"Howard Dean’s campaign now lies in ruins because he chose to ...

[mzmolly]

confront the multinational conglomerates that run this country."

"By David Podvin

On December 1, 2003, Howard Dean was ahead by twenty points in the polls when he appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews and said, “We're going to break up the giant media enterprises.” This pronouncement went far beyond the governor’s previous public musings about possibly re-regulating the communications industry, and amounted to a declaration of war on the corporations that administer the flow of information in the United States.

It was an extraordinarily noble and dangerous thing to do: when he advocated a truly free press, Dr. Dean was provoking the corrupt media conglomerates that control what most Americans see and hear and read, and thereby control what most Americans think.

The media giants quickly responded by crushing his high-flying campaign with the greatest of ease. This time, they didn’t even have to invent a scandal in order to achieve the desired result; merely by chanting the word “unelectable” at maximum volume, the mainstream media maneuvered Democratic voters into switching their support to someone who poses no threat to the status quo.

John Kerry is a member in good standing of the feeble Daschle/Biden/Feinstein wing of the Democratic Party, a group of politicians whose disagreements with the mercantile elite tend to be merely rhetorical. Any doubts about Kerry’s level of commitment to his stated progressive beliefs were conclusively answered in 1994 when he proclaimed himself “delighted” with the Republican takeover of Congress. The media oligarchy knows that a general election race between Kerry and George W. Bush will insure a continuation of its monopoly, regardless of who wins."

And there you have it. Read on here:

http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/040201_TheScream.htm

[liberalnurse]

1. Dean was the one to teach Kerry and the gang

how to stand up to *bush. This is only the beginning......

[w13rd0]

6. Hah, Kerry is already bent over for Bush...

...he's been talking out his ass for the past two months.

Breakup of multinational media conglomerates
Suggesting that Greenspan not be re-appointed in 2004
...there's another one I'm forgetting

It's ok, they that would object will find a friend in Kerry or Bush. No worries for them.

[caledesi]

36. You are so right LN! nt

[Guaranteed]

2. Yup. nt

[brainshrub]

3. Amen, amen, AMEN!!!

100% right-on.

[mzmolly]

4. My thoughts exactly. Taking back the media is key to taking back our

country now or in the future.

I think we need to make the media issue a larger issue in the campaign.

[cosmicdot]

14. absolutely - recall how well it went over in NH when Dennis K

called the 'debate' director (hardly a moderator) on the ridiculous line of questioning and not focusing on issues ...

whenever Democrats have access to the Media, and the Media spokesmodel is being irresponsible and neglectful ... they should challenge the pundit or spinmaster on-the-cuff on what he/she is doing ... expose them to the viewers ... make the viewers say, "all right!" ...

it's time to stand up to the 4th Estate and the people leading it ... they do not have society's best interests at heart

Challenge the Media. Call them on their tactics.

About 9 years ago, I concluded that had this Media been a contemporary of Jack Kennedy, we wouldn't have gotten one brief shining moment... we wouldn't have had one brief shining nano-second ... and, today's Media is keeping any hope of regaining that moment suppressed.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

28. Yes - we need to figure out how we can take back the media.

Probably a combination of money and voicing our displeasure.

[mzmolly]

30. Along with activism generated in a moveon.org kind of way encouraging

our legislators to act upon our agenda. :)

[John_H]

5. Howard Dean's campaign lies in ruins because of Dem voters

most of whom realized that Dean couldn't beat Chimp with all the color coded hats in the universe.

[liberalhistorian]

7. LOL!

I was just thinking the same thing, although I don't doubt at all that the media had it in for him from the beginning and did their best to spin against him.

[w13rd0]

8. live by the sword...

...die by the sword.

Those that rely upon a populace easily swayed by media frenzy shall suffer the same fate. Who will be able to promise the media a greater payoff to prevent them from being savaged? Bush or Kerry? Make sure you stick around after November.

[GodHelpUsAll2]

9. I bet

If suddenly the media started bashing the hell out of Kerry like they have Dean then we would start seeing a slew of posts stating "The Media damaged Kerry's chances and the voters are following their lead" I'd put money on it! That seems to be a common theme. Such as, "Drudge said Dean had stafferers trying to pose as Iowan's" that rotten crook then turning right around and saying "Druge is not credible, there is no proff of a Kerry affiar and everyone knows it doesn't matter. Yep that's the theme all right.

[WiseMen]

26. They have. The 'SPECIAL INTEREST' ploy is Bogus. Yet Media Dumps on Kerry

Don't tell me that they have not done the analysis to find that
the charge is phony. They have.

But still they repeat it every chance they get, knowing that
there audience don't want to hear different.

