As a white boy formerly from the sticks of South Jersey, I say what Obama said is absolutely right about rural America but I believe it deserves further explanation and in fact should be the real current front page news rather then this media crucifixion of a political candidate. I believe the real story (and the real harm) lies behind media consolidation, particularly in rural areas where clearchannel has (for the most part) dominated the airwaves for the past few decades. As the Center for Public Intergrity explains, "The company grew steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, and especially thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which eliminated national ownership limits on radio stations, and nearly eliminated them in individual markets. As of 2005, the Clear Channel reported that it owned 1,177 radio stations and had $3.5 billion in revenue from radio operations. It broadcasts in all 50 states and claims 110 million listeners every week."
I think clearwater, in it's own words says it better than anyone else possibly could...... "If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn't be someone from our company," Mays told Fortune magazine in a now-notorious interview. "We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers' products." What is even more important about media consolidation and what I see as the real eyeopener........ "The nation's top broadcasters have met behind closed doors with Federal Communications Commission officials more than 70 times to discuss a sweeping set of proposals to relax media ownership rules, the Center for Public Integrity has discovered." "Some of the sessions included several commissioners and top staff, all gathered in one room to discuss the proposed rule changes with broadcasters. At some of the sessions executives from the nation's top broadcasters, such as News Corp./Fox, General Electric/NBC, Viacom/CBS and Disney/ABC, teamed together to lobby for the proposed changes." "TEAMED TOGETHER!" Here lies the real travesty and the reason why people, not only in the rural areas, but everywhere are being misled. The rural areas(in every state in the nation) are particularly vunerable since they, for the most part, are a truly captive audience. As Norman Mailer once put it, the politicians feed on the angry white male, those in fact who are angry without in many cases even understanding why they are angry. They are also the most likely group to no fault of their own, to have clearwater as their sole advisary when it comes to the news. I call it Rupert Murdoch country. So when the newspapers and media tell a basically captive audience illegal immigrants are the problem, they focus immediately on that because that is what they are constantly being told. It's why Bush yields an axe on Arbor day and why TIME Magazine puts it on their front cover. It's toying with testosterone, the visually intentional use of machismo that has been governing a whole lot of people in the wrong direction for some time now. It's what has so easily gotten us involved in an illegal, contrived war in Iraq. It is also what prevents people from protesting, not only about the war, but about torture, illegal domestic spying and the undermining of civil liberties. But when it comes to the illegal immigrant, now that has a major following! Just ask Lou Dobb's and CNN, who have gone out of their way to place the blame of all our woes on illegal immigrants rather then addressing the people who actually are to blame. No small wonder since major media has been helping to perpetuate these problems for quite some time now by either not reporting them or giving us fluff in place of the realities. For those who say they are now swayed to vote for McCain because of Barrack's statements, I say you would probably have voted that way anyway, just like the elitists playing with your testosterone want you to! The same elitists who believe McCain has a better chance against Hillary then he does against Barrack. As long as people think, or more importantly are manipulated to think with their balls instead of their brains, they are giving the elitists (who do a whole lot of thinking where they should) exactly what they want. Media consolidation is the main tool to this effort and as we have seen, they've been very successful with it. Just ask someone randomly on the street to recite the Bill of Rights or even the first amendment. What you will find 6 out of 7 times is that most don't even know what in the hell the Bill of Rights are! But they do know America is going to hell in a handbasket, mostly due to illegal immigration. This entire major media blitz on Obama is (as always) making a mountain out of a molehille. It won't affect my vote. It is clear to anyone who can read, not only between the lines but beyond major media in general that we are being hoodwinked and have been hoodwinked for quite some time by those who call themselves fair and balanced. By all accounts, they are the ones deserving crucifixion, not Barrack Obama.
