CitizenClassAction.com

Are you concerned about how the corporate media is manipulating our election process? Have you noticed how they give preferential treatment to certain candidates during the debates? Have you noticed how they exclude the truly progressive anti-war candidates from presidential debates? Are you troubled by the media's efforts to suppress the free exchange of political ideas and progressive policies?
 

The influence of the corporate media has become more and more invasive, and this is especially true in regard to our election process. A growing number of Americans are waking up to the unethical actions of the corporate media with respect to the exclusion of certain presidential candidates from televised debates, and from overall campaign media coverage. Many Americans feel that this constitutes unconstitutional control, obstruction, and manipulation of our election process. The uneasy feeling and sense of discontent, which most Americans are experiencing now, is growing. Our media, our government, and our civil rights are being usurped by unchecked corporate power and influence. The time has come to take our country back from these corporate elites.
 

The practice of excluding candidates from presidential debates has become far too common and casual. Who has the right to decide which candidates the American people get to hear from?  Who has the authority to select which political positions are acceptable, and which ideas should be considered? That's not a choice that the corporate media or their corporate masters should be permitted to make. The decision about which candidates are 'viable' is entirely up to the American people, and it is expressed when they VOTE. The American people have repeatedly spoken out about this issue, but they are largely being ignored.
 

Every time a candidate is excluded from a presidential debate, hundreds of thousands of people call, email, fax, and snail mail the corporate media, the FCC, the respective political parties, and the U.S. Congress to protest the exclusion of those candidates. But it has not made much of an impact on how these giant broadcast media corporations conduct the debates. The broadcast networks use our public airwaves with the understanding that they will serve the public interests, but they have repeatedly violated that trust and obligation. Time and again, they go out of their way to suppress the voices of the presidential candidates whose views they oppose, in order to limit what ideas the American electorate can hear, so they can control what the American public thinks.
 

The only recourse left to concerned citizens now is to take legal action in the form of a class action lawsuit to force the corporate media to allow all presidential candidates to participate in broadcasted presidential debates. Doing so is vital to ensure a level playing field, and to ensure that our election process is unbiased and unmanipulated.  It is essential that the American people have ALL the facts at their disposal, and be made aware of ALL their choices when making one of the single most important decisions they face: who they should elect to run our nation's government.
 

Like it or not, the television and radio broadcasters hold an enormous amount of power and influence. And like it or not, at least 60% of voters get all their information about presidential candidates from television. So it is critically important that these broadcast media outlets provide equal time and access to all the candidates who have qualified to be listed on the election ballot. It is our contention that every presidential candidate running for office, who has qualified to be listed on the election ballot should be:
 

• * invited to participate in every publicly broadcasted debate in a timely manner

• * treated equally before, during, and after each presidential debate

• * given an equal opportunity to answer all questions posed to the candidates

• * given equal time to speak during each debate

• * given equal accommodations at the debate site

• * assigned their positions on the stage randomly, so that no candidate is given preferential placement

• * given a period of time of no less than 5 minutes each to address the audience about any issues of their choosing at the opening of each debate

• A little research has revealed two areas where the corporate media has likely violated the law by excluding presidential candidates from the debates. We will not disclose that information here, because we don’t want to tip our hand just yet. But we believe that there are valid legal grounds to pursue a lawsuit in order to correct the injustices that the corporate media are perpetrating against the American people, and against our democracy.
   

  But, we need your help. In order to effectively pursue this lawsuit, we must demonstrate that the American people support our claims, and want to remove the stranglehold that the corporate media is exercising over our election process. We need a large group of concerned citizens to join our class action suit. If you want to help protect our democracy, and are troubled by the way the corporate media is manipulating our election process, please sign up to be part of the lawsuit. Signing up here does not obligate you to be a part of the suit, or to donate any money for legal expenses (though we would certainly appreciate any help, should it become necessary). Signing up indicates your serious interest in becoming a part of the class action suit, and that you agree that it should move forward. When we reach 10,000 members, we will approach the ACLU in an attempt to get them to take this case.  If the ACLU agrees to take our case, you will probably be contacted at that time to officially become part of the class action.
   

  We need to band together to be able to stand up to the corporate influences that seek to subvert our democracy. This is truly a case where "united we stand, and divided we fall." So, please sign up now to show your support. And then spread the word to everyone you know. Post this website information to forums and other places you know of where concerned citizens tend to visit, so they can learn about our citizen action too. It is important that we get this accomplished as quickly as possible, because we would like to get this suit underway as soon as we can. We aim to file for an injunction to stop future debates from proceeding, which do not include all the presidential candidates, so that we can have an immediate impact on this election cycle. So, we need you to act right away.
   