[Nazgul35]

10. I'd hardly take your word for

what the voters think.....considering which candidate you support...I don't think you are to clued in to what "most Dem voters" are thinking....

Most Dem voters haven't a clue about Kerry (outside of Iowa and NH)! They are voting based upon his ability of winning the Dem primaries...and how often were Dean supporters told that winning the primary wasn't a sign that they would win the general...

I am often amazed at how crappy American's skills at science are....

Tautologies, counter-factuals and straw men abound with no attempts at offering anything beyond IMO....and off goes the discussion....irregardless of the fallacies of the original statement.

Is it so hard for people to just say they have no idea how things are going to turn out? Or is the rush to be right and lord it over others and say I told you so more important? If it is, perhaps some self evaluation is in order....

I can say without a shadow of doubt that:

1) I have no idea who the eventual nominee will be...history shows that every first primary winner stumbles and is eventually challenged...will this happen?

2) I have no idea if the eventual Dem nominee will win.....

3) I have no idea what combination of what ticket will perform better....

That being said, I don't care...I am going to work hard for whomever it is and not worry about making predictions so I can say I told you so on some minor corner of the internet....

I say all this having a PhD in Political Science who studies Political Parties and Legislatures......

[janx]

15. In short--

nobody knows what the hell is going on, as my brother would say.

[John_H]

17. God , I miss college.

If I had known we had a poli sci PhD. in the house I would have kept it simpler:

You support who you believe in. You fight hard for that candidate. You hope the voters agree with you. And you don't make boring, Wal-Mart-version-of-science excuses if you lose. You lost because you didn't get enough votes.

Here's some friendly advice from an ex-academic: go out and work on a few campaigns--really work, I mean--and you'll be surprised at how much your powers of prediction improve, how much more satisfying the obvious is than the scientific.

I'd bet the only fact you'd find more obvious than Dean's utter unelectability would be that old fashioned political organizers with yellow pads and telephones can get more votes in fifteen minutes than 3,000 LA majors with color coded hats can get in a month.

[Nazgul35]

35. thanks for proving my point...

more bad science...

Your assumptions, based upon your response is:

1) Academics are out of touch
2) PhDs are stupid
3) I've never been in the real world
4) I don't know how campaigns work
5) I don't know what real work is
6) You do....

Again, in your need to say I told you so, you are more concerned about being right than you are about admitting that you don't have a clue about what can happen over the next nine months....

If you had such great insight into the campaign process...I ask again, why did you pick Clark? Couldn't you see, based upon your obvious insight into the Dean campaign, that Clark was doomed as well?

Or would that require that you actually admit that life is a little more complex than you would like it to be and your ability to make predictions is no better than anyone else's?

A little less self importance and a little more debate about the real problems we face in this election would be much more helpful...

[mzmolly]

11. "realized" because the media told them so....

:hi: *cough* that's the point.

[polpilot]

12. General Clark: "Get in the race NOW." "Get out NOW" "Endorse the DLC

pro-war candidate NOW!" Mission accomplished. Time to go home.

Dean '04...Anti-Iraqi War...Anti-DLC

[Ripley]

23. What a great summary.

It's amazing how many people think regular American voters aren't swayed by a monster political machine. I guess they think it only happens in the repuke party. Surprise!

[Darth_Kitten]

13. Then they obviously assumed wrong.......

Where WAS the poll that showed many democratic candidates were in actual danger of BEATING Bush? ;)

Bush is freefalling in public opinion, Kerry is not the only option, never was. :)

[lurk_no_more]

37. Not as much fun as pointing the finger though!

And then there were none!
” JAFO”

[cosmicdot]

16. if Rove is involved ... since he was a Watergate protégé ...

... obtained the best on-the-job training the GOP could offer while a college student (we heard of the little Rovians pushing Joan Jett in Iowa - make a note of their names - a "Karl Rove" may surface down the road from that gang of 7) ...

Rove learned that you eliminate the candidates you do not want to run against ...

Not to say that they would try to be that obvious again ... plus, we Americans are keen on learning from the past so we won't allowed it to happen again ...

the GOP might not be interferring with the nomination at all ...

[HFishbine]

18. And the sheeple bought it

Hook, line and sinker. Even some of the most questioning minds here on DU.

[mzmolly]

19. OH I know, it's a puzzling study in the psycology of media mind control.

Who-da thunk ey?

[WiseMen]

20. Who Believes this? Not Anyone Who Has Looked At the Facts.

The Facts suggest just the opposite: The Big Media and the right-wing
desperately wanted Dean to win the Dem primaries.

Dean was not a well know popular leader being diminished by the press.
No. He was an unknown. Trippi described Dean as an asterisk.

