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+Subject: Corporate buyout of the Democratic Party
+
+
+******************************
+>From the SF Examiner, Monday July 20, 1992.
+Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon (Jeff Cohen is founder
+of FAIR, a media watchdog group; Norman Solomon is
+a media critic.)
+
+The Takeover of the Democratic Party
+
+ Thousands of journalists covered the Democratic National
+Convention here. Almost all of them missed the biggest
+story.
+  The story wasn't missed because it happened in the shadows
+of in some smoke-filled back room. It was bypassed because of
+ideological binders worn by so many in the conformist press.
+ The big story was the takeover of the Democratic Party by
+big business.
+  Of course, the Democratic Party has always included hefty
+doses of corporate interests. But in past years, they were
+one of many competing forces in the party, along with
+representatives of labor, minorities, senior citizens, women
+and others.
+ The significance of this convention is that corporate America
+has taken undisputed control - at least for now - of both major
+political parties, not just the GOP.
+ How did so many in the political press corps miss the story?
+Most establishment journalists seem blind to the fact that
+corporations are thoroughly political institutions, seeking
+ever-increasing influence over parties, legislation and government
+regulation. (These businesses are, after all, the folks who
+underwrite the news with their advertising.)
+ In political reporting, corporations are treated as benign, neutral,
+invisible. Their political maneuvers are generally not news.
+
+ It's not that journalists are oblivious to political wheeling and
+dealing by various groups. In the days before the convention,
+political reporters scrutinized teachers unions, black activists,
+senior-citizen groups, feminists, gay-rights advocates - denigrating
+them as ``special interests'' who could ruin ``Clinton's convention''
+by ``alienating middle-class voters.''
+ With so much media focus on these relatively powerless grass-roots
+groups, powerful corporations - the country's REAL special
+interests - ran off with the party.
+
+ ITEM: Two days before the convention, a ``Victory Train'' carried
+congressional Democrats from Washington to New York. Accompanying
+the party elite on the train ride were corporate lobbyists who
+paid $10,000 to $25,000 for the right to mingle and shmooze.
+The Democratic National Committee has been raking in money from
+virtually every corporate interest needing a government
+favor. The message to anti-poverty or consumer-rights activists:
+No need for you to come on board. You can wait at the station.
+
+ITEM: The Clinton-Gore ticket represents the seizure of the
+party hierarchy by the Democratic Leadership Council, which
+is typically euphemized in the media as a group of
+``moderate'' Democratic politicians who want the party to
+``speak for the middle class.'' (Clinton and Gore were
+founders of the DLC; Clinton was its chair in 1990-91.)
+The problem is that the DLC has no middle-class constituents.
+It is bankrolled by - and speaks for - corporate America:
+ARCO, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific, Martin Marietta, the
+Tobacco Institute, the Petroleum Institute, etc.
+
+ITEM: Clinton became the media-designated ``front-runner'' in
+large part because he raised so much money early in the
+campaign. The cash didn't come from middle-class folks.
+As reported by the weekly In These Times, most of it
+came from conservative business interests; investment
+bankers, corporate lobbyists and Wall Street firms which
+fund both major political parties.
+
+ITEM: Two of Clinton's key fund-raisers were Robert Barry,
+a longtime General Electric lobbyist, and Thomas H. Boggs
+Jr., who ears $1.5 million a year as a lawyer-lobbyist
+for the Washington firm of Patton, Boggs, and Blow.
+Boggs' parents were members of Congress; his sister is
+media pundit Cokie Roberts. His law firm boasts a computer
+program that matches corporate donors with Congress members
+who seek his help in raising money; a match depends on what
+legislation is pending before Congress.
+
+ITEM: The Boggs law firm also boasts partner Ron Brown,
+chair of the Democratic Party. Some pundits have suggested
+that since Brown in an African-American, the Clinton-Gore
+ticket has less need of Jesse Jackson to mobilize the
+black vote in November. But Ron Brown is far more familiar
+with corporate boardrooms and government corridors than
+grass-roots organizing. His clients have included an
+array of U.S. and foreign business interests, as well as
+the regime of Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier.
+
+ When Jerry Brown spent his campaign denouncing
+``Washington sleaze,'' he was referring to these kinds of
+cozy corporate-government relations.
+ But mainstream media have demonstrated far less animus
+toward corporate influence than toward Jerry Brown, who
+was routinely described by journalists covering the
+convention as ``disruptive,'' ``egotistical'' and a
+``party pooper.''
+ Aided by this media slant, corporate insiders are
+laughing all the way to the bank.
+
+*******************************************
+
+This is the real problem with our "democracy" - the voters have
+very little influence over the choices.  Those decisions have
+already been made for us.  We should feel glad about it, now
+we don't have to make the difficult decisions...
+
+