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The Starr Chamber and the Future of American Democracy The Starr Report The Sorry Role of the Media in All of This The mainstream media have been aiding and abetting Starr from the very beginning, especially The New York Times which started the Whitewater rumors and The Wall Street Journal. Now the major players are literally screaming for Clinton's scalp. It's hard to understand why they are so eager to get rid of Clinton; he has moved the Democratic party far to the right and implemented much of the Republican agenda--- deficit reduction, welfare "reform", harsher laws, etc. However, here are some possibilities: 1. The media believe that sex sells copies and improves ratings. They think we are titillated by details of the private lives of celebrities and Bill Clinton is our biggest celebrity. (They may discover that sex ad nauseam repels readers and viewers.) 2. If they can keep us diverted with scandals--- first OJ, now Monicagate--- maybe we won't notice that 8 out of 10 of us have less income than a decade ago. 3. The big media names who are so hot to get Clinton--- Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Larry King, et al--- are not poor working stiffs like bygone reporters. They are in the top 1% income category and out of touch with such things as the need for affordable day care, a living wage, or a health insurance program that will deliver when you need it. 4. Reporters have become fat and lazy for the most part. It's easier to write a story based on governmental handouts and leaks than to go digging. Then when they find they missed out on the real story, it's easier to deny its veracity. Who wants egg on the face? 5. Most of the media are big corporations themselves now. They scratch each others' backs. Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post has said that Ken Starr can do no wrong--- he was the lawyer who saved the Post from a $11 million libel suit. 6. Possibly Clinton serves as a symbol for the Sixties in the Culture War---- the draft, marijuana, the sexual revolution---- even though many of the media names who oppose him were also baby boomers and had similar lives in that decade. The irony is that many of the journals talking about what STARR has done wrong are the progressive ones--- The Nation, In These Times, Progressive Magazine, Mother Jones , etc. ---- who have been very critical of Clinton for his political lurch to the right! They seem to be the only media with the perspective to realize that this has been a six year ATTEMPT AT VOTER-NULLIFICATION. Only in America could we have a COUP D'ETAT BY PORNOGRAPHY. Let's don't let it happen here. |
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© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004 All rights reserved.
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