To ABC and Disney, Democracy does not include Dennis Kucinich
With more than a year left to the 2008 Presidential election, have you already decided that the Democratic nominee will be Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John Edwards? It probably doesn’t matter. Because ABC and its parent company Disney have made that decision for you.
When Internet polls for a recent debate on ABC came out, Rep. Dennis Kucinich won. Big time. Despite not being asked a question until 28 minutes into the one-hour debate. And then ABC buried the poll. And then ran another one. Which Kucinch won. And ABC buried. Again.
Read MediaBloodhound’s excellent in-depth look at ABC’s treatment of Kucinch. And decide if this is how a real democracy acts.
“Special Report: WashPo and Time Help ABC Bury Treatment of Kucinich”
No news organization - especially one charged with facilitating part of our electoral process - should be able to so grossly transgress such basic journalistic standards and not be held to account. This isn’t a partisan issue. Congressman Kucinich’s chances of capturing the Democratic nomination are irrelevant to this matter.
This speaks to the viability of our national press.
It truly is a great piece of work by MediaBloodhound, and I cannot recommend reading the piece in its entirety enough.
Because at this point in our history, We the People need to start hearing more voices and more viewpoints, regardless of how few voices massive media corporations like Disney want you to hear. Because this isn’t about Dennis Kucinich. It’s about democracy. And in our two-party system, it gets less and less democratic every election.
–WKW
August 30th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I would say this is unbelievable. But unfortunately, it is very believable.
Dennis Kucinich was a plot twist that the network executives could not
abide. The formula is set and it draws good ratings. The Kucinich character
was acting too out of character. It was way to big of a risk to take with
the audience.
Kucinich as a viable candidate would be like Klinger not wearing a dress or like Norm giving up beer or like Fonzie saying “How Dooo You Dooo!” instead of “Haayyyyy”.