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liberalmike27 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:04 AM
Original message
Kerry Information, Confirming Reason for Media Bias, Must Read
http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/story/0,7497,1144464,00.html

Kerry converts, in particular (that'd be most of you, judging by the bump after he loanded his dead campaign 7 million), this is a must read. Take the time, read it, rethink your choice.

News programs have become nothing but the face of huge corporate conglomerates. They have stopped even trying to effectively pretend they are fair. When Wolf Blitzer, Tom Brokaw, Chris Mathews, and other 10 million dollar a year pundits talk to you, you are listening to GE, Rupert Murdoch, AOL, Time Warner, and many others embedded into the media conglomerate.

Clark and particularly Dean were incredibly savaged by the corporations that these guys run. Kucinich, and Sharpton were virtually ignored. Why? Because every one of these guys is more interested in helping people rather than sucking up to corporations.

Here is the article:
Fresh from his latest win in Maine, the favourite to challenge George Bush for the US presidency has secured the financial support of some of the most powerful media moguls in the world.
As John Kerry's campaign to secure the Democrat nomination - and with it a crack at the White House - continues to gather pace, it has emerged that it is being bankrolled by key executives from News Corporation, MTV-owner Viacom and Sony.

The victory in Maine, Mr Kerry's 10th out of the 12 primaries in the opening weeks of the Democrat selection campaign, confirmed his position as overwhelming favourite to take on President Bush in November's presidential election.

Unsurprisingly, the donation from News Corp's boardroom came not from chairman Rupert Murdoch, a committed Republican, but from the company's chief operating officer, Peter Chernin.

Mr Chernin, one of Mr Murdoch's most trusted lieutenants, is among several media chiefs who have pledged to raise between $50,000 and $100,000 to support the Vietnam war veteran's



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campaign for the White House.

Others who have pledged to raise more than $50,000 include the Viacom chief executive, Sumner Redstone, and Sony chairman Howard Stringer, whose name has recently been linked with the vacant chairmanships at ITV and the BBC.

Most of the money raised from these contributors will have to be raised through business associates, relatives and friends as individuals can only give a total of $4,000 each to presidential candidates - $2,000 during the primaries and another $2,000 during a general election.

US political commentators have speculated that Mr Kerry has enjoyed the support of the media community in an effort to head off the challenge of Howard Dean, who has fallen back in the race despite being the frontrunner before the primaries began. Mr Dean made statements last year about wanting to break up media conglomerates.

New figures compiled by the Federal Election Commission, correct up to the end of December 2003, show that Mr Chernin and the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti, both gave the maximum $2,000 to Mr Kerry's campaign.

Mr Redstone gave $1,000 to Mr Kerry, $3,000 to the re-election bid of the senate minority leader, Tom Daschle, and $5,000 to the Democratic senatorial campaign committee. Mel Karmazin, the chief operating officer at Viacom, also gave $4,000 to Mr Daschle.

Mr Murdoch, meanwhile, contributed $2,000 to the re-election as senator of Republican John McCain, who is chairman of the influential senate commerce committee, which regulates the media.

Contributors to president George W Bush's re-election campaign included the Time Warner chief executive, Richard Parsons, who handed over $2,000, and the Clear Channel chief executive, Lowry Mays.

Other noteworthy media executives who contributed to party funds include the cable mogul and Liberty Media chief executive, John Malone, who gave $2,000 to the Republican National Committee last year, and Disney's under-fire chief executive Michael Eisner, who gave $5,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
End Article.

One can only conclude that with Kerry, business as usual will ensue, corportions will be favored rather than punished for anti-American behavior, and the status-quo will be maintained.
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WiseMen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:10 AM
Response to Original message
1. Idiotic. Who else can do big fundraisers at their house but RICH PEOPLLE
Many rich people who have jobs at the same or similar conglomorates had fundraisers for all the campaigns, including DKs (I attended one of those).

All donations are from individuals invited to go to fundraising parties where they talk, show campaign videos and hear at talk.

Let's stop this childish B.S.
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HFishbine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:14 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. The article
was clearly about rich MEDIA moguls. Deflecting the issue won't make it go away.
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frustrated_lefty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:23 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. Get real.
This isn't about "rich people" as a class, it refers specifically to substantial donations coming from Rupert Murdoch's #2 exec in News Corp. If you can't grasp how off-setting this is to many people, you're being intentionally obtuse.
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WiseMen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:31 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. Max Donation = $2000. More is just via holding fundraisers party
to convince you friends and party-goers to donate to your candidate.

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liberalmike27 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:53 AM
Response to Reply #1
14. I expect
They show the Dean video that they all chose to blow out of all proportion, and have a good laugh, over champaign, at how they destroyed the candidate of "the little people," who contributed what amounted to a lot of cash for them.

Nothing silly about the network executives cooperating, and trashing Democratic candidates in the primary, then contributing to the one they are kissing up to. Sounds like an incredible conflict of interest, and a result of many years of media deregulation, and corporations being able to own up to 39% of a single market.

Three or four can get together, and mold the minds of millions of Democratic voters, who seemingly are more and more susceptible to allowing the huge leviathan corporations insert their ideas, rather than bothering to choose their own. Sad, it is.
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:13 AM
Response to Original message
2. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
CWebster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:16 AM
Response to Reply #2
5. We got to get Saddam!
He gassed his own people!