The media made Dean with massive publicity of both Dean and of his
innovative campaign. They both engineered and trumpeted Deans
attacks on and triumph over the early "presumptive leader" John Kerry.

Early reports have shown that Dean had 2 to 1 mentions over Clark
or Kerry in the Free press and about 5 times the coverage.

Even when there were slams on Dean in the media, they were matched
with praise and assurances of his "inevitability." Even on the Eve
of the Iowa primary almost NO pundit gave credibility to a Kerry win and most predicted Dean.

[mzmolly]

21. Wrong Wisemen...

The analysis proves the facts as stated above.

Exit polls in Iowa showed that by and large Iowans voted for their (second) choice. Why? Because they felt Dean was ...... ready ...... *unelectable*

[WiseMen]

22. And what made Dean seem "unelectable?" His own words. Stop the Fantasies!

[GodHelpUsAll2]

24. Did anyone here actually SEE

Any of the Iowa press? Not the national press but the local Iowa press????

[mzmolly]

25. Funny his *own words* are being co-opted by the *electable* candidates.

:hi:

[WiseMen]

27. Another Fantasy! Dean is a novice to the progressive movement

when compared with Kerry and many around him.

You can look back over 30 years and find that it is Dean that
has tried to co-opt the progressive message.


Even, worse. Dean's slams on Kerry since last April to today
have been based on false information and manufactured propaganda.
It has been terribly destructive to the progressive movement.

What has been pushed is an incredible contradiction:

Kerry who has perhaps the highest overall progressive rating when
you combine varied evaluations (AFLCIO 90%, ADA 93%, LCV 96%),
is supposedly a bush-lite, centrist, pawn of corporatists.

Kerry's lifetime ratings are higher than Kucinich! Yet he is slammed
by Dean as if he is to the right of ghengis Khan. This is B.S and
should be stopped.

[mzmolly]

29. Fantasy?

Another claim that Deans supporters dont know who he is I take it?

I am satisfied with Deans progressive credentials. Furthermore I am well aware of Kerrys voting record and was *somewhat* satisfied with it until he became a Bush enabler.

Dean Won the First Wellstone Award given out by the AFLCIO since you brought them up.

Dean as Governor of Vermont has a record of Governing and Progressive leadership. He accomplished many *progressive* goals, but I'm not gonna have that debate again.

Here is an article that I imagine you've seen before.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16592

Here are some of Deans accomplishments in Vermont.

Health care coverage. Governor Dean strengthened Vermont's Dr. Dynasaur program to guarantee health coverage for virtually every child age 18 and under. Over 92 percent of all Vermonters have coverage - one of the highest rates in the country - and 96 percent of all children under 18 are covered. Dean believes the United States needs a health care system which results in coverage for every American.

Mental health. In 1997, Governor Dean signed into law the nation's most comprehensive mental health and substance abuse parity bill in the nation, ending discriminatory insurance practices against these major diseases. The Governor has been a strong proponent of community-based treatment, as well as comprehensive services for children with serious mental health problems.

Education. Like other leading states, Vermont adopted high standards testing which has resulted in significant improvement in school accountability. Unlike other leading states, however, Vermont has adopted a system of sharing educational dollars across the state, so schools in poor communities have the same financial backing as those in wealthy communities.

Environment. Under Governor Dean, Vermont has closed more than 70 landfills, increased the percentage of recycled waste to nearly 40 percent of all Vermont waste, and set aside hundreds of thousands of farm and forestland which will never be developed.

Equality. Building on a commitment to equal rights for all Americans, Governor Dean has signed into law tougher penalties for hate crimes, as well as tighter restrictions against discrimination in the workplace, housing, public accommodations, and more. Vermont is the first state to legally recognize long-term committed unions between gay and lesbian couples.

[WiseMen]

33. Dean was a Good Governor. But the Slams on Kerry are Baseless Propaganda

And even worse since Dean progressive credentials are relatively new.

We have to stop playing into the hands of the Republicans.

[mzmolly]

34. Weve been playing into the hands of Rethugs since Dean was the front

runner. Also, Deans progressive credentials are not new.

Regarding Kerry slamming, it's based on his *recent* cooperation with the Bushies. Its pretty tough to overlook that. :shrug:

But don't fret, it looks like he's gonna pull this out. :(

[DU GrovelBot]

31. ## Support Democratic Underground! ##

RUN C:\GROVELBOT.EXE
 
This week is our first quarter 2004 fund drive.
Please take a moment to donate to DU. Thank you
for your support.
 
- An automated message from the DU GrovelBot

Click here to donate.

[mzmolly]

32. " ## Does Not Compute! ##"

UNABLE TO PERFORM THE FOLLOWING COMMAND:

RUN C:\GROVELBOT.EXE

;)