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November 30, 2003 – Look at this
quote from FOX News:
"Defeating President Bush in 2004 has
become a central focus in the life of billionaire George Soros (search),
and he's ready to put his money where his mouth is. Soros has
pledged $15 million of his personal wealth to activists working to
undo Bush's presidency...
All this activity has opponents crying
foul over what has become a new post-campaign finance reform
phenomenon: larger-than-life fat cats and celebrities giving to
outside interest groups millions in unregulated soft money in an
effort to keep Bush from another four years in the White House.
"These are the same people who were
screaming for campaign finance reform," said Hollywood Republican
activist Lionel Chetwynd. "I would like to compete with the likes of
Mr. Soros and Mr. Lear, but frankly, I'm just not rich enough."
Republican political consultant Craig
Shirley said Democratic special interests are taking independent
fund-raising operations "to where no liberal hack has gone before."
Yes, the right-wing propaganda machine
is in high gear, making George Soros a household name by complaining
every day from every prong of their right-wing propaganda machine
(i.e. AM radio, FOX News, Washington Times, NY Post, Philadelphia
Enquirer, etc.) And of course the mainstream media,
corporate-owned-and-operated right-wing buddy that it is, eats it up
and spits it back out. The Bushies, led by chairman Ed
Gillespe, have decided to make rich people who give money to finance
campaign advertising a top issue this election.
Only one problem: they leave out
the top financers of this type, namely their owner, Rupert Murdoch,
AM radio-dominating right-wing company ClearChannel Communications,
and the other corporations and wealthy individuals that make up the
right-wing machine.
George Soros gave $15 million to
Moveon.org, a liberal activist group to help it run commercials?
Well, how about FOX giving free 24-hour a day free campaign
commercials to the Bush team, loosely disguised as news.
Rob Reiner and a buddy, as FOX reports,
are giving some millions to form a committee to help get out the
vote? Well, how about the billions worth of free campaign
advertising ClearChannel gives via its massive radio holdings, again
loosely disguised as "programming."
The net value of the campaign
advertising given by FOX News, ClearChannel, the many newspapers,
and, indeed, the entire corporate media, including ABC, NBC, CNN,
which admits it has been bullied to the right, is billions upon
billions upon billions - far beyond anything 100 George Soros' could
give. (see
ABC's Peter Jennings Admits ABC Has Been Bullied To The Right By The
Bushies and
CNN's Christiani Amanpour Joins The Chorus Of Top Mainstream Media
People Complaining They've Been Bullied To The Right By The Bushies
)
But, as we know, this new breed of
Bush/Limbaugh Republican can't stand anyone fighting back or
standing up for themselves, so even these few million in response to
their multi-multi-billion propaganda machine infuriates them.
However, in the true fashion of the
current American political setup, the Democrats and Presidential
hopefuls have been taking this lying down. Even when
confronted directly with the 'Soros is giving Dems an unfair
advantage' charge, none have fired back as of yet, pointing out FOX
News, et. al are endless free ads for the Reps.
Soros has fought over the years to try
and get real campaign finance reform. FOX, of course, distorts
this, saying:
"Critics find that hard to swallow --
that the man who pushed so hard to ban soft money is now one of its
chief protagonists.
"Their message is, there must be
campaign finance for everyone, just not the billionaires who can
fund these groups," Chetwynd said."
Of
course the reality is that what Soros had pushed for didn't get
passed in its entirety, and so soft money is still allowed. In
addition, no law has been passed calling puppet-stations like FOX
News what they are - donations of billions worth of campaign
advertising. If a 30 second spot on national TV costs hundreds
of thousands of dollars, how much would it cost to buy 24 hours a
day of advertising 365 days a year? How much to buy the same
nationwide on AM? How about to have the entire 'mainstream'
media act as free pro-Bush advertising as well? Right,
billions upon billions beyond any number you could even imagine -
even, likely, greater than the massive, record-breaking national
deficit President Bush's tax cuts have given us.
Yes, Mr. Soros has popped in a few mil
to give the Democrats some chance at having a voice, knowing even
ABC and CNN will just be Bush advertisement. But, in reality,
the Democrats don't have one billionth of the soft money the
right-wing - who is crying foul about Soros - is giving.
This is just another example of the
Bush-brand Republicans entirely trying to stifle dissent and bury
anyone who musters what it takes to speak up against them and their
dominating propaganda machine. (see
this story about President Bush's latest
assault on what little dissent exists in the media)
And yet the question remains: What
will it take for a single one of the Democratic Presidential
hopefuls to make the right-wing domination of the media the central
issue it should be?
Even better, what will it take to get
one of them to simply defend themselves and their party against the
absurd charge that they are the party supported by billionaires
giving lots of soft money?
In the meantime, watch this one be
echoed and echoed and grow in the media. For anyone with
questions about whether the mainstream media is right-wing puppet,
remember, this whole line of commentary was started directly by
Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespe. So when
you see you favorite news source cover George Soros' contributions
but not FOX owner Rupert Murdoch's, you see clearly one-sided
reporting as directed by the RNC.
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