In February 2003 David Brock published his book "Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative" and in it, he chronicled the ideology and methodology of the current conservative movement that has dominated this country's political landscape since Regan came to power in 1980. Brock's tale deals mainly with his role as a media hitman, who published stories in a right-wing rag called the American Spectator. After working for the movement for 15 years, he finally came to realize that the people involved were not trying to save the world from moral decay or from terrorists, but rather were so corrupt, they would break laws and lie to stay in power. After Brock published his book and revealed the details of the Arkansas Project in the film The Hunting of the President, he started a non profit organization called Media Matters for America to chronicle the lies and inconsistencies that are aired in the mainsteam media.
The political and media communities are well aware of the news organizations that are maintained and funded by Richard Melon Scaife, which includes the Spectator and the Washington Times. Richard Melon Scaife is a right wing billionaire who uses his money and power to spread his message and ideas through the media, so the publications he owns are filled with "journalists" who support the conservative agenda by either hunting down or making up stories about liberal polititains they want to bring down. Scaife also funds a think tank that pretends to be a research organization called The Heritage Foundation.
The next character you should be familiar with is Rupert Murdoch. He is another right wing billionaire who owns the Fox News Network. In the film "Outfoxed" Robert Greenwald does a brilliant job of outling the Fox strategy as a mouth piece for the conservative movement and how the network manipulates its audience. Murdoch owns a massive quanitity of TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers so he has no problem saturating the public with his version of events and his political opinions. Although Fox news has long been powerful, they acheived their biggest coup-de-tat in the 2000 election by playing a MAJOR role in helping George W. Bush come to power despite the fact that he did not win the popular vote.
How did the media helped the Republicans steal the election in 2000, starting with the public execution of President William Jefferson Clinton's personal reputation and ending with the Supreme Court appointing George Walker Bush as the 43rd president of the United States?
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The utilization of a three branch government plays a tremendous purpose within the creation, maintenance and the success of American government. The Executive, Legislative and Judicial branch were instated in a way that each one is dependant on at least one of the other branches. Societies’ consensus is supposed to be carried by officials who represent the voice of society in drafting our laws and policies. In order for citizens to form a true consensus, we must be given the facts which allow us to do so. Herein lays a task that cannot be vested in any person, group or organization who has any partisan interest, biased views, opportunity for monetary gain or any other interests. The art is called Journalism. This responsibility of a journalist is to deliver unbiased and unprejudiced news. Unfortunately the conservative movement has used this lack of individual moral responsibility and consciousness, to fuel the blunder of ignorance and deceit. According to Bill Kovach’s book The Elements of Journalism states 2 of 10 of journalism’s fundamental elements to be 1.) Journalisms primary obligation is truth and 2.) Journalisms essence is its discipline of verification.
If you look closely it is clear that the issue of media distortion and bias are not new. This is an issue that has reared it ugly head through the succession of time. In viewing the film The Hunting of the President, it is clear that, the precursors of media bias and prejudices was underway at the time Bill Clinton was running for office. The film explains how a then republican/conservative controlled Washington sparked the nations largest smear campaign against Bill Clinton. To accomplish this mission the Republican Party utilized the one resource that should not be contracted for special interests. The news Media. Conservatives used Arkansas natives & State Troopers to generate believable accusations about Bill Clinton committing sexual debaucheries with 4 prominent Arkansas women, while he was governor. The premiere article was debuted to in the American Spectator an extreme right wing funded operative paper. Having no success in this, conservative operatives began to look in to the Clinton’s personal ties and relationships. The conservatives decided to enlist special services of Independent Counsel and Kenneth Star to investigate the happenings of Whitewater and all it participants. Kenneth star convicted Susan McDougall on contempt of court charges, for not answering questions related to Bill Clinton and Whitewater. Bill Clinton became the “sweet spot” of journalism. Conservative efforts happened to no avail, 'til when the Monica Lewinsky affair was uncovered. The President was never proved of any wrong doing, but was impeached due to a fib.
