Sponsorship Bothers
Posted on
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
Is anyone else as queasy, bothered and uneasy about the fact that CNN's woeful Democratic National Convention coverage is sponsored by the coal industry and AT&T? Now, I don't expect CNN to be able to parse the delicious irony of this sort of thing, at least not unless there is a strategist from either side of the election available to digest and regurgitate some talking points for them. But shouldn't the DNC have at least, I don't know, pointed this out?
AT&T has been of the forerunners of the megacorporate drive to remove Net Neutrality rules from Internet access laws. They have lobbied Congress and lobbied them hard to remove the free speech and commerce protections that the Internet currently enjoys. So to let such sponsorship of the coverage be from an agency so opposed to the egalitarian nature of the Internet, something the Democrats should be damn thankful for, is a bit disappointing. It isn't as if the Internet hasn't been used to great effect by both the Obama and Clinton campaigns during the primaries and afterwards. Imagine the YouTube presence of both candidates being stifled by slow bandwidth during the primaries. The voters might have had to resort to watching the television for their news...
Oh.
But the choice of the coal industry for sponsorship is worse. The coal industry is a vast polluter, a killer of working class men and towns, and a generally dirty, horrible way to both power things and make a living. I'm not sure there exists a more environment-befouling energy source on the planet. The only upside to the coal industry is that America has an abundance of the material in our own backyard. But for a party who has made much political headway using a message of environmental responsibility to combat global warming/climate change, it is a slap in the face to have coverage of their national convention bookended by ads touting the wonders of coal-derived energy.
Now, I'm not naive enough to think the DNC could necessarily stop these sponsorships. CNN is free to take ad money from anyone it wants to. As the corporate media whores they are, I expect them to take it from every source imaginable. The least the DNC could do is exert a little pressure on CNN. After all, they are providing the network with the access and permission to broadcast the whole thing. Be principled, tell CNN that such sponsorships are irresponsible and damaging to the reputation of the party. I no longer expect any news organization to act responsibly, which means the only way to enforce such responsibility is to threaten the network where they live: in their overstuffed wallets.
AT&T has been of the forerunners of the megacorporate drive to remove Net Neutrality rules from Internet access laws. They have lobbied Congress and lobbied them hard to remove the free speech and commerce protections that the Internet currently enjoys. So to let such sponsorship of the coverage be from an agency so opposed to the egalitarian nature of the Internet, something the Democrats should be damn thankful for, is a bit disappointing. It isn't as if the Internet hasn't been used to great effect by both the Obama and Clinton campaigns during the primaries and afterwards. Imagine the YouTube presence of both candidates being stifled by slow bandwidth during the primaries. The voters might have had to resort to watching the television for their news...
Oh.
But the choice of the coal industry for sponsorship is worse. The coal industry is a vast polluter, a killer of working class men and towns, and a generally dirty, horrible way to both power things and make a living. I'm not sure there exists a more environment-befouling energy source on the planet. The only upside to the coal industry is that America has an abundance of the material in our own backyard. But for a party who has made much political headway using a message of environmental responsibility to combat global warming/climate change, it is a slap in the face to have coverage of their national convention bookended by ads touting the wonders of coal-derived energy.
Now, I'm not naive enough to think the DNC could necessarily stop these sponsorships. CNN is free to take ad money from anyone it wants to. As the corporate media whores they are, I expect them to take it from every source imaginable. The least the DNC could do is exert a little pressure on CNN. After all, they are providing the network with the access and permission to broadcast the whole thing. Be principled, tell CNN that such sponsorships are irresponsible and damaging to the reputation of the party. I no longer expect any news organization to act responsibly, which means the only way to enforce such responsibility is to threaten the network where they live: in their overstuffed wallets.
Labels: Corporate Corruption, Mainstream Media, Media Corruption, Presidential Campaign 2008
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 4:03 PM
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