  We feel that all Americans have been seriously harmed by the actions of the corporate media, and that they must be stopped immediately. If you agree, please join us now.

   

CitizenClassAction.com was featured on 940 WINZ radio in South Florida this past Friday during the Nicole Sandler morning show. Nicole had been talking about the issue of unfair media coverage of the presidential elections for some time on her radio show, when she stumbled upon our website. She contacted us on Thursday to request an interview.
 

Nicole has posted some information about our site on her blog, and the recorded podcast containing the interview is available on the 940 WINZ website. The link is below.
 

Listen To The Interview:
 

RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download and save the MP3 podcast file.

(This is the first hour of the show. The interview is toward the end.)
 

Many thanks to Nicole for giving our fledgling movement some well needed publicity.
 

You can listen to Nicole's show live between 6:00 AM and 9:00 AM, Monday through Friday, on 940 WINZ Radio's live streaming audio broadcast at their website: www.940WINZ.com

Lori Ford and Gwyn Jones of "The Morning Show Live" in Silver City, New Mexico are tireless advocates for fair campaign coverage in the media. They are big fans of presidential candidate Mike Gravel. Because of this are acutely aware that certain candidates are being given preferential treatment by the mainstream media, while other candidates are being censored and unfairly excluded from nationally televised presidential debates. Ever since they found out about us, they've made it a point to tell their viewers about us. Thanks Lori and Gwyn!
 

 
Morning Show Live is a production of Broad Mind Media. You can watch their show live on Community Access Television of Silver (CATS) Cable Channel 17, and rebroadcasts on KOOT-TV, Local Channel 8 in Silver City, New Mexico. You can also view recordings of their show on their website at Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 February 2008 )

Leave it to comedian George Carlin to take a serious situation and make it seem funny. Who is managing media election coverage? Could it be the same people Carlin calls the real 'owners' of America? A poignant perspective on politics and our election process. Warning, mature language.
 

It's a sad day for Kucinich supporters, as they learn that their beloved candidate has dropped out of the presidential race. Another casualty in corporate media's quest to dominate our election process. This simply reinforces our point that the only way to take back out election process is to put an end to the practice of excluding any candidate from presidential debates.
 

In a video campaign update issued on Monday, January 21st, Kucinich talks about the forces behind the media blackout. It's a troubling state of affairs, to say the least.
 

The corporate media strategy summed up—a quote from Noam Chompsky:
 

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
 

Excluding candidates whose views fall outside the 'acceptable range' from the nationally broadcast presidential debates is an effective way to limit the spectrum of debate, is it not?
 

On January 15th, four protesters, Carol Barbieri, Jennifer Epps, Eva James, and Mark Lipman, decided to take their grievances to NBC via the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Their first outburst was aimed at the exclusion of Congressman Dennis Kucinich from the MSNBC presidential debate. They yelled out "Let Dennis Debate!" Later in the show, the protesters called out again, this time on the topic of impeachment, saying "GE, NBC, put impeachment on TV!" Guest Bill Maher and host Jay Leno didn't seem to know what the protesters were yelling about, or perhaps chose to pretend they didn't so as not to acknowledge or elaborate on the topic.
 

Were they really that pathetically clueless or just covering up for NBC? Being a political humorist, you would think that Bill Maher, at least, would be better informed. It must be that they get their news exclusively from watching corporate controlled media. No wonder they were clueless! Wake up you guys!
 

Watch a video clip of the disturbance here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/16/kucinichsupporting-heckl_n_81815.html
 

The four protesters posted an open letter to Jay Leno, in an effort to educate Leno and Maher. If you'd like to read it, click the 'Read More' link below to see it.
 

Small individual protests like this may not make an immediate difference, but hopefully they help to raise awareness. There's a saying that goes "Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building." So keep lifting your legs guys, and maybe we'll all eventually raise up a big enough stink, so that something will finally get done.
 

As many people know by now, MSNBC first invited Presidential Candidate, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, to their Las Vegas, Nevada Democratic presidential debate when he qualified as the forth place candidate.  Less than 48 hours later, they unceremoniously un-invited him, with the excuse being that they were 're-doing' the format of the debate. It's not difficult to imagine that there may have been some influence by General Electric Corporation (GE), the owner of NBC, which is a prime military contractor. Having such a strongly anti-war candidate appear on its propaganda outlet would most certainly have been unthinkable.

