Raising The Hammer
Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 02:49:42 AM PDT
I have a point with this diary, which I intend to make more clear in subsequent diaries, as we proceed.
Like most here, I was appalled by the ABC debate. I was (and am) also appalled at ABC's continuing refusal to acknowledge the poor job they did. They went a step even further today--I'm sure most of you didn't watch "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" this week, but if you had, you'd have seen the usual talking heads bashing us for daring to complain about the debate--at one point, Sam Donaldson told us to "grow up" and said we had a sense of "entitlement". Or maybe the latter was Cokie Roberts--they all kind of run together in one big, nonsensical mass in my brain.
More below...
I've done the "fighting back" thing--I sent my emails to ABC, and made my phone calls telling them what I thought of their debate. Told them I didn't intend to watch their network, or support anything ABC or Disney, until they stepped forward with an apology, at the very least.
As, I know, did many of you.
Well, I cheated a little, just to see what we'd get in response.
And, my brothers and sisters, ABC just spat in our collective faces and told us all to go fuck ourselves.
The unrepentant Stupidopoulos and his cronies on "This Week" yesterday essentially told us to mind ourselves in our dealings with our betters...move along, public, when we want your opinion we'll give it to you.
This is completely unacceptable. I've had enough. Certainly there are worse, more biased offenders than ABC--I'm speaking of Fox, obviously--but I think that if we are ever to solve "the Fox problem" we are going to have to have a train behind us to run them over with.
I'd like to start building that train.
I didn't have the foresight to DVR yesterday's "This Week", and obviously we all have important calls to make on that little matter in Pennsylvania for now, but beginning with this upcoming Sunday's edition, I intend to track every single advertiser on the program...and, with your help, direct the fire of the Obama Nation at them for supporting Staphylococcus and ABC.
What we have to realize--and this applies to everything from DKos to the ACLU to MoveOn.org--is that "strongly worded letters" and petitions aren't getting the job done. They simply aren't working. They're better than nothing, don't get me wrong. But the corporations and government officials that receive them, while they may give us a little lip service here and there (if that), don't really take them seriously.
That means they don't take us seriously. And that, friends and neighbors, must change.
How can that change? We have to begin speaking in the only language that corporations understand--the language of money.
That means boycotting--not just ABC, but the advertisers who fund the "This Week" show. If that doesn't work, then we start boycotting all the advertisers who support any ABC news program. If that doesn't work, we start boycotting ALL of ABC's advertisers. If that doesn't work, we change those plans for trips to Disneyland.
The ultimate goal is to retake the American media, one bloody battle at a time. But we have to draw a line in the sand, say enough is enough, and bring down the hammer on ABC for their sham debate and their despicable fuck-the-consumer attitude that has followed in its wake. We've got to start fighting--really fighting--somewhere, and this is as good a spot as we're liable to find for a while.
I have a simple, two-point objective in mind for now:
1.) I want a public apology from ABC--to Barack Obama, to Hillary Clinton, and to the American public for wasting our time with their trivial nonsense at a time of such great peril for our nation.
2.) Stephanoronpaulos needs to be fired. I blame him more than Charles Gibson for two reasons; A, because I think Gibson is just a garden-variety moron, whereas Boy George actually has a little bit inside his skull other than plain old air; and B, because this was a clear conflict on interest for George Stephanopoulos, and he should have recused himself as a moderator of this debate.
That's all I want--for right now. An ABC apology, and George S. shown the door. If we can force that to happen, we've cracked the door open. Just a little, but enough to jam a toe in there. Just enough to crack it open a little further. And a little further.
Next Sunday or Monday, there will be another diary by me. This one will contain ways to contact all of the advertisers on the next "This Week" show, and tell them that you are officially boycotting them until they stop advertising on that program.
Make no mistake--the obvious slant, deliberate avoidance of stories, incessant repitititon of others, and contintual focus on meaningless, insubstantial topics instead of real issues in our American media is one of the #1 issues facing us as Americans today. If we wish to regain our freedoms, and become a truly well-informed, politically active citizenry--which we must have and become if we are ever to attain the America of our hearts and souls, the America we truly seek--then we must break these corporate enterprises and force them to kneel to the will of the people.
It can be done. And it must be done. And it all starts with ABC and George Stephanopoulos. Yes, eventually the Net will take over anyway and we'll be more important than they are, but that may take 20 years. And frankly, we don't have 20 years. I don't know that we have 5 years. We have to start NOW. We have to show these people, who understand only business, that we mean business.
Tune in next week for my next diary on "This Week". Thank you for reading. Please respond to my quick poll below:
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