He has weapons of mass destruction!

He gassed his own people!

911! Saddam!

Something sounds startlingly similar in tone between your post and smirk's build-up to war.
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cyclezealot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:24 AM
Response to Reply #2
8. Get over it.
Don't see any connection between those who pull Bush's strings and suspect that such could occur with Kerry..have you thought this out? bet, you are critical of Bush for taking such funds.
So inconsiderate of others viewpoints...Those others might say you have not fully thought out the connections of our bought and paid for elections and some might decide to just sit it out for be apathetic.
We do not have to go along as long as an agenda or platform is clear. Lets not be sheep.
Debate, reasonable self criticism makes our side stronger. Air out our differences now. You might be wrong.
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CWebster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:13 AM
Response to Original message
3. And still we have to get the real story from overseas sources
Edited on Wed Feb-11-04 10:20 AM by CWebster
and they are looking to cripple those as well, as we speak.

Actually, the story is from "Broadcasting and Cable":

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA380314?display=Top+of+the+Week
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bloom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:21 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. opensecrets.org shows this pretty well
Whether it is good, bad, or indifferent depends on your perspective.

___________________


The top industries supporting John Kerry are:
1 Lawyers/Law Firms $1,428,682
2 Securities & Investment $763,773
3 Real Estate $484,362
4 TV/Movies/Music $367,759
5 Business Services $359,019
6 Retired $339,204
7 Computer Equipment & Services $266,172
8 Insurance $245,525
9 Education $219,276
10 Misc Finance $206,925
11 Lobbyists $201,775
12 Commercial Banks $183,102
13 Health Professionals $168,426
14 Misc Manufacturing & Distributing $121,250
15 Printing & Publishing $120,554
16 Misc Business $99,764
17 Hospitals/Nursing Homes $96,715
18 Accountants $94,625
19 Telephone Utilities $92,572
20 Civil Servants/Public Officials $91,938



John Kerry is a top Senate recipient from the following industries for the 2001-2002 election cycle:
* Advertising & public relations services (#2)
* Alternate energy production & services (#5)
* Architectural services (#5)
* Book, newspaper & periodical publishing (#2)
* Business Services (#2)
* Cable & satellite TV production & distribution (#5)
* Civil Servants (#3)
* Commercial TV & radio stations (#2)
* Computer software (#2)
* Computers/Internet (#1)
* Education (#2)
* Foreign Policy (#3)
* Lawyers/Law Firms (#4)
* Lodging/Tourism (#4)
* Motion Picture production & distribution (#2)
* Pro-Choice (#5)
* Publishing (#3)
* Real Estate (#5)
* Recorded Music & music production (#4)
* Securities/Invest (#2)
* Telephone Utilities (#3)
* TV production & distribution (#1)
* TV/Movies/Music (#3)
* Venture capital (#1)

JOHN KERRY (D-MA)
Top Contributors

1 FleetBoston Financial $75,694
2 Verizon Communications $65,862
3 Mintz, Levin et al $54,700
4 Hill, Holliday et al $45,300
5 Raytheon Co $44,350
6 State Street Corp $41,400
7 AOL Time Warner $39,010
8 Vivendi Universal $38,754
9 Robins, Kaplan et al $36,350
10 Fidelity Investments $33,554
11 Harvard University $31,800
12 AT&T $30,700
12 Hale & Dorr $30,700
14 Credit Suisse First Boston $27,250
15 Gitto Global Corp $26,000
16 JP Morgan Chase & Co $25,500
17 Choate, Hall & Stewart $25,250
18 American International Group $24,900
19 John Hancock Financial Services $24,650
20 Goldman Sachs $24,500

opensecrets.org
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WiseMen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:37 AM
Response to Reply #6
10. Again REMEMBER this is just a statistical tabulation of individual small
Edited on Wed Feb-11-04 10:38 AM by WiseMen
donations by what industries or companies the contributors work in.

Kerry in the ONLY 4 term senator to take no lump sum PAC money therefore his totals from individuals are bound to be much bigger
than for those other in the senate who are mainly funded by PACs which don't get counted in these industry tabulations.
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bloom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:42 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. nevertheless
there was a noticeable difference in the amount of support Kerry gets from Media sources than other Senators I was comparing. Kerry has gotten FAR more Media support.
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CWebster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:46 AM
Response to Reply #10
12. Its a scam
He just has his "citizen soldiers", or whatever he calls them, get around all the loopholes. Bush does the same thing with his "pioneers".
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ShimokitaJer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 10:50 AM
Response to Reply #10
13. In other words... data
Data that is not sexy, but that is far more convincing than the simple, easily quoted, and completely false assertions that Kerry is not beholden to special interests, never accepts PAC money, isn't reliant on big investors, etc., etc., etc.

By the way, I notice Kerry supporters have changed from saying "Never accepted PAC money" to saying "Never accepted lump sum PAC money." Very clever... one might even say Rovian.
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liberalmike27 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-11-04 11:07 AM
Response to Reply #13
15. Shimo
I think his campaign pulled a few roveian tricks on the Dean camp, just before the election. Calling Dean supporters in the middle of the night, pretending Dean supporters were trying to find out what was going on within the (losing) Kerry campaign, by impersonating supporters. Gee, how did they figure out they were Dean people anyway? That never washed, and the media played right along, by reporting it verbatum as the Kerry campaign fed it to them.
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