{"id":544,"date":"2007-08-02T16:54:02","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T23:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=544"},"modified":"2011-07-16T14:44:35","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T21:44:35","slug":"john-edwards-takes-on-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=544","title":{"rendered":"John Edwards Takes On The Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now he’s done it. John Edwards has unleashed the hounds of hell and will face certain and swift punishment for his petulance. By daring to tell the truth about the risks posed by runaway media consolidation, Edwards now must keep an alert eye over both shoulders. From his web site<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“News Corp’s purchase of the Dow Jones Co. and The Wall Street Journal should be the last straw when it comes to media consolidation. The basis of a strong democracy begins and ends with a strong, unbiased and fair media – all qualities which are pretty hard to subscribe to Fox News and News Corp.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He goes on to call on all candidates to refuse contributions from the Dark Empire of Lord Murdoch, and to return any donations already received. For the most part, that call is directed straight at Hillary Clinton, who counts Murdoch as a supporter and fund-raiser.<\/p>\n

But rather than become defensive, Clinton and the other candidates should stake out their own positions on media reform. To date, Edwards is the only candidate to take a position on the excessive powers that the media have assembled. By overtly challenging the media’s ravenous appetite for consolidation, Edwards is demonstrating a rare courage to seek reforms that are truly in the public interest. But he is also painting a target on his back.<\/p>\n

The media are a formidable foe and they don’t like to be challenged. Witness the campaign of Gov. Howard Dean. Early in his campaign<\/a> for the 2004 nomination, he appeared on Hardball where Chris Matthews asked if he would break up the powerful media conglomerates:<\/p>\n

Dean:<\/strong> “The answer to that is yes. I would say there is too much penetration by single corporations in media markets all over this country.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean went on to say that he would appoint commissioners to the FCC that:<\/p>\n

“…believe democracy depends on getting information from all portions of the political spectrum, not just one.”<\/span><\/p>\n

We all saw what happened to Gov. Dean. His fall from being the front-runner in the Democratic Party to an object of ridicule almost overnight, was entirely the work of a frightened and panicked media. This may be a forecast of what awaits Edwards as he steps into the most shark-infested waters of politics. However, it is exactly this kind of commitment to the principles of freedom that we must demand of our representatives.<\/p>\n

Edwards has been more successful in guiding the public debate than in raising his chances for the nomination. He has maneuvered the issues of health care and poverty into the spotlight when no one else was talking about them. One can only hope that he will have the same effect bringing the media’s malignancies into view. He had better, for his own sake. Without widespread support for this issue and\/or his candidacy, the media will grind him up and spit him out. Or worse, from a political perspective…they will ignore him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now he’s done it. John Edwards has unleashed the hounds of hell and will face certain and swift punishment for his petulance. By daring to tell the truth about the risks posed by runaway media consolidation, Edwards now must keep an alert eye over both shoulders. From his web site: “News Corp’s purchase of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[526,137],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-media","category-general","tag-howard-dean","tag-john-edwards"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-8M","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":724,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=724","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":0},"title":"John Edwards Not Playing Rupert Murdoch’s Monopoly","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/27\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"John Edwards isn't shy about letting Rupert Murdoch know how he feels. When asked a question about media consolidation at a recent campaign stop, Edwards said: \"I am not particularly interested in seeing Rupert Murdoch own every newspaper in America.\" Nicely done, John. This answer responds directly to the heart\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":774,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=774","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":1},"title":"Who Will Fight The Media Now?","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/30\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"With this morning's announcement that John Edwards would be suspending his quest for the Democratic nomination for president, the media reform movement has also dropped out of the campaign. Edwards was the only candidate to have directly addressed the problem of the media in this country. He recognized the danger\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=651","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":2},"title":"John Edwards’ Letter To The FCC","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/20\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Responding to the FCC's proposed new rules for media ownership, John Edwards has written a letter addressed to Commission chairman Kevin Martin. Like his predecessor Michael Powell (Colin's boy), Martin has drafted a set of rules aimed at advancing the interests of Big Media conglomerates and permitting them to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":737,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=737","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":3},"title":"Chris Wallace Justifies Fox News Embargo","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/4\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Chris Wallace has proven once again why John Edwards (and any other Democrat) is thoroughly justified in declining to appear on Rupert Murdoch's Foxic airwaves. In a segment that was only three and a half minutes long (video below), Wallace wasted half of it badgering Edwards' spokesman, Chris Kofinis, about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":741,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=741","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":4},"title":"Why Is The Edwards Surge Not A Headline Story?","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/6\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A picture sometimes really is worth a thousand words... Rassmussen conducts a daily national tracking poll of all presidential candidates. The latest shows John Edwards picking up significantly more support, since the beginning of the year, than any candidate of either party. The percent change for Republicans is: Huckabee 18.8%\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":547,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=547","url_meta":{"origin":544,"position":5},"title":"Bill Clinton’s Take On Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/6\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Blake Fleetwood has a curious article at the Huffington Post that quotes Bill Clinton saying that... \"...the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is even more right wing and irrational than most of the commentators on Fox News.\" That's the not the curious part. The article continues with Clinton\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4927,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions\/4927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}