On contrary to seeing how conservatives utilize media resources to support deceitful motives, we may also see how the media is also hindered. In order to stop unjust action from continually occurring, we must know that they are occurring. In the 2000 presidential elections so many mandates laws and rules that were bent and broken, that anyone without a specific right wing agenda would have been alarmed; if they had only known. While one of this countries most fundamental practices was under attack, much of the country was unaware that it was even happening. For some odd reason the media didn’t step in to inform the rest of the world that cheating is actually accepted in America. If you watch Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential election closely, you will notice that small numbers of disenfranchised democrats who had no common goal, were taking on organized conservative movements, officials and courts.
Simply the republicans used the media to control what information would be delivered to audiences in droves, while other issues are mentioned minimally, or even prohibited. The media has allowed itself to be used as an instrument of delivering biased, interest fueled propaganda.
By: Jarrell Easley
Work Cited
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election Dir. Richard Ray Perez and
Joan Sekler 17 Sept. Alternavision Films 2002
“Journalism” Wikipedia.Org 2008 Electronic Encyclopedia 15 Nov 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism#Standards
The Hunting of The President. Dir. Nickolas Perry Regent Releasing, 2004.
Many Americans are happy with Obama as the new president.But ask those same people 4 and 8 years ago if they were happy about the presidential election, there thoughts probably changed drastically.Watching the hunting for the president and the power of nightmares, it seems like the Republicans will do anything to win the election.Like the Whitewater scam when they were trying to burn Bill and Hillary anyway they can.Examples like when Kenneth Starr was trying to make Susan Mcdougall make false accousations about Hillary, and Bill Clinton having a sexual relations with Monica Lawinski.The media which was mainly run by Republicans, twisted the real truth and Clinton look like the bad guy.Our four fathers are looking down from heaven and looking at God and saying "can you believe this crap that is taking place!"I guess honesty and loyalty went out the window when dollar bills are waving all around.In 2004, nearly half of the six million voters living abroad never received their ballots or received them too late to vote.A consulting firm called tthe Sproul&Associates which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battle ground states was discovered shredding democratic registrations.In Ohio, officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by the Democratic voter drives.In a nutshell, it seems like the Republicans are working very dirty to get what they want.This blog is not meant to bash on Republicans, I think Democrats are just as dirty, they just don't get caught as much as the conservatives do. This goes to show how greedy and manipulative people can be to win an election or anything else they want in life.
This blog is by Sean Barry.
http://www.impeachbush.tv/el2000/
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen
By: Jireh Garcia
One of the closest races in presidential elections in history was the year 2000 presidential election. George Bush and Al Gore fought for the position of the president of the United States. They both dominated the media by being in the news. Media plays a huge role when it comes to presidential elections. (1) The first president to appear in a television was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a master of radio and television. As technology develops and more people buying their own television sets, the media became a major role in politics. In 2000 presidential elections, the Republican Party won the elections. George W. Bush was declared the president.
How it happened? It was all down to the Florida state. They had to rely on the ballot machines. The Florida Supreme Court had ordered to recount manually but it was denied by it was stopped by the Supreme Court. Al Gore would have won if they had the recount. (2) There are many indications that a full recount in all 67 Florida counties would show that Gore carried the state. A review of excluded ballots in Palm Beach County indicated a gain for Gore of 682 votes. The Orlando Sentinel found a gain for Gore of 25 votes in Osceola County. There have also been reports of net gains for Gore in other counties, including Hillsborough, Gadsden and Lake.
The republicans did whatever they can to dominate the election. They did it by controlling the media. The media played a major in this election but not only the 2000 election. The mass media has affected everything ever since the day it was created. Advertising and commercials always takes place wherever we go. Advertisements can help the public become aware of political candidates, issues, and educate themselves. The media always wants to get the most interesting stories even if they have to lie. Also, first impressions are always important. The people are more likely to vote for the candidate who has more appeal to them. I think that’s probably the reason why President Clinton is very popular during his time of presidency. It shows that by controlling the media, anyone can win the election.
Works Cited:
(1) http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/1000/ijde/cs712.09.htm
(2) “US media seize on partial Florida vote recount to Bolster Bush”, Fred Mazelis, March 12, 2001, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/mar2001/vote-m12.shtml
Resources:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/uselections2000?page=2
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/1000/ijde/cs712.09.htm
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/mar2001/vote-m12.shtml
Support of freedom of the press is based not on the idea that the government simply has no right to control the press, but on the belief that a free press is the best method for ensuring a well informed public and a stable democracy.
