Dear Corporate Media,
Just when it appears that you've bottomed out, you manage to surprise us with new examples of craven, biased, and irresponsible journalism.
We watched as you chose to label Howard Dean's enthusiastic whoop at an Iowa rally as a "scream," and televised it over 700 times in just three days.
We were stunned by your decision to print the distortions of Senator John Kerry's military record issued by the Swift Boat Veterans, a group financed by wealthy Republican operatives.
We were dismayed as you obediently reported every lie fed to you by Bush administration officials as they conspired to lead us into the tragic war in Iraq.
We wondered why you didn't take offense when G.W. Bush stood in front of an audience of journalists and joked about the missing WMD's that provided a bogus rationale for his assault on Iraq. Given than hundreds of thousands have died in that conflict, it seemed to us that jesting about the matter was less than Presidential.
We are still waiting for you to mention the fact that extraordinary numbers of Republicans have been shamed out of office by corruption and/or sex scandals in recent years.
We noticed that television journalists filled the screen with Pastor Wright on a daily basis for weeks on end. You tried to destroy Senator Obama by obsessively reporting on his 20-year membership in a Christian church; the least you could do now is step up and point out that he's not a Muslim.
We were taken aback when you lambasted General Wesley Clark for making the sensible observation that getting shot out of the sky doesn't qualify someone for the Presidency. And we are puzzled by your omission of Clark's laudatory words about Senator McCain's military service, which he uttered just seconds prior.
We don't understand your silence as McCain continues to violate the very campaign finance laws that he sponsored in Congress.
So, our expectations for the corporate media are pretty low. We understand that you can't afford to alienate the management at Budweiser and Chrysler and Verizon and Prudential and MacDonald's-- they are your meal ticket. But jaded and cynical as we are, you managed to catch us off guard with your astonishing lack of curiousity about Senator McCain's recent attendance at the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. McCain was joined onstage by his wife Cindy, and he even suggested that perhaps she ought to participate in the 'beauty contest' that is a feature of the event, remarking that no woman has ever served as both Miss Buffalo Chip and First Lady.
To be fair, there are plenty of folks who come to Sturgis seeking good clean fun. There are races, concerts, outdoor camping, barbeques, vendors, cycle exhibitions, scenic rides, and all sorts of other activities. But a Google or YouTube search for 'Sturgis Rally' reveals that the corporate media had to perform acrobatic feats of denial to avoid identifying Senator McCain with the obvious sexual component of the popular biker weekend. Hoping that we can provide context and perspective that will supplement media coverage of the merriment at Sturgis, we offer the following links to video footage taken at the annual biker bash.
WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. Conservative media professionals with strong family values may wish to exit now.
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* McCain and the lovely Cindy entertain the crowd!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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* Women kneel to compete in "Pickle-Lickin" contest!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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* The Beauty Contest!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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* The Wet T-Shirt contest- (Double Feature!)
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
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* Bikes and Babes!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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* More Beauties Here!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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* Bottoms Up!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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* Athletic Prowess!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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Stormy Daniels!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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Simulated Ecstasy!
http://www.youtube.com/...
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We hope you enjoyed the show, and please don't ask us to believe that you didn't watch; Bill Clinton told us that he didn't inhale, either. Now it's time for a thought experiment in which all members of the corporate media are invited to participate.
Let's imagine that instead of McCain, it was Barack Obama and his wife Michelle who were in attendance at that biker shindig. Would your coverage of the event have been any different? Is it possible that journalists and their editors might have been inclined to reveal more about the raunchy nature of the festivities? Would reference to lewd sexual acts, drug usage, and alcohol abuse be included in your stories? Would TV coverage include shots of Obama interspersed with footage of half-naked biker chicks cavorting? Would the media move on to other issues at week's end, or would you focus on Obama's attendance at Sturgis through multiple news cycles?
Further, suppose that all 500,000 of those bikers and their babes were African-American. Let's ponder the visual imagery here, and how it might be presented by the media and received by the electorate. What are the chances that Obama could survive association with an event at which hundreds of thousands of black motorcyclists gathered for a long weekend of thundering exhaust pipes and overt sexuality? Visualize half a million black bikers, many of them shit-faced drunk or stoned, sporting tattoos and leather from head to toe, roaring into a small midwestern town. Throw in hip-hop and soul music for a soundtrack instead of Toby Keith, and then imagine Obama and his wife standing there onstage as one of the featured events. Does anyone believe that our national media would gloss over a spectacle like that?
We know the answers to all of the above questions. Given the track record of the corporate media in covering McCain and Obama, there is no doubt that if the Democratic nominee had been present at such an event, his bid for the White House would be finished. The media firestorm would have burned with a white heat. The Pastor Wright controversy would pale in comparison. The roar from the right-wing bloviators on cable TV would be deafening. We would suffer through an endless ordeal of incriminating video clips designed to terminate the Obama campaign. Barack and Michelle Obama would be disgraced and permanently marginalized from public life.
We realize that many journalists employed by Big Corporate Media are still trying to get a handle on new-fangled technological developments like Google and YouTube, so we are enclosing links below which should be helpful. Just click on them, and you'll discover all kinds of interesting stuff. The Internets are amazing.
http://www.google.com/
http://www.youtube.com/
