Chupacabra Report

I just had this brainstorm where TV news coverage of the primaries is replaced with monkey knife fights or maybe pay-per-view executions like they have in Bezerkistan.

Crap like this would be probably be more in the public interest than the so-called reporting being done on the upcoming election campaigns.

For example consider Hardball’s “Power rankings” this week that ranked Republican candidates second, third, and fifth when all top three Democratic candidates have drawn more voters than any Republican candidate. I would say that a ranking would have to list them as first, second and third. Do the math, Tweety.

Worse than that, though, is the fact that the corporations that own the networks actually choose which candidates get the public’s attention. Second tier candidates Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have gone to court for the right to appear in TV debates.

The fact is that network news coverage is colored by a conflict of interest. An 1886 Supreme Court decision, Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Corporation granted equal protection of the laws to corporations as if they were persons. But the rights of corporations, being more than equal, have come to usurp those of mere mortals.

For example, the First Amendment Rights of corporations allow their speech to be heard by hundreds of millions of Americans countless times daily through commercials, news, and other programming. They decide who wins the name recognition necessary to compete with the well-funded, established candidates, who are funded of course, by those same corporations.

Is it any wonder that candidates who speak out against this supra-constitutional concentration of power in the hands of unelected corporate powers have trouble being heard above all the breaking news about Brittany Spears or Jessica Simpson?