We need some public media

Recent televised debates are but one of the many examples that demonstrate clearly that corporate media is the enemy of good government.
Questions are argumentative, largely about wedge issues or personal attacks, and real public issues are marginalized.
"Last week's Democratic debate in Philadelphia was an abysmal display of journalism. By sticking to trivial topics for half of the debate, ABC sought to provoke controversy without asking the candidates serious questions. The Huffington Post's Jason Linkins wrote that the debate "ventured into territory so utterly asinine that I could scarcely believe what I was witnessing."

Ironically, the mainstream media have been giving John McCain a free ride while trying to pin Clinton and Obama with manufactured "gotcha" questions. In fact, they don't seem to be challenging McCain at all. So there's no reason to think ABC's brand of pseudo-journalism won't continue tomorrow morning, when George Stephanopoulos will interview McCain on his show. Here's a satirical look at what that interview might be like."

There is serious danger in allowing media as usual to continue. In Nazi Germany media was Hitler's enabler. Don't think it can't happen here.

Democrats wisely chose not to have their debates on Fox news. Airheaded, hate speech from ignorant shock jocks is no improvement of the public dialog.

US media has been almost completely privatized, and that has not worked well. We need some public media. Begin by providing one broadcast feed which is used exclusively for the public. This would be free for political debates without commercial interuption. Moderators ought to be chosen from knowledgable, leading academics who have some understanding of policy issues. Candidates messages could be shown full length When it is not election season, allow the academics to air issues of importance and even to produce some thoughtful documentaries.

This would remove some of the burden of fund raising from political campaigning, enlarge public discourse and make it more informed, remove some of the corporate bias from the political arena, lessen actual media bias, and, with good management, could allow for some public speech.

(There is more on the problem at http://www.seconnecticut.com/media.htm [1])