Following the NBC rebuff, Congressman Kucinich filed a suit against NBC in the Las Vegas courts, and won the right to participate in the MSNBC debate. However, NBC appealed to the Nevada Superior courts, claiming to be the 'real' victims.  They won their appeal at the last minute, and the American public lost out once again on an opportunity to hear from a democractic candidate forum which would have more accurately represented the diverse concerns and interests of the American people.

In the interests of preserving and promoting a free and fair democratic election process, the independent media program DemocracyNOW! with Amy Goodman took it upon themselves to help correct this injustice, and hosted the debate that could have been.  They did so by bringing Congressman Kucinich on their program, and giving him an opportunity to weigh in on some of the issues covered during the MSNBC debate.  His responses were aired side-by-side with the candidates who did participate, so that viewers would have an opportunity to really compare the candidates views on the issues.  Having Kucinich's views interjected amid the previous nights' robot-like debate responses was like introducing a breath of fresh air into a stale room.  Kudos to DemocracyNOW! for defying the corporatocracy.

Unfortunately, only a small percentage of the population watches DemocracyNOW! compared with the huge audience that the original MSNBC airing of the debate originally generated, so most Americans will not get to see what could have been, and most of them probably don't know that there is a truly progressive voice that might better align with their own beliefs and concerns.  And that's the way GE Corporation and the corporate broadcast media cartel probably wants it.  Power to the corporation!

Watch the DemocracyNOW.org rebroadcast on RealVideo.  Click HERE! 

- Debate coverage starts at the 10:20 minute mark

- You may need to enable pop-ups.

YouTube movie reviewer 'Mr. Black' takes time to talk about the issue of candidate exclusion from presidential debates.
 

Here's what the Republican party had to say when Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter were excluded from the New Hampshire presidential primary debates:

_______________________________
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

January 5, 2008
 

Fergus Cullen, Chairman, New Hampshire Republican Party
 

NH REPUBLICAN PARTY WITHDRAWS AS FOX FORUM PARTNER
 

CONCORD – New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen releases the following statement regarding Sunday’s Republican forum on FOX:
 

“The first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary serves a national purpose by giving all candidates an equal opportunity on a level playing field. Only in New Hampshire do lesser known, lesser funded underdogs have a fighting chance to establish themselves as national figures. Consistent with that tradition, we believe all recognized major candidates should have an equal opportunity to participate in pre-primary debates and forums.
 

This principle applies to tonight’s debates on ABC as well as Sunday’s planned forum on FOX. The New Hampshire Republican Party believes Congressmen Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter should be included in the FOX forum on Sunday evening. Our mutual efforts to resolve this difference have failed.
 

While we understand that FOX News continues to move forward it is with regret, the New Hampshire Republican Party hereby withdraws as a partner in this forum.”

_______________________________
 

Now, why can't the Democratic party show the same amount of support for all of their presidential candidates? I don't agree with the Republican party platform in any way, but at least they showed a little class in this situation. More that I can say for the Democratic party...or should I say DLC? Where are you Howard Dean? Have they bought you off too?

Once again, Congressman Dennis Kucinich was excluded from a Democratic presidential debate aired by ABC prior to the New Hampshire primary. Supporters held a protest march outside of the debate site during the debate. Congressman Kucinich addressed the crowd on the issue of media bias and influence over our election process.
 

After being snubbed by Fox, Duncan Hunter says he won't quit, despite the 10th floor executives who say they can turn off a political campaign.
 

Prior to the Iowa caucus, Congressman Dennis Kucinich was excluded from the Iowa presidential debates sponsored by the Des Moines Register. There seemed to be a very different 'qualification standard' for Republicans and Democrats. Clearly, these standards are arbitrary and capricious, and should not be allowed by law.
 

Here's what Candidate Mike Gravel had to say about the discriminatory practices of CNN during their presidential debates a while back.
 

On October 30, 2007, former Senator Mike Gravel was excluded from the MSNBC presidential debate. He decided to take matters into his own hands, and conducted his own debate over the Internet. Clever, but it doesn't compare with the exposure and publicity received by the other candidates who participated in MSNBC's debate.
 

A presidential candidate should not have to go to extremes like this to try to compete on an equal footing with other presidential candidates. Why doesn't the corporate media respect our presidential candidates anymore? It's not like Mike Gravel is some bum off the street. He's a former United States Senator!
 

Here's what political author Dick Morris had to say about the MSNBC bias during a Republican presidential debate in an interview with Fox News.