Presidential Geek Survey Diary - Day 61
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How did I miss Mike Gravel? We sent the Pink Raygun Geek Survey to his campaign, but since then he’s completely fallen off my radar and, until I saw him on Real Time with Bill Maher last night, I thought he had dropped out of the race.
This is a guy who, in the 1970s, did a lot of stuff to piss off the federal government and both political parties because, as he says it, it was the right thing to do.
He read the Pentagon Papers - document that proved the government had lied about the Vietnam War - into the public record.
He filibustered the end of the draft.
He stopped nuclear testing in the North Pacific.
He introduced legislation to open diplomatic ties with China.
So, why is the media ignoring this guy? Is it because he’s not as photogenic as Barack Obama? Is it because he’s not a polarizing figure like Hillary Clinton? Is it because he’s not campaigning in the midst of personal tragedy like John Edwards?
Sure, he’s old and grumpy and grandfatherly, but he’s also not a robot. He seems to have genuine emotion while talking about things like Iraq and Vietnam. The other candidates sound like a pre-emotion chip Lt. Commander Data.
The media has a responsibility to deliver unbiased information to the public. The media has no right to decide for us which candidates we get to see, and by shoving candidates like Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul off to the side, that’s exactly what the media is doing.
By not providing equal coverage, the media is not only spitting in the collective face of America’s voters, they are also obstructing democracy.
That, combined with our horrible education system and rampant anti-intellectualism, creates a complacent population.
And that scares the hell out of me.
Score
The United States of Mis-Information: 1 Geeks: 0
Stumble it!