Media is considered to be a window for learning and is also considered to be our main window to the world. Which is now is a mere reflection of the society in which we live in. It plays an important role in shaping the opinion of the masses.
It seems more of a monopoly of media ownership mainly by Rupert Murdoch. There has been a lot censoring of political opinioned individuals imposing their own views on the masses. Media can evoke emotional response and fear in order to steer people’s views in ways that would benefit their own. There is a lot more republicans in the media imposing views of their own with out facts. There should be equality in the media time of all political parties.
If individuals listen to constant slandering of political representatives it will induce certain views on the masses. For example with Clinton's public execution of his personal reputation was mass produced all over, everyone knew. On the other hand we never heard how W. Bush was a drunk and his "criminal" record among other things, why? because of the republican media censorship.
I’m not surprised on the disgusting fabrications and manipulations that the media has with us. People seem to do whatever benefits them rather then what is best for the people. Believe half of what we see and nothing of what you hear is a suggestion.
Resources:
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/5/6/1/9/p256195_index.html
http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm
http://www.healthyminds.org/mediaviolence.cfm
Ana
The media today in America is in fact America’s number one problem. Bias is something that cannot be avoided no matter what you do but the fact that most popular media is directly owned by billionaire republicans makes nothing better. Blatant manipulation of the facts and then the use of those lies to confuse the people and for political purposes is definitely not staying neutral.
In 2004 Florida was hit by a slurry of injustices as voters were stripped of their right to vote as easily as taking candy from a baby. Veteran marines were not allowed to vote because the first four letter of their name matched the first 4 letters of another person’s name who was a convict. In fact in some post election inspection of 600 of these “felons” showed that only 39 were actually felons and of course the majority of these voters were black and democratic.(1) These allegations were easily proven and media coverage on the topic was minimal and not emphasized at all. So its not only that they broadcast false information but that they selectively don’t cover stories that should be far more important than most of the subjects they cover. If voting is taken away America is no longer America due to the fact that the people’s voice is silenced by politicians and then ignored by the media. Another example of media bias is the falsification of Bush’s military records which is pretty funny because they are not even hiding that they were committing false information. (2) These days I have come to not watching the news because who’s news am I watching?
Is there no reprimand for public lies that affect the lives of an entire nation? Will people in America be so easily stripped of their constitutional rights due to both racial background and party affiliations and then so easily ignored by the media? I urge you not to listen to the news and if you hear about something important check their sources because most likely they don’t exist unless it’s a high-speed (10 mph) chase that lasts for 2 hours and is so important that we watch.
1. Unprecedented: the 2000 Presedential Eection. 2002. DVD. Alternavision Films.
2. Seifter, Andrew. "In CBS memos coverage, media ignored -- or even denied -- credible evidence that
Bush failed to fulfill National Guard duty." Online posting. 12 Jan. 2005. 12 Jan. 2005
news:Meida Matters.
It is not very clear what is true or fabricated by the media, but many scandals and speculations arose about intrigue and corruption during Bill Clinton's presidency. After taking over from former president George H. W. Bush, Clinton's first major scandal was known as Travelgates soon followed by the Whitewater and Filegate scandals that were all part of a series of investigations that had little attention by the media. But during those investigations it was discovered then accusations of extra-marital affairs that all started with a woman called Paula Jones, which lead its way to a more personal and intriguing response by the media: The Monica Lewinski scandal.
For the next year the story dominated the headlines as Clinton was investigated, impeached and eventually found not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors in a Senate trial. Two years later, though, scandal fatigue severely complicated Al Gore’s presidential campaign in which the same tactics were used to hurt him.
By the time Bush and Gore rose to the top of their respective parties, the media had decided to ignore Bush's 'youthful indiscretions' and to dwell on Gore's stuffy personality. The media went as far as to completely ignore the candidate’s proposals and directly question who Al Gore really was, labeling him 'mean Gore' in the first debates, 'nice Gore' in another, and 'pushy Gore' in the final debate. This coverage conveniently left out George Bush's awkward answers and his youthful indiscretions. This strategy focused on the personalities of the candidates and left little room for the media to question them on serious issues such as social security, education, government size, and the environment.
