit card companies and banks are charging even good customers? If so, what will you do?" - to both
"Regarding NAFTA, are you going to address the fact that corporations are given a tax break to export their job positions?" - to both
"What are you going to do to encourage the re-establishment of American manufacturing capability and does the American workplace have to take large wage losses to do it?" - to both
"Is it fair that hedge fund managers only have to pay capital gains tax instead of regular income tax?" - to both
"How are you going to re-strengthen Social Security and is the government going to keep dipping into the SS fund to make up for gaps in government revenues?" - to both
"Should corn be used primarily for food or for fuel? If for fuel, how are you going to address the rise in food prices caused in part by the change in primary use?" - to both
Do you see what I mean? Why can't we have questions like that instead of tabloid crap like we had the other night? No, silly me, we need to entertain instead of making a difference.
Stay tuned...
If you liked these questions, you might like to go to the blog of "A Different Take" or "The Consigliere" and let him know. There is a link to his site in the comments section for this post. Thanks, Frank, for the questions. They added immeasurably to my post today.
As a member of Concerned Residents Against Plastered Politicians (CRAPP), I was appalled when I saw a recent video of you bellying up to the bar at Bronko’s restaurant in Crown Point, Indiana. In spite of a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that 56% of students in grades 5 through 12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink, there you are downing a shot of Crown Royal in one hand while gripping a half-emptied mug of beer in the other. What kind of a role model are you, a potential president of the United States, when young potential drinkers of that age can see you engaged in such inappropriate behavior? Shame on you!
Video 1. Hillary Goes Bar Hopping. Hillary likes her whiskey with a beer chaser.
Motto: I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.
Hillary, one more shot of that whiskey chased with a mug of beer, and you will be on your knees. I don’t like the image I have when I see you on your knees puking into the pot at 3 a.m. Who is going to answer that 3 a.m. phone call?
Video 2. Underage Drinking.
Video 3. The Tragedy of Alcohol Abuse. A collection of pictures portraying drunk driving accidents, binge drinking and the pain of the family members who lost loved ones. Some images are very graphic.
Over the past quarter century, ownership of the news media in the United States has become dangerously concentrated. In 1983, the majority of all U.S. news media was controlled by 50 corporations. In 1992, that ownership had been reduced to fewer than two dozen corporations, and in the year 2000, to only six companies. Now, in 2008, that number has been further reduced to five huge corporations - Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS). General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.
Last year, the FCC further scaled back an important protection for diverse voices in our media in the 20 largest cities in the United States by permitting these big media corporations to also control newspaper and TV or radio stations.
Living in the San Diego area, I am feeling the effects of the lack of diverse voices in the media. We have one Republican-slanted anti-union newspaper, and six radio stations hosted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and others. We had only one Progressive radio station - Air America - which we lost when it was taken off the air recently.
Last evening, I tuned in a radio station where a guest of the talk show host referred to environmental activists who believe in global warming as “idiots”. I tuned to another station where the guest David Horowitz asserted that Democrats and Jeremiah Wright are unpatriotic Americans who want the US to lose the war in Iraq. Still another radio station had a guest who said that Barack Obama is not a true American because he spent his early years in a Muslim country.
Here is an excerpt from a brief biography of Barack Obama:
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, USA in 1961. His mother was Caucasian and American, and his father was from Kenya. (When he was 2), they divorced and his father returned to Kenya to continue working in the field of economics. He was a very intelligent man who had been schooled (at) Harvard. Anyway, Barack ended up moving to Indonesia (where he attended a secular school) and lived with his mom and new stepdad while eventually coming back to Hawaii to finish high school in the States. Years later, he ended up graduating from Columbia University with a Political Science major specializing in international relations. After graduating from there, he continued his education at the prestigious Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude (basically at the head of his class, or with "honors"). This is where he became the first African-American president of Harvard's Law Review group.
As a result of the news media environment we have in this area, I am looking for more diverse voices on the internet. I have found that comedians are giving me a better insight into the reality of what is happening in the world than I am getting from supposedly serious journalists.
I offer here four of my favorite voices.
Video 1. Bill Maher
Video 2. Jon Stewart
Video 3. Stephen Colbert
Video 4. George Carlin (Warning: His style of delivery is to use language that might be offensive to some people. If you can filter out that language, he is worth listening to).
An office manager at a company you work for suspects that a lot of the workers are spending too much time using the internet for non-work-related issues. He makes a request that you, as a new employee aspiring to move up to a management position with the company, monitor the employees’ mail, URL visits and downloads, and then report your findings to him two weeks later. The thought that occurs to you is that the office manager is asking you to spy on your fellow workers and become the office snitch. He is your boss and you know that if you are to remain in good standing with him, you will follow his request.
QUESTION: Do you follow through with the request of your boss?
Some companies are now giving their employees a business-size ethics card they can easily carry with them as a reference tool. The card includes the short list of questions below for employees to answer when they find themselves in questionable situations:
Is the action legal? Does it comply with the values of the company? If you do it, will you feel bad? How will it look if reported in the newspaper?
If you know it’s wrong, don’t do it. If you’re not sure, ask. Keep asking until you get an answer.
Video 1. The Workplace Is No Place For Video Games
Video 2. Nora the Piano-Playing Cat. This is not a trick taught to Nora. She began sitting at the piano at about one-year-old. She's almost four now. Her owner teaches piano in her home, and Nora used to watch her teach her pupils. One morning, the piano teacher heard her piano being played, and when she went into the music room, Nora was playing it. Now she plays several times a day when the mood strikes her.
Video 2A. "Nora's Song" Music Video Incorporating Nora's Actual Piano Playing.
Video 3. The Cat Diaries 13: The Cat Tower
Video 4. Gizmo, the Cat with a Toilet Obsession.
Video 5. Sushi the Cat Using the Toilet and Flushing.
Your favorite cat(s):
1. Talking Cat 2. Nora, the Piano-Playing Cat 3. The Cat Tower Cats 4. Gizmo the Toilet Flusher 5. Sushi the Cat Who Both Sits and Flushes
Many Blogstream members are there
already! Quotes from members: "It's like blog lite!" -- "I like the instant
gratification!" -- "Stop spectating, get in the game!"
If you have not joined in, you are really missing out!
