{"id":694,"date":"2007-12-06T13:38:07","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T21:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=694"},"modified":"2007-12-06T15:39:52","modified_gmt":"2007-12-06T23:39:52","slug":"the-media-will-win-in-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=694","title":{"rendered":"The Media Will Win In 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

A little over a year ago I wrote this article<\/a> wrapping up the 2006 campaign season and showing how, no matter who wins electoral campaigns, the media is the ultimate winner:<\/p>\n

“When all is said and done, The Media will have banked over $2 Billion […] If a campaign can be analogized to a war, then the media are the war profiteers. Fox is the Halliburton of the press corps – GE (owner of NBC\/Universal) is the…well, the GE. They benefit no matter who wins or loses. In fact, it is in their interest to incite division and to escalate the conflict.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the time, the money raked in by media was a new record, but one that was destined to be short-lived. A new study by PQ Media<\/a> is predicting that spending for 2008 will dwarf the record set in 2006:<\/p>\n

“Political campaign spending on advertising media and marketing services is expected to rocket to an all-time high of $4.50 billion in the 2008 election cycle, as an acrimonious political environment, record fundraising and the high number of presidential candidates are driving an unprecedented media spending splurge…”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the profligate spending on political ads and events. These expenditures are sponsored, for the most part, by mega-corporations with interests in the outcome of the elections. The Center for Responsive Politics<\/a> just completed a detailed study of lobbyist contributions in the current campaign cycle. It’s an eye opening expose of the incestuous relationships between candidates and contributors. For instance, Hillary Clinton claimed in a recent debate that she accepts lobbyist funds because they represent “real Americans”<\/em> like nurses and social workers. But her financial disclosures reveal a different story:<\/p>\n

“Lobbyists who represent health professionals, including the nurses Clinton singled out, account for $82,805 in contributions to her, while those representing the pharmaceutical industry paid out $562,900.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barack Obama looks a little better having received only $34,500 from 29 registered lobbyists. And John Edwards does even better than that with just $4,500 from seven lobbyists that he has promised to return.<\/p>\n

The irony is that many of the large corporate givers are the media companies themselves. Unlike other donors, they will get much of that money back from candidates buying air time. In effect, the candidates are subsidizing the media companies’ budget for campaign contributions. Then, after the election, the media lobbyists still get to call on the officeholders to collect their reward in the form of favorable legislation and regulations.<\/p>\n

As I said last year, the media is the only guaranteed winner and the people (and democracy) suffer for it:<\/p>\n

“So long as we have corporate media monopolies married to political powerbrokers in government and on K Street, we will never have truly free elections. They just feed off of each other and enrich each other at the expense of democracy. The media needs to be corralled into a role wherein it educates and informs citizens. And public financing of campaigns is imperative if we want to remove the influence of corporations from politics.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And it’s more true now than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little over a year ago I wrote this article wrapping up the 2006 campaign season and showing how, no matter who wins electoral campaigns, the media is the ultimate winner: “When all is said and done, The Media will have banked over $2 Billion […] If a campaign can be analogized to a war, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[96,95],"class_list":["post-694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-media","category-general","tag-campaign-08","tag-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-bc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":276,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=276","url_meta":{"origin":694,"position":0},"title":"And The Winner Is…The Media","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/5\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"So long as we have corporate media monopolies married to political powerbrokers in government and on K Street, we will never have truly free elections. As the American electorate's chest heaves with exhaustion, gasping for that second wind to propel it across the finish line of this year's electoral marathon,\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":202,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=202","url_meta":{"origin":694,"position":1},"title":"Lieberman Wins Spin Contest","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/9\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Lieberman vows to stay in...\" That's the headline on MSNBC. 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In the mere three weeks that she has been a candidate, the joyful campaign of Harris has raised record amounts of money, signed up tens of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, JD Vance, Dr. Evil, Mini-Me","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-vance-evil-mini.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-vance-evil-mini.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-vance-evil-mini.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7987,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7987","url_meta":{"origin":694,"position":3},"title":"Rush Limbaugh’s Predictable Predictions","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/11\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday talk radio's king of drug-addled asininity, Rush Limbaugh, settled into his paranoid dementia to dispense his predictions of a future wherein democracy is carried out and President Obama retains his residency of the White House. Limbaugh has a well known disgust for democracy if its results are not to\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":5180,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5180","url_meta":{"origin":694,"position":4},"title":"What We Learned About Michele Bachmann This Week","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/14\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The winner of the Ames, Iowa Republican Straw Poll (by a mere 152 votes over Ron Paul), Michele Bachmann revealed much of herself to the electorate this week. 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