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OCTOBER 17, 2003 – A Texas
cowboy, who is purported to have millions in oil money but really is
just a poor, average Joe, gets to mock Europeans.
Even the ad for the show could not hide
the fact that it is intended to be a loosely veiled, season-long
campaign ad for President Bush and the Republican Party. Mocking a
French accent, the announcer on an ad for the show says, “Hoh hoh
hoh, oui oui,” proudly bragging how the French will be mocked, among
other Europeans, by this “cowboy” – a cowboy who they will pretend
has lots of oil money.
Look at the brilliance of this campaign
ad. President Bush always tries to portray himself, even though he
has clearly led a millionaires’ life of privilege having been born
into massive amounts of family oil money, as an average “Joe.” No,
he is not a snooty millionaire, he is just like you and me.
President Bush and his branch of the
Republican Party also rely on hatred of the French and grade
school-level mocking of Europeans to defend the fact that he refused
to work with the UN in going to Iraq.
Once again, Australian-born Rupert
Murdoch – owner of more TV and newspaper media than anyone else on
the planet – is using his assets to push his personal political
agenda, again stooping to his oft-used tool of getting the people of
one nation to hate another. He currently has his British TV
network, BSkyB, preaching anti-Americanism to promote his agenda
over there. (see story:
www.moderateindependent.com/v1i10murdoch.htm )
Murdoch’s newspapers, such as the NY
Post, are the most openly biased, one-sided tabloids in the nation.
And it is no secret that his FOX News station is just another tool
he uses to push his agenda, which, in terms of politics, involves
promoting President Bush and the Republicans and bashing Democrats.
But now he is so out of control bent of
being sure the President of his choice is re-elected that he is using
even his supposedly entertainment-oriented FOX Network programming
as unadulterated campaign advertising, although very loosely veiled
to maintain some illusion of it being simply entertainment.
What this all amounts to is plain and
simple: a violation of campaign finance laws.
Campaign finance laws exist exactly to
prevent a few extremely wealthy people, such as Rupert Murdoch, or
powerful businesses, such as ClearChannel Communications, from
having more political influence than any other average citizen. As
much money as Rupert makes, he can only contribute $2,000 to a
campaign, while corporations such as ClearChannel are not allowed to
contribute at all – only individuals can. In addition, the one
loophole that used to let people get around this – soft money, as it
was called, that could be used to finance issues but not candidates
directly – isn’t allowed anymore, thanks to a new, tougher campaign
finance law recently passed by Congress.
But wait. Turn on AM Radio – any time
of day, it doesn’t matter; any channel, it doesn’t matter – and you
will hear 24 hour a day, seven day a week one-sided campaign
advertising for the Republican Party and its candidates. They may
call it “programming,” but it is clearly nothing but one-side
promoting advertising. Indeed, the Republican candidates, such as
President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, make
the rounds, get free air time. As reported in the San Francisco
Chronicle, Arnold’s people acknowledged this simple fact:
" 'We ran away from the established
media,' said Sean Walsh, co-director of communications for the
(Schwarzenegger) campaign. 'We went to the real mass media. We make
no apologies for doing lots of radio or TV. It gave us 5, 7, 8
minutes of unfiltered opportunities to get out our message every
day. 'We did it,' he added, 'because we could.' "
What was that? 5, 7, 8 minutes of
“unfiltered airtime” every day? That, my friends, is called
campaign advertising – unfiltered airtime, where the candidate gets
to promote himself without opposition. 5, 7, even 8 minutes worth a
day. Do you know how many millions that is worth in campaign
funding? Answer: Tens upon tens of millions.
Between AM talk radio, FOX News, and, in
addition, the rest of the corporate-owned media, Arnold was given
direct contributions that were clearly orchestrated to violate the
law’s ban on soft-money.
But it is not just for the superstar.
The Republican Party and all of its candidates are exploiting this
scheme every day and in every election. While the Democrats try to
use what money they raise legitimately to fund phone banks for voter
and get-out-the-vote calling, the Republicans don’t have to pitch in
a dime – ClearChannel and its massive AM Radio holdings donate all
of their airtime to doing this for them. Sounds great, huh? Only
one problem: this violates clearly the spirit – and likely the
letter – of our campaign finance laws.
So now, as you see “Joe Millionaire” up
there seeming a bit too much like a campaign commercial meant to
present President Bush as a loveable, everyday “Joe,” and not the
privilege born, multi-millionaire oil man his is, while at the same
time seeming to justify the President’s, “hate those Europeans, it’s
their fault, not mine,” foreign policy, you are right.
As Hamlet’s character in the famed
Shakespeare play says, “Seems?... I know not seems.” No, he
knew not seems, he knew the dirty little secret that was actually
the truth. And so do we all.
No, Rupert, “Joe Millionaire” does not
seem like an obvious campaign advertisement promoting President
Bush. It, quite simply, is.
And ClearChannel’s use of its AM Radio
assets does not seem like free campaign advertising. Combined with
the facts that ClearChannel openly sponsored pro-Bush rallies during
the war, sponsored mass demolitions of Dixie Chicks albums after
they insulted the President, and routinely fires any on-air employee
who says anything that doesn’t support their pro-Bush,
pro-Republican agenda, it is very clear that the courts need to be
brought in to punish these violators of the very intent of campaign
finance law. |
