Fair Elections?

Does money influence elections? Wouldn't you say money is the single biggest factor in outcomes of major political races? It's a popularity contest. Candidates spend a majority of their budgets on the media -- the advertisements, the press releases, the photo ops, the radio and TV spots.

When candidates receive money from corporate donors, they are less likely to say negative things about their corporate sponsors. In fact the candidates will be their sponsors' promoters. So voter's really aren't the "deciders" of elections. I'm not saying don't vote - we live in a democracy and it's our duty to do so - but changing the way political campaigns are funded needs some serious consideration.

Thankfully there are a few socially conscientious people in Congress who are trying to make this change. Senators Dick Durbin and Arlen Spector are pushing a new bill called the, "Fair Elections Now Act," S.1285, which sets up an alternative election fund for candidates who voluntarily agree not to take private-interest money and would be available to all qualified congressional candidates in both primary and general elections. Listen to Jim Hightower's commentary for today. And if you really want to exercise your democratic freedom, pick up the phone and call your reps in Congress to tell them you're in support of this common-sense measure that would put public interests ahead of corporate interests.

The same thing happens with corporate media. They take money from corporate sponsors for advertising, public relations campaigns, etc and become gatekeepers by spinning, erasing or minimizing any derogatory or negative publicity about a company that's made a serious error, broken the law, harmed the environment, shafted its employees and so on. When the media in this country is in the hands of only a few mega corporations, gatekeeping is much easier to do. The consequences of censorship and other forms of disinformation are harming our fragile democracy. Just like corporately funded political campaigns.

I'll soon post a list of links to independent or alternative media outlets that take little or no corporate money, that are non-profit and believe in the fulfilling the vitally important role of fourth estate. Getting our news and information from more than one source should be standard practice. If we only get our information from TV or cable, we only get a small slice of the whole picture.