[NYTr] Gravel: The Mainstream Media Has Gone Underground
 
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 14:57:34 -0400



Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Rich Winkel (activ-l)

Mike Gravel for President 2008 - Jun 5, 2007
http://www.gravel2008.us/?q=node/1360


The Mainstream Media Has Gone Underground...

After watching Sunday night's Presidential debate, Ray Buckley, the
New Hampshire Democratic Party chair, plans to warn NBC about its
September debate. "You're going to hear for sure that I'm going to
discuss with them who's the moderator so it's certainly a much more
fair and equal playing field than what we saw tonight," the Chairman
said, referring to the shocking disparity in time afforded to the
three candidates who have raised the most money, compared to the
other candidates running for the Democratic nomination for President.

The mainstream media has gone underground in its attempt to edit
the Gravel campaign, according to presidential candidate and former
Senator Mike Gravel, as evidenced by the June 3 debate in New
Hampshire sponsored by CNN, the Hearst Corporation's WMUR-TV, and
the New Hampshire Union Leader. During the two-hour, commercial-free
debate, Senator Gravel was asked 10 somewhat irrelevant questions
and then allowed only seconds to answer before being cut off by the
moderator. In total, the Senator was afforded only five minutes and
37 seconds of time during the entire debate. The candidates with
the most donations from corporate special interests were asked the
serious questions, were allowed to speak at length, and were allowed
time to respond to criticism.

Adam D. Krauss, the Democrat staff writer for Foster's Online, a
Dover, New Hampshire-based news site, echoed the contention that
Gravel and others were being excluded by quoting Dean Spiliotes,
director of research at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute
of Politics, who said, "It 'was interesting' how those three
candidates were presented. I can't imagine that that was random,
with Hillary and Edwards and Obama, and then Kucinich and Gravel
out on the end."

The placement of the candidates on the debate stage exacerbated the
inequities of the time allowed to some candidates to respond to
questions. For example, Senator Obama was given one full minute to
answer each of 16 questions, while Senator Gravel was allowed only
30 seconds each to answer 10 questions. CNN's Wolf Blitzer and his
producer appear to have selectively enforced time guidelines.

"Prominent talk show host Arnie Arnesen labeled CNN the debate's
'loser' because it 'made a decision for the rest of us that they
(Clinton, Obama and Edwards) were going to remain the top-tier'
candidates," Krauss added.

Despite the best efforts of CNN, WMUR-TV and the Union Leader to
exclude Senator Gravel, his brief comments quickly became one of
the most-watched videos on YouTube.com, which receives millions of
hits each day. It also became one of the top-rated videos in news
and politics.

                          *

Mike Gravel, a resident of Virginia, is a former two-term U.S.
Senator from Alaska with a distinguished record that includes
successfully ending the military draft with a five-month filibuster.
He also released The Pentagon Papers, risking both prosecution and
jail; played the leading role in making the Alaska pipeline a
reality; and ended nuclear weapons testing in the seabed off Alaska.
He is the driving force and author of the National Initiative for
Democracy, a proposal to allow Americans to participate in making
laws at the federal level on issues that affect their lives though
a federal ballot initiative process-already proven in many states
as an effective and necessary check on unresponsive representative
government.
       
                                *
================================================================
.NY Transfer News Collective    *    A Service of Blythe Systems
.          Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us         .
.339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012     http://www.blythe.org
.List Archives:   https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
.Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================