Public Please

Today, CNN’s Situation Room totally missed the point of Ralph Nader’s Parrot video.  Nader created the video to draw attention to the way the mainstream media ignores 3rd party and independent candidates.

Lipstick on pigs and pitbulls, pandas and parrots? Nader’s video criticizes the mainstream, corporate media, both the liberal and conservative echo chambers, which continue to ignore the very serious issues that confront our nation, especially electoral reform and a return to televised journalism. That the major news networks, including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, continue to censor independent and 3rd party politicians, and continue to favor the Democrats and Republicans, and that the government tolerates this political censorship, is an affront to our democratic process. Even if we do not agree with the independent and 3rd party candidates, we should be ashamed of all the laws and policies that prevent the public from considering diverse political discourse.

We should be ashamed that we are accepting the presidential horserace as peddled by CNN, MSNBC and Fox. We should be ashamed that we are almost exclusively listening to a bunch of liberal and conservative pundits, mostly political strategists who tell us how to interpret these candidates and ignoring our national priorities. Why are we not listening to policy experts? Where are the informed debates? Apparently, Americans must watch a string of silly political rallies from the two entrenched and enchanted parties instead of tough and open policy debates between a diverse group of informed politicians.

Where is our outrage people? We are giving up our presidential debates to the corporate media and the partisan hacks that run the Commission on Presidential Debates. The Commission on Presidential Debates is so afraid of the public and their disapproval of its exclusionary practices, that its website at debates.org does not even provide a way to contact them by telephone or email!

This partisan commission, run by the Republicans and Democrats, is a major obstacle to our democracy. Its criteria for participation in the presidential debates is designed to exclude 3rd party candidates. It requires that a candidate have an average of at least 15% of the public’s support in 5 national polls. Why not use the 5 top presidential candidates from different parties in the polls instead? They know that this number prevents 3rd party candidates from participating. They know that the polls are low because the corporate media does not cover 3rd party candidates. They know that the vast majority of people want to watch more than two presidential candidates debate. The Republicans and Democrats that control the Commission on Presidential Debates know all of this, and they know that they are intentionally preventing 3rd party candidates from participating in an open presidential debate. Shame on them. Shame on us for not stopping them.

I sent the following message to CNN:

Please provide serious coverage of Ralph Nader and other 3rd party presidential candidates.  Today, the Situation Room totally missed the story.  The story is not that Nader used a parrot in a campaign ad, or that he’s using YouTube videos, but that the television media, including CNN, will not cover 3rd party candidates. 

As a graduate student in the Digital Media program at Georgia Tech, I am seriously disturbed by CNN’s historic failure to include 3rd party candidates in the presidential debates and in the daily political discourse.  Many Americans like myself rely on CNN and other news networks to champion the public interest and to provide access to diverse perspectives.  We need the news networks to seriously report on 3rd parties, so that the public can make an informed decision in the ballot booth.  We need CNN to seriously cover electoral reform issues.  We need CNN to recognize that political polling is highly influenced by their media coverage.  We need CNN to know that by refusing to provide fair coverage of 3rd parties, they are influencing political polls against 3rd party candidates.

I encourage CNN to investigate the fairness of the presidential debates.  I encourage CNN to bring 3rd party candidates into the same room as those from the two major parties.  Why doesn’t CNN provide more pressure on Obama and McCain to publicly debate the 3rd party candidates? 

To serve their public purpose and maintain a record of ethical journalism, CNN must seriously cover the 3rd candidates and allow the public to hear their perspectives in the context of a debate with the other political candidates.  Otherwise, CNN is prejudiced against 3rd party candidates, and prejudging the outcome of the election.  It does not suffice to point to polls, which are highly biased by the mainstream media in favor of the two major parties.  CNN has a journalistic duty to inform the public of their options for the presidency of the United States. 

Please do the right and preserve our democratic process; please seriously cover the 3rd party candidates.

Why are independent and 3rd party candidates largely ignored and censored by the mainstream media and the two major parties?

Here’s the perspectives of Ralph Nader, Jesse Ventura, and Matt Gonzalez: