What if they held a primary and no journalists showed up? Think for a second what incredible good could come from a thousand reporters suddenly vanishing. Not just the so-called liberal reporters or the jack-booted pen wielding apologists for the current DOTUS (Decider of the US), but all reporters. When the populace suddenly realized that Barack Obama’s being the first Black to win a presidential caucus is not news (merely historic), they would be forced to find entertainment elsewhere. More importantly, without the press around to interpret every word uttered, every poll taken, and tell us all who we’re voting for, we’d be forced to do the unthinkable.
We who stare at our neighbors over picket fences and through chain links of racism, hatred, and misunderstanding would have to talk to each other.
Mainstream reporters often work harder to promote candidates’ talking points than the sleepless dreamers running the campaigns. Electability, inevitability, ability/inability to sustain momentum, and a hodgepodge of other trite reporter phrases coalesce into the gray sludge we inject before each presidential election. The sportslike coverage of the election (Stop calling it a fucking race!) leaves little room for real journalism, and even less incentive for it. For instance, Dennis Kucinich is very vocal about his thoughts on a Bush/Cheney impeachment. Why isn’t this a topic that more journalists write about? Nancy Pelosi stated she wouldn’t support impeachment before she became House Minority Leader, so her views aren’t news anymore. But there are some interesting sites and statistics regarding the American people’s views on the matter. That lack of depth in big name news outlet reporting is what drives me to NPR and the BBC.
An even bigger story passed over by Registered Traitors, I mean Trademark American journalists was the sick racist machinations behind the stolen presidential election of 2000. After Howard Dean’s demonic scream and the Florida voting ballot problems took center stage, laughter drowned out the pleas of tens of thousands of disenfranchised Florida voters. Greg Palast wrote about it, but it was barely a blip on the national news radar. In fact, some people I’ve mentioned the account to claim to have never heard about it at all.
But who am I kidding? The primaries won’t be lonely. The same group of vultures that have returned to the scene of the crime election after election will be circling for the next few months. They will digest their prey on the wing, barely pausing to deposit the bones in the less used corridors of voters’ minds. And they will effortlessly spread their wings to blot out the sun, lest any real truths be illuminated.