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98 lines
5.1 KiB
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<conspiracyFile>Subject: Corporate buyout of the Democratic Party
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<div>
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>From the SF Examiner, Monday July 20, 1992.
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Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon (Jeff Cohen is founder
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of FAIR, a media watchdog group; Norman Solomon is
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a media critic.)
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The Takeover of the Democratic Party
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Thousands of journalists covered the Democratic National
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Convention here. Almost all of them missed the biggest
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story.
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The story wasn't missed because it happened in the shadows
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of in some smoke-filled back room. It was bypassed because of
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ideological binders worn by so many in the conformist press.
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The big story was the takeover of the Democratic Party by
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big business.
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Of course, the Democratic Party has always included hefty
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doses of corporate interests. But in past years, they were
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one of many competing forces in the party, along with
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representatives of labor, minorities, senior citizens, women
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and others.
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The significance of this convention is that corporate America
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has taken undisputed control - at least for now - of both major
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political parties, not just the GOP.
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How did so many in the political press corps miss the story?
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Most establishment journalists seem blind to the fact that
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corporations are thoroughly political institutions, seeking
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ever-increasing influence over parties, legislation and government
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regulation. (These businesses are, after all, the folks who
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underwrite the news with their advertising.)
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In political reporting, corporations are treated as benign, neutral,
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invisible. Their political maneuvers are generally not news.
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It's not that journalists are oblivious to political wheeling and
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dealing by various groups. In the days before the convention,
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political reporters scrutinized teachers unions, black activists,
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senior-citizen groups, feminists, gay-rights advocates - denigrating
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them as ``special interests'' who could ruin ``Clinton's convention''
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by ``alienating middle-class voters.''
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With so much media focus on these relatively powerless grass-roots
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groups, powerful corporations - the country's REAL special
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interests - ran off with the party.
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ITEM: Two days before the convention, a ``Victory Train'' carried
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congressional Democrats from Washington to New York. Accompanying
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the party elite on the train ride were corporate lobbyists who
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paid $10000 to $25000 for the right to mingle and shmooze.
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The Democratic National Committee has been raking in money from
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virtually every corporate interest needing a government
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favor. The message to anti-poverty or consumer-rights activists:
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No need for you to come on board. You can wait at the station.
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ITEM: The Clinton-Gore ticket represents the seizure of the
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party hierarchy by the Democratic Leadership Council, which
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is typically euphemized in the media as a group of
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``moderate'' Democratic politicians who want the party to
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``speak for the middle class.'' (Clinton and Gore were
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founders of the DLC; Clinton was its chair in 1990-91.)
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The problem is that the DLC has no middle-class constituents.
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It is bankrolled by - and speaks for - corporate America:
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ARCO, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific, Martin Marietta, the
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Tobacco Institute, the Petroleum Institute, etc.
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ITEM: Clinton became the media-designated ``front-runner'' in
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large part because he raised so much money early in the
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campaign. The cash didn't come from middle-class folks.
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As reported by the weekly In These Times, most of it
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came from conservative business interests; investment
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bankers, corporate lobbyists and Wall Street firms which
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fund both major political parties.
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ITEM: Two of Clinton's key fund-raisers were Robert Barry,
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a longtime General Electric lobbyist, and Thomas H. Boggs
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Jr., who ears $1500000 a year as a lawyer-lobbyist
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for the Washington firm of Patton, Boggs, and Blow.
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Boggs' parents were members of Congress; his sister is
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media pundit Cokie Roberts. His law firm boasts a computer
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program that matches corporate donors with Congress members
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who seek his help in raising money; a match depends on what
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legislation is pending before Congress.
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ITEM: The Boggs law firm also boasts partner Ron Brown,
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chair of the Democratic Party. Some pundits have suggested
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that since Brown in an African-American, the Clinton-Gore
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ticket has less need of Jesse Jackson to mobilize the
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black vote in November. But Ron Brown is far more familiar
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with corporate boardrooms and government corridors than
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grass-roots organizing. His clients have included an
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array of U.S. and foreign business interests, as well as
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the regime of Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier.
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When Jerry Brown spent his campaign denouncing
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``Washington sleaze,'' he was referring to these kinds of
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cozy corporate-government relations.
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But mainstream media have demonstrated far less animus
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toward corporate influence than toward Jerry Brown, who
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was routinely described by journalists covering the
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convention as ``disruptive,'' ``egotistical'' and a
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``party pooper.''
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Aided by this media slant, corporate insiders are
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laughing all the way to the bank.
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<div>
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This is the real problem with our "democracy" - the voters have
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very little influence over the choices. Those decisions have
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already been made for us. We should feel glad about it, now
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we don't have to make the difficult decisions...</conspiracyFile> |