OK here they are, one for Dean and one foe Kucinich,

[Turkw]

took longer than I thought because I didn't have as much free time as I thought I would. I will send the emails tomorrow, unless the respective supporter hate them, then I will try again. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and a few other places.

Here is Dean's:

How low the mighty have fallen, I'm not talking about Howard Dean, I'm talking about television news coverage of Howard Dean. By relying on name recognition polls, and focusing on perceived personality traits rather than issues you have delivered a one, two punch that would have put most political candidates out of the race by now. First, the media artificially inflated expectations for Howard Dean by giving a lot of coverage, but not his positions on the issues. Then right at the time the majority of Iowa and New Hampshire voters were preparing to make their choice of who to support, the coverage started turning negative.

This fact is documented by Media Tenor in a report of ABC, CBS, and NBC coverage of the candidates from Jan. 5 to Jan. 21. This report shows a significant decline in positive statements on or by Dean and a comparison of voter preference decrease according to Boston Globe polling. Contrasted to this is the same type of chart for John Kerry that shows large increase of positive coverage and a corresponding gain in the Boston Globe Polls. If this were not enough information to show that the media has done a real disservice to Howard Dean, there is more.

As pointed out by Fact Check, 41 percent of the voters made their mind up the week before the caucus. They received more negative information about Dean and more positive information about Kerry at this time than was in the news coverage at any other time prior to the caucus. This combined with the high expectations set for the results set up Dean.

There is no doubt that Kerry had a very big, and unexpected by the media, win. The spin put on this story was Dean lost big, which was very unfair, since polls just prior to the caucuses had Dean at 20 percent, so a showing of 18 is not the blowout reported. The real losers were the press, for not picking up on Kerry's and Edwards' gains, which had been documented in a Des Moines Register poll released on Jan. 17. Dean's support remained steady.

These factors, combined with the misleading airing of the now famous I have a Scream speech, created a negative effect for Dean, separate from his showing. The press is more interested in this story, even though the press created it, than in setting the record strait. The results with voter preference are a mirror of the perception created by the media, not a justification that the media got the story right. Dean still has a large, loyal following, yet even with the damage done to the campaign the news coverage puts very high expectations on Dean's campaign. It seems that reporters are now impatient for the next story, Dean dropping out. They are certainly not above "helping" this story develop. This is a disgrace to professional journalism, and you should stop doing it.

Here is Kucinich's:

Once again the press has all but coronated a winner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Kerry, I am told time and again, is all but sure to carry the day. Not only that, it has picked the candidate it wants as the final contender for the nomination. John Edwards has been given very high praise and very low expectations. Too bad it is we, the voters who are supposed to choose.

Candidates who continue to have a real message are not being heard because of what you choose to cover. If the process were almost over, most of the delegates won, and elections and caucuses complete in the majority of states, you might have an excuse for it. But considering that only a few states have gone and just a fraction of delegates won, such discrimination cannot be justified.

It is a very real disservice that you have served to the American public. We deserve to hear a real and vigorous debate on the issues. The issues, that is, that are important to us. It is your job, your profession to cover the news, not create it. But this fact seems to have been forgotten long ago.

Voters should be able to choose candidates because of the causes they champion and their positions on the issues. Instead, the people must make their choices based on human interest stories about campaigns, candidate personality as view by the media, and name recognition driven polls, or worse push polls.

In a forum where policies and issues are openly compared and fairly contrasted, Dennis Kucinich has equal footing with any front-runner or contender. It is a shame to see that choice taken away from us by the very people who are supposed to present us with the facts. I hope you will do something to remedy this awful state that television news is in.

[uhhuh]

1. Very, Very Well Done

On both counts!!

[GodHelpUsAll2]

2. I tip my hat to you!

Great job. I am a Dean supporter and I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I have been doing the same but mine are not as good as yours. Now I ask you, what can I do for your candidate?

[Turkw]

5. We are united against Bush and his corporate cronies, write a email for

Clark, heck write one for Kucinich if you have time. We need to be vocal. By starting now the press will know that we are not going to lay down and let them get away with the sloppy journalism and manipulation by the right that happened in 2000 and in 2002.

[dansolo]

3. The untold story of Iowa

Is not Dean's results. The one thing that got no coverage was the massive defection of Gephardt's supporters, presumably to Kerry. But instead we got sold the story about how Gephardt lost his support because he went negative at the end. I believe that Gephardt had a firm 20-25% of support, and they wouldn't just abandon him.

[corporatewhore]

4. thank you!!!

[Turkw]

6. I promised I would do this, the media has been irresponsible and should

not be allowed to get away with what they have done to these three candidates. The worst is what they have done to Dennis Kucinich, but they are trying hard to hammer Clark and Dean and get them to drop.

[Armstead]

7. Kick

I think no matter who one supports, the media coverage has been horrible.