Freedom from The Press

In the early 1990’s, Al Gore participated in a debate with H. Ross Perot over NAFTA. Perot coined the phrase ”The Giant Sucking Sound”, referring to good paying American jobs leaving the U.S. for Mexico and Canada. Continue reading →

Several Mainstream Media outlets have stated that the 2008 U.S. Presidential candidates raised close to One Billion dollars. From Newsmax to The Wall Street Journal, several articles are written about where the money comes from. However, what you won’t find anywhere in the press or on the Internet is — Where does all that money go?

Over the next few months, I’ll make an honest attempt to find out how much money the MSM raked in from Senator John McCain and President-Elect Barack Obama’s campaigns. Chances are good that the total amount will be staggering which will then raise the question — Why would the MSM ever want real election reform? We The People should also be asking the FCC — Why is our American electoral process “For Sale”?  Continue reading →

This important question was asked at LinkedIn. Within 24 hours, seven people from two continents provided responses. As of this update, seven additional responses have been cross posted here.

This question and dialog will remain open until we identify appropriate solutions to perhaps the most critical political and media problem of our time. Continue reading →

pasted from: Yahoo! NEWS –They Warned US About the Mortgage Crisis
By Robert Berner and Brian Grow Mon Oct 13, 8:08 AM ET

More than five years ago, in April 2003, the attorneys general of two small states traveled to Washington with a stern warning for the nation’s top bank regulator. Sitting in the spacious Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, with its panoramic view of the capital, the AGs from North Carolina and Iowa said lenders were pushing increasingly risky mortgages. Their host, John D. Hawke Jr., expressed skepticism Continue reading →

Spokane is a beautiful little town with a very ugly public relations problem. As a one-newspaper town, the public, and all forms of the local corporate media rely on The Spokesman-Review for accurate reporting of the news.

Has The Spokesman-Review acted in a responsible, ethical manner when covering issues or elections that directly impact their private business interests?

A few years ago The Spokesman-Review hired a new editor, Steven A. Smith. Mr. Smith inherited some very messy problems that were created by the previous editor Chris Peck and the newspapers owners, Betsy and Stacey Cowles. Continue reading →

Americans will soon elect yet another President to lead our nation into the future. The ‘corporate controlled’ mainstream U.S. media began to cover this campaign two years prior to the 2008 election. As in the past, candidates running under the Republican and Democrat banners have received overwhelming media attention compared to candidates who have opted out of the two-party ‘fiscally liberal’ system. Continue reading →

The purpose of this dialog is to delve into one of the most important political problems of our time.

Our U.S. Constitution provides for a free press but how free is it? Our domestic media outlets are free enterprise businesses who are for the most part, privately owned and operated. That being said, every privately owned media company in America is subjected to the bias of its editors, owners or board of directors.

So, what happens when a news story first appears in the newsroom? The editor or news director makes the important decision on whether or not to cover the story. Stories that are given approval move onto the assignment desk where they’re handed down to the writer or reporter. When the work of the writer or reporter is complete, the story makes its way back to the editor and is either approved for publication/broadcast or, marked-up for further clarification.

In a perfect world, completed news stories would be presented in full for public consumption. Non-political stories such as those covering weather or sporting events are rarely manipulated by publishers or owners prior to public consumption but, the same cannot be said for political stories or, worse yet, election coverage. Continue reading →

Listening to today’s syndicated radio talk show hosts is enough to make my head spin. In addition to themselves, who are these people preaching to? It’s the same ranting and raving day after day after day. Whatever happened to being semi-entertaining and objective? Continue reading →