Media Insiders Shaft Biden, Richardson, Dodd, Kucinich and America

Immediately after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto the front page story in the Washington Post about Pakistan and the presidential campaign did not even mention Joe Biden, the only candidate who seriously distinguished himself on the Pakistan crisis.

Upon reflection, the Washington Post editorial page, which has supported Bush on the Iraq war as Pravda supported Leonid Brezhnev, followed up with a lead editorial on candidates and Pakistan, which, incredibly, did not even acknowledge of Joe Biden.

Here is why the major media, including the daily newspapers, has lost such credibility with the American people and in the case of insider print media, so many subscribers who moved their business to internet sites, including this one.

It is not only Biden. The insider political media is now embedded with, and morphed into, the insider political classes to the point where they part of the same beast. The insider political reporters have moved beyond the courtiers that Stephen Colbert so brilliantly satired two White House correspondents dinners ago; and have fully joined the home team of the insider Washington establishment.

This class decided a year ago which candidate was inevitable, and which candidates were exiled into the insider media gulag, destined to disappear as though they never existed.

By any standard, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd stand at the top of the list in presidential qualification, stature, substance and a lifetime of depth and achievement. A reasonable person might conclude that each of these three, has equal or greater qualification to be president as any of the three leading Democrats.

Yet from the beginning, they were banished by the insider classes like the Soviets banished dissidents in the Gulag, like Pinochet banished the disappeared in the darker days of Chile.

Biden, Richardson and Dodd simply did not exist in the eyes of the annointing class, a group of political insiders with an extremely narrow life experience beyond their life as political insiders with each other.

Biden, Richardson and Dodd are the political detainees of our time, the political prisoners of our democracy, treated with contempt and scorn by the elites of the political press who, by doing so, are showing their contempt and scorn for the standards of professionalism in journalism, and their contempt and scorn for the very notion of the role a free press should play in our democracy.

Who do these people think they are, that during most of the presidential debates, the three candidates with such vast experience had to virtually ask permission, to sandwich a few seconds of their views, into the most boring, shallow, vapid, pointless debates that any serious democracy could possibly conduct at such a momentous time in our history?

Regarding the last Iowa Democratic debate, who do these sainted Iowa debate organizers think they are, that Alan Keyes gets prime participation in the Republican debate while Dennis Kucinich is banned from the Democratic debate?

I cannot even show minimal professional respect; only an idiot would give Keyes prime exposure while treating Kucinich like a Guantanamo detainee; and the idiots that made this decision have far too much power, in Iowa and nationally, for the health of our democracy.

The internet will continue to mature; grow and flourish over time; some reporters and some television will rejoin the real America and prosper while major newspapers such as the Washington Post will careen towards obsolescence and ultimate extinction unless they dramatically get with the program of true democracy and serious standards of journalism.

In the meantime, the reason the so-called pundits and media elites are almost always wrong is they are so divorced from the real America and so embedded into their provincial elitism.

The only thing that is truly inevitable is that the courtier classes and incestuous bonds between media insiders and political insiders are destined to fade further into the mist, until they are left with large galas of insider self-congratulation, and no remaining customers as the real America takes its business elsewhere.

Comments

[Chachi]

Brent, You are right, especially about Biden - who is clearly the most experienced and best candidate on the Dems' side, and has been for the entire campaign.

However, don't be so quick to sing the praises of the internet. True, the old guard media (print and TV) are full of Washington insiders trying to control the story; but unfortunately when we turn the microscope on the blogosphere I see the same potential.

Bloggers are even more biased than the mainstream press in many ways, they are just biased in a different manner. While HuffPost editors have been good about covering Biden with their links to stories about him, the bloggers on HuffPost have all but ignored him, sans yourself and one or two other posts. Meanwhile the top three Dems still get 98% of the attention from the HuffPost bloggers. So, forgive me if I don't get too optimistic that we're in for a turnaround that is about to rescue our democracy.

People are people. And, most of them - liberals the same as conservatives - are biased, selfish, and self serving; and they easily fall victim to the superficiality of a story. Celebrity is still being worshipped here on HuffPost, almost to the same extent as it is on MSNBC or The Washington Post.

[Shelby Highsmith - Huffpost Blogger]

Amen, Mr. Budowsky. I've never been much of a tinfoil hatter, but this election is making me check out the selection. The top 3 have been there since the get-go, placed at the top before they even began campaigning by a media enterprise that can only remember celebrity names. Naturally the constant media attention early on served only to reinforce their early poll standing through pure name recognition, which was then used to justify more exclusive coverage.

A few weeks ago, Biden shot up to 8% in Iowa and 10% in South Carolina. If the media had only bothered to actually report that story and put their usual sensationalist "Holy cow here comes the dark horse!" spin on it, people would have been captivated, taken a look at this incredibly experienced candidate, and turned 8-10% into 12-15% for a threat to Edwards.

But they buried it.

I pray the good folks of Iowa are as serious about this process as we hear they are.

[foreffectivegovernment]

Brent,
You are 100% right.
I have been singing Joe Biden's praises since I saw him on the first so-called debate and I have been sending him as much money as I can afford knowing he had requested matching funds. He is not a millionaire so he has to rely on individuals for his money.
I too resent the way the talking heads have selected my candidate before I get to vote based on a Beauty Contest.
These candidates should be treated like employment prospects for a very important job, President of the United States.
The interview process should be just like a large company uses to hire someone based on proven ability, expeience, and knowledge.
The MSM has instead turned it into a circus and the winner of these caucauses, because of the way they are conducted, can't be determined beforehand by polls.
Chris Mattews had Joe Biden on his show after the assassination and Joe layed out a very through and knowledgeable plan based on his experience and the fact he knew and had talked to and understood both Bhutto and Musharraf before. Chris then interviewed two MSNBC reporters who had interviewed Bhutto once each.
Chris did not let Biden say another word and I was very hacked off.

[JonBFertippton]

Budowsky for President!!!! I feel and am grateful for his justified rage. For several years in the 80s we lived in Hamburg, W.Germany where we could watch East German TV. Fox, CNN, and the rest of the big media remind me of the enormously slanted Communist, totalitarian media of those years. And everyone I know reacts to the American media the way we did to the so-called "black channel" - with derision and disbelief.

I don't take Blitzer or Russert seriously. Nor do my friends. And I'm losing all respect for the New York Times that feels it necessary to hire a disgraced neocon chickenhawk like Kristol for op-eds.

USA as beacon to the world? Give me a break! More like a banana republic with a caged and corrupt voting system and media to match.
Thanks to Budowsky for telling it like it is!

[mydogshakespeare]

Yes, but it's "a whole lot of fun" to see what would happen in a match-up between a strong white women and a strong black man. Could never find out if they weren't touted as "the best qualified" and fell by the wayside.

And then there's the profits to be made selling the story.

[kjg25171]

We can blame the media, as I have done many times. but the electorate is easily as responsible. the voters continually fall for the crap in the MSM. If only they would spend more time on the internet doing some research this country would be in much better shape.

[SteveCamp]

Public Financing of Elections . . . . Do you hear any one other than Joe Biden bringing this up? This is not some election year epiphany. He has been bringing it up for 35 years!

Will Hillary give up her private funding? Will Barack or John? How about Bill or Chris or even Dennis?

Hell, No!

Joe Biden is the only one telling the American people the way it really is. If we do not elect this man president, it will be our great loss.

[Tellmethetruth]

For those of us who support Joe Biden, he has taught me that there really was an honest politician serving Americans faithfully for the past 35 years. I hope no matter what happens in all of this, Joe Biden continues to serve America, preferrably as President, but if not, then as a Senator I will always respect. He restored my faith that there is still light at the end of the dark tunnel.

I for one will never regret any donation I made to his campaign or any time that I have spent in the past few months supporting him in his campaign. I know in my heart of hearts there has never been a better politician to run for the office of Presidency in my lifetime, and I am glad to have been part of his campaign efforts. I will never regret this time and money spent.

I feel sometimes it's like living in Nazi Germany where everything is shut down and so controlled and truth and reality so silenced. Many places in the world are like that now, Pakistan for one, if not Iraq. One day when America is libertated again we will all look back and be glad that when given a chance, we spoke out in favor of someone who was right for America. We will never have to look back with shame for what we did for Joe Biden.

Joe Biden for his part never asked anyone who supported him to ever lie, ever do an illegal act to help him get elected, but to simply tell the truth. He has done things his way which is honest and upfront.

Someday America will not be so dark and we will all be glad we shared this candle of light together because of Joe Biden.

[davidly]

And the New York Times? It appears that that bastion of the "liberal" media is at most a DLC leaning rag. As they so glowingly reported today, if the parties don't establish bipartisan candidacy within a couple of months, then New York City Mayor Bloomberg would be the savior.

In this day and age in which the anti/uncontistutional war profiteers rule over a spineless opposition, how could the idea of bipartisanship be an issue unless it is a movement to get the country to rally around a GREATER OPPOSITION to this travesty of justice?! Methinks that Bloomberg is the War Party ace in-the-hole.

[US55588144]

Iowans, watch this Biden video before you caucus. New Hampshire voters, you should watch it too.



http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/saudi/transcript.html#

[SoonerThought]

Man, when you're right, you're so right. Biden is our best candidate--and he has been marginalized by the corporate media.

[oldpotsmuggler]

I have only one complaint with what was said, but it is huge (and not something unique in this race to Biden). There was no mention in his prescription for a remedy of any role to be played by other than the U.S. I simply reject the notion that we deserve to be, or should even want to be, the big daddy for the whole world.

There are some steps that could be taken that might legitimately create that result, but we want to leave out the courtship and get right into the action with us on top.

[realpolitic]

The problem with the debates is that candidates are always asked to respond to another's statements instead of clarifying their own views. The moderators should get out of the way, they are largely unncessary, and let the candidates debate and engage one another. And the question of the loss of civil liberties has not been covered in the debates at all. The most ridiculous moment occurred when Tim Russert asked all Democratic candidates to raise their hand if they would pledge not to let Iran obtain nuclear weapons. He was just facilitating conservative warmongering.

[GuiltyByStander]

After several frustrating months it's wonderful to read someone with your authority laying this out the way it looks from here.

I've heard the TV phrase "all three Democratic candidates" one too many times and I've lost most of my respect for the NYT and WP too.

If you have any curiosity about these three worthy men, but especially Joe Biden, and you live in Iowa, please check their events listing and show up!

http://www.joebiden.com/newscenter/page?id=0004

And if you don't live in Iowa, Biden could use a little help with the dough!

[peterg76]

The media is completely biased and is actively working against the interests of citizens in favour of fascists and war profiteers.

This needs to be repeated, loudly, until the public clues in and stops enabling their abusers. But stop acting so shocked - it's been this way for a decade.