Since the election was hanging by the state of Florida, the decision to declare Bush the winner on the media was first made by Bush's cousin, John Ellis, who was the head of the call desk at Fox, the original network to call the election for Bush. Because of the pressure created by the media as to whom would be the first news station to have the results of the election, John Ellis unethically came with a premature conclusion which cost Al Gore's the electoral votes needed for victory and influencing the ultimate outcome as to who won Florida. This finished in a arguably recount of the votes in a few counties, a early end of voting centers, which was believed to have cost Al Gore's election.
The mistakes in the 2000 Election shows me that while we may never know for sure who won, nothing can be done to change those results, but different steps need to be taken to prevent that from happening again.
By John K. Bacchus
BBC, The US Presidential Election 2000 - A Democrat's Perspective, 25th January 2002
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A679025
Bostom.com, Pollster: Bush 2000 win due to media calling race, September 28, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/09/28/pollster_bush_2000_win_due_to_media_calling_race/
The times, Damian Whitworth, January 15, 2008, Oral history: The Monica Lewinsky scandal ten years on
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article3185449.ece
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelgate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filegate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_scandal
It’s heart breaking to live in a society where as children we are taught by our parents and elders to trust in our Government and in the people who have been appointed to run our country. Media is used to spread the word of good news and bad news, to inform the people of the United States what’s really going on, but its very unfortunate and also very sad that we are learning and seeing for ourselves that things are not the way we were told they were. People can be bought, there is a price for peoples morals and beliefs, if you flash the right amount of money in their face they will tell you what ever you want to hear. How are we supposed to trust our government? As a society we are being forced to believe, we are being scared into believing that the things that are going on around us are for our own good, the meaning money cant buy happiness has lost its meaning in this situation. People were willing to share their stories, even if they weren’t accurate for the right price of course.
As portrayed in the film The Hunting of the President, we saw how not only one woman was more than willing to share her story about her affair with former President Bill Clinton for the right price, and how men who swore to uphold the law, State Troopers were paid to create stories about how the former President who was Governor at the time was caught with multiple women on separate occasions. Men and women committed their time, and invested their money in finding stories about Bill Clinton, but not just any type of stories, sex scandals about previous encounters he has had. Every one knows that he was not the first president who committed adultery while in office, but he was the first President to be impeached for it.
When former President George W. Bush was appointed as president the media witch is mainly controlled by the Republican Party many of his past secrets were being held from us. They failed to show his lack of military experience, and this is the man who has sent millions of our young people to fight a war that started when his father was in office, a man with no military background, was quick to say war was the answer. It has recently come to light that George W. Bush has had his share of run-ins with the law, he was arrested for drunk driving, he was convicted and was charged with a D.U.I. But since the media was controlled mostly by Republicans, censorship of such information never came to light.
Its disgusting when we grow up in a free nation, where in fact things are not so free, where the rich can do what they wish while every one else just sits back gagged, with their hands tied behind their backs, forced to believe that crap that people with power fabricate. We lived in a world of fear, fear of change, fear to rebel against the greater power and demand change. Our country has finally gotten tired of all the nonsense we have been forced to live with and we have risen above all the bad, taken the blind folds off, informed our selves of the truth that our nation was built on lies and corruption. We have finally said “ NO MORE BUSH!”
By: Laura Barrera
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election Dir. Richard Ray Perez and
Joan Sekler 17 Sept. Alternavision Films 2002
The Hunting of The President. Dir. Nickolas Perry Regent Releasing, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush Nov. 16, 2008
The media plays a huge role in todays world. Many people of all walks of life listen/watch the news and most of the time they believe every word they say, they believe its accurate information and that we shall stand by their point of view. Moreover, the medias persuasivenesses is what sparks their work. The way of speaking and communicating to the world is by manipulating and emphasizing the a situation the will occur or that is currently happening.
In the 2000 presidential election,Al Gore had the most popular votes of the country but was over turned by the republican party. George W. Bush took the presidency that term and has become the 43rd president of United States. That year the republican party refused a recount on the Florida's state; mainly because the majority of the citizens were democratic and black. The media took a huge part, they were behind, at least most major media corporation, the republican party. They had said that the republican was won and there was no need for a recount.
As for the 42nd president, Bill Clinton, his reputation was on the line with all the citizens of his country. As the movie, “The Hunting of the President,” many republicans tried to get him removed from office at whatever cost. They tried making lies onto to a big deal and the media was all over it, loving each minute of it, as well as trying to ruin the presidents relationship with his wife. They media would hear stories about how many woman his had and who his doing, and these girls would get their 15 minutes of fame. But all in all the media was portraying lies and rumors to all America.
A.Laureano
The role of modern journalism in a democracy during the 1920’s was viewed under two different philosophies by Walter Lippmann and John Dewey. Lippmann believed that the purpose of a journalist was to act as a translator between politicians and the public community. A journalist was to gather and record information about the policies or issues being discussed, and then filter the information and convey to the public in a manner that would not be so complex for the public to understand. After the public was aware of what was being said, they could easily come to a decision and have a final say with their vote. In contrary, John Dewey not only believed that a journalist convey information to the public, but also weigh the consequences of the policies being set forth. This allows issues to be thoroughly discussed and thought out by the public and for the best ideas to be generated. Presently, journalism and the media have not abided by their purpose which is to inform the public with absolute truth. Rather, the media has created distortion which has influenced the publics’ decisions and affected political outcomes.
Media distortion and smear campaigning were used by the Republicans in an attempt to prevent Bill Clinton from obtaining the presidency. Falsified stories and statements were made by a few women and state troopers from Arkansas all in an attempt to attack and smear his image. Republicans knew that if they could generate false credible accusations on a large public scale, that is using the media, they could attain their goal in destroying his image and preventing his election to the presidency.
In the 2000 elections, the Republicans managed to steal the elections from Democrats by utilizing the media and other strategies to get George W. Bush into office. Among one of those strategies, was taking the names off the voter lists. Majority of the names removed were democratic supporters. In addition, Republicans managed to smear the John Kerry in the 2004 elections. They managed to utilize right winged media and smear his campaign. They created a multitude of print, radio and television propaganda that was shaped to any way they desired it and made everything believable. Also, during the ending of the campaign, Osama Bin Laden released a video criticizing President George W. Bush. The pro- Bush administration then used this video and an endorsement of John Kerry which the public did absorb well. This last minute media distortion then caused voters to lean towards George W. Bush. This resulted in George Bush serving another term. It was later discovered that Osama Bin Laden has created the video with the intent of tipping the election off to George W. Bush for his benefit and cause.
The media is a very powerful organization and tool which can shape reality or falsehoods into anything that is desired. The public must be aware of information that is conveyed and be able to filter out all the bullshit and not subject to ignorance and be victims of the experts behind media distortion.
By: Miguel Sanchez
Works Cited
"United States Presidential Election, 2000." Wikiepedia The Free Encyclopedia. 17 Nov 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000.
"Journalism." Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 17 Nov 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism.
Change has finally come to the United States. With Obama being elected President you come to wonder, how did the media get involved and what did it do to try to do to change the outcome of this election?
Media with their lies and deceit, have been manipulating the American people for their own gain. Most of the big media corporations are owned by republican millionaires and therefore it seems they will do anything to help their parties get control of the political powers. Sadly many of us don’t see the truth and believe what they tell us. In the movie The Hunting of The President media makes Bill Clinton look like the bad guy and slandered his name along with his wife Hillary Clinton just because they were Democrats and because one guy did not want him to be President. Millions of dollars were spent on investigations but in the end they could never prove anything against Bill, until almost at the end of his presidency. Sure he made a mistake with Monica Lewinsky but hey who is to say other Presidents didn’t do it? He is just one of the few who got caught I think. Media also played a big role in the 2000, one of the most shady elections that I have seen since I have been in this country. Media was more focused on burning the democrat party, making controversy and drama, and ignored the people and what was going on at the polls. At one point most of the news channels had Al Gore as our new president, but Fox news which is owned by a republican millionaire, came out and announced that Bush was the new President of the United States. In 2004 the election seemed to have repeated again, and many people believed what they saw and heard from the media.
Like other elections media played their role, but this time it seemed that many people opened their eyes and looked beyond their lies and deceits. We can choose to live in controversy and drama, or we can choose to live without fear and with an understanding of what media is all about. It is up to us.
The Hunting of The President. Dir. Nickolas Perry Regent Releasing, 2004.
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election Dir. Richard Ray Perez and
Joan Sekler 17 Sept. Alternavision Films 2002
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