Many Kucinich for President activists have complained about how mass media

marginalize our candidate, belittle our chances, attack our policies. The

complaints are valid, but such coverage is exactly what we expected. Given

their bias and boosterism on the war, one could hardly expect these same

outlets to fully and fairly cover the presidential candidate who led antiwar

opposition in Congress.

The Kucinich campaign is no ordinary campaign; it is a movement campaign.

The mainstream media are not going to be any friendlier to us than to the

movements that animate our campaign: peace, labor, environmental, family

farm, consumer rights and every civil rights movement for equality and

dignity.

Kucinich supporters have to be brave enough to keep building, recruiting and

organizing our grassroots campaign without validation from mainstream media.

"Don't count on the mainstream media to lead a social revolution," a former

New York Times reporter once said. "They won't even know about it for six

months."(In Seattle in 1999, when Kucinich joined thousands of labor and

environmental activists in protesting the WTO, no group was caught more

off-guard by events than mainstream media.)

We will of course continue fighting for access to mass media forums, reaching

out to conscientious journalists who work in the mainstream, and responding to

media attacks (often with your help/ see bottom) -- but our strategy must rely

in the coming months mostly on grassroots organizing, plus independent,

alternative outlets and the Internet.

Let's face it: as a result of deregulation that Dennis Kucinich has long

opposed,

today's media are dominated by huge conglomerates. The three cable TV news

channels

are now right, righter and rightist, and conservatives dominate opinion shaping

from radio and TV talkshows to syndicated columnists. Outlets formerly seen as

"liberal," including public broadcasting, are corporatized, timid or both, and

the spectrum of mass media opinion typically extends from GE to GM. U.S.

coverage

of the war was denounced worldwide, even by the head of the BBC, as sanitized

and

propagandistic.

Given the narrowing center-right media spectrum, when Dennis Kucinich proposes

common-sense programs that are popular with most Democrats, and often most

Americans -- national health insurance, ending unfair trade treaties, returning

Social Security's retirement age to 65, cutting the bloated military budget,

reversing a reckless foreign policy to conform with international law and

treaties -- he is deemed beyond the pale by elite punditry.

To mainstream pundits, Lieberman has "serious" foreign policy views... because

they're so indistinguishable from Bush's. Gephardt has a "bold" health plan...

because it keeps the private insurance bureaucracy in the center of healthcare.

Dean is the "peace candidate"... because of a shallow critique, free of any talk

about cutting a military budget that almost equals the military spending of

all other countries combined.

Due to the grassroots nature of the Kucinich campaign and late start, our

fundraising and organizational apparatus are just getting going. Both will

be upgraded in the next months. While mainstream media may take note of that,

we should not count on mass media to legitimize a progressive campaign that

-- unlike those of Dean and Gephardt and Kerry -- seeks to transform the

policies of the Democratic Party and the nation.

The insurgent campaigns of Jesse Jackson in '88 and Jerry Brown in '92 got

little help from mainstream media and a lot of ridicule -- but they persevered

in spite of media attacks, and rocked the political process.

In recent weeks, Kucinich has been attacked by leading conservative commentators

and operatives -- including George Will and Mary Matalin. This is good news.

Let's keep building, recruiting, fundraising, organizing in Iowa and elsewhere,

and we'll earn more such attacks!

But don't count on the mainstream media to help us build a movement to transform

the party and country. They won't even know about it for six months... until we

rise up in the Iowa caucuses come January.

***

Spread the word about the Kucinich campaign [http://www.kucinich.us]

Contribute to the Kucinich campaign [https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php]

Check out our new web feature 'Responses to Media'

[http://www.kucinich.us/responses_media.htm], and join our effort to challenge

biased coverage.

But.

If Dennis got anywhere near being nominated, he

better not fly, or be endorced by Ralph Nader.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2002/08/18406.php

...have complained about how mass media

marginalize our candidate, belittle our chances, attack our policies."

Come one. Your candidate was marginalized before he even announced, his chances are going down even more, and your policies are a joke.

Give it up.

Kucinich either has a messge that rings with the population or he doesn't. It's up to him and his backers to get the word out.

You're going to find the loudest voices to squelch his message is going to come from his own party. They don't want to be associated with him. He's got no coat, much less coat-tails.

back to the top

View 19 Dennis Kucinich Audio & Video's here:

http://fluxrostrum.com/MindFlux/DennisKucinich/kucinich.htm

Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, known for his legislative genius, has not missed a vote in the Congress since he took office six years ago. If you haven't seen him on the campaign trail in your neighborhood lately, that's probably why. (You have to be present to vote in Congress). It drives his campaign staff crazy, but his answer is always: "That's my job."

Kucinich does his job brilliantly. That's why he was elected Chair of the Progressive Caucus in Congress. He just authored a bill introducing a Department of Peace as a cabinet department. It immediately gained 47 co-sponsors. With the launching of this concept as an antidote to the Bush threat of endless wars, Kucinich once again took the bold, definitive action that has characterized him from his first day in office. For many Democrats that kind of resolve is unique. Not for this Democrat.

Of the candidates now running for President, Dennis Kucinich was the first to speak out against the war. He did so at a major rally in Los Angeles in February 2002. There he made his historic "Prayer for America" speech, which aggressively challenged Bush as fostering a permanent war policy.

In federal court he sued the President to stop him from unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM treaty. As leader of the Progressive Caucus, he organized two out of three Democrats to vote against the war. Largely due to his brilliant efforts, the numbers in the House went from five Democrats opposing the war to 126.

He is the only Presidential candidate who has a plan for Universal Healthcare through Medicare for All. His plan calls for a 7% payroll tax paid for by the employer.

He is the only candidate who has pledged that upon election he will bring the retirement age back down to 65 instead of allowing it to continue to creep up.

He is the only candidate with the guts to call for a cut in our off-the-charts defense budget which is crippling our domestic agenda.

"We're gonna rebuild America's cities and we're gonna do it with America's steel," he said in a recent speech "Medicare for all, money pulled out of the Pentagon budget to pay for schools and other domestic programs, and total nuclear disarmament," to which a crowd of 1500 at the Democrats' last

presidential debate responded with a standing ovation.

Kucinich has been committed to total nuclear disarmament since his first day in Congress six years ago. Which Presidential candidates are taking on the Bush administration for its maniacal determination to renew the nuclear arms race? Only Dennis Kucinich.

He has pledged that upon election he will cancel NAFTA and the anti-labor WTO (World Trade Organization), and that he will close the notorious training ground for torturers, SCHOOL OF AMERICAS.

He has pledged to make support of Roe vs. Wade a litmus test for the appointment of judges. As you know, Dennis has not always been pro-choice, although he has always opposed criminalizing abortion, which the Bush administration is now determined to do. With that as a factor, and by talking to the women in his life, Dennis has come to recognize that this issue is indeed a question of a woman's Choice. Like Gore, Gephardt and Jesse Jackson, all of whom once opposed abortion, Dennis has evolved on this subject.

Once Dennis decides upon a position he does not simply give it lip service. He takes action. As proof of his dedication to Choice, he just voted against the ban of late-term abortions. He has developed solid programs to support Choice, including his pledge to fund abortion for poor women through Medicaid and to fund abortion for all federal employees.

Unlike most of the other Democratic Presidential candidates, Dennis Kucinich remains unalterably opposed to our attack on Iraq and to the Bush policy of permanent war.

He has never believed the Bush administration claim that "weapons of mass destruction" was our reason for bombing Iraq. "The war was wrong," he reaffirmed to a screaming crowd of 1500 in Washington last week.

"This war was fraudulent! We must expose this administration." The crowd responded with its seventh standing ovation as Dennis Kucinich demanded that Bush reveal the real motivation for our devastating bombing of Iraq, which killed hundreds of Americans and an estimated 8000 Iraqis.

He regards poverty, bad health care, a toxic environment, poor education and racism as weapons of mass destruction. Dennis Kucinich has peace in his gut. And he is progressive to the core.

With him in the race we have a chance to keep peace and progressive politics alive. Without him there is a good chance those issues will disappear from the Democratic agenda. We have watched the Democratic Party duck and hide since the first days of the Bush administration. Dennis Kucinich has forced the tough issues back on the table.

Join us. Work with Dennis to take our country back from the right wing zealots who are running it. Dennis knows the issues, he has the legislative talent to fight them and the record to prove he's a winner. What he needs now is money to continue. And he needs it by June 30th so the campaign will be eligible for matching funds. Contribute all you can to this agenda-setting race. That's what primaries are for.

To know more, consult our website at www.kucinich.us. Our democracy is literally on the line. Together let's save it.

Lila Garrett

So. Ca. Chair of Kucinich Campaign

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http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=65728&group=webcast