Form

A Statement of Beliefs

On People and Politics,

I believe:

There is a Political Center in the United States that is

moderate in its political views,

fair-minded in its disagreements,

absolutely opposed to the political extremes of the right or the left.

The Political Center consists of people from the Left and Moderate Left who call themselves Liberals or Progressives. It consists of people from the Center who call themselves Independents. Finally, it consists of people from the Right and the Moderate Right who call themselves Social or Economic Conservatives. Whatever their political hue, the two characteristics binding together the People of the Center are a strong belief in a democratic society and a fair-mindedness in their treatment of others, including political opponents.

It is possible for the People of the Center to disagree on the major political and economic issues dividing this country, and yet, at the same time, after reasoned discourse, to agree to compromises that will move forward the country's agenda.

At the present time, I believe most people in the Political Center are deeply concerned about two things:

The growing concentration of power into fewer and fewer hands in this country

The related radicalization of the Republican Party by right-wing authoritarians and right-wing totalitarians. When unbridled greed and the lust for power drives some in the Right into an unholy alliance with those in this country who want a theocratic rather than a democratic form of government, they violate the conservative principles most Republicans claim to have. The Republican Party must be returned to moderate hands!

On the Importance of the Mainstream Media in a Democratic Society,

I believe:

The Mainstream Media, as an institution, is an INTEGRAL part of our democracy and our democratic society.

The Mainstream Media plays a VITAL ROLE in our