Who will the (corporate) media select as the next U.S. President?

The media is once again picking 'our' presidential candidates. Remember during the 2004 presidential election when the media showed the video of then candidate Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (above). The one of him seemingly screaming like a madman. Well as I hope you know it was not really the case. The microphone he was using was a mic that did not pick up the sound in the room other than his voice. So the mic did not get the screaming crowd that he was trying to be heard over. The media didn't report it like that and many think that helped to derail his candidacy.

So now as we get ready to select the nominees for the 2008 presidential election the media is once again selecting for us. And unfortunately we are letting it happen. This is not independent media, it's corporate media. They have an agenda. The companies that own these media news outlets are very diversified and have their hands in all sorts of business. So is it far fetched to think that they might have an interest in who becomes the President of the United States?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I don't think this is a conspiracy. However I do believe that in back rooms at individual media outlets, the corporate heads are talking with the media heads and letting them know in no uncertain terms who would be an acceptable nominee and who would not.

This is why the consolidation of media allowed by the Telecommunications Act Of 1996 was a terrible thing for democracy. We now have too few voices and points of view delivering our news. And we very rarely take into consideration the motives of news outlets (with the exception of Fox News).

And once again the media/ FCC is making a push to have the FCC allow for more consolidation. Very quietly the republican controlled FCC is looking to relax media ownership rules once again.

In 2003 the FCC tried to change restrictions of media ownership to allow the same entity to own a broadcast outlet and a newspaper in the same market, which is not currently allowed.

In certain markets, smaller ones especially, that could have meant that one media company would've dominated the news coverage in that market. That obviously would not have been a good thing.

The public reaction and protests put the kibosh on the plan then, but the FCC is at it again.

The new FCC chairman Kevin Martin is trying to ease those restrictions by the end of 2007. In the next couple of months there will be a few public hearings on this. And the FCC is trying to keep those meetings as low key as possible.

Is there any doubt that corporate media will help by either not covering the process or giving it a low profile?

So as we continue down the campaign path to the 2008 Presidential election, keep in mind that the information you get about who is a viable candidate and who is not, does not come from sources with no interest in the outcome. And if the FCC has its way there will be fewer voices deciding for us who our presidential nominees will be than ever before.

More on the proposed FCC media ownership changes

NPR: FCC May Change Media Rules

The Wall Street Journal: FCC Moves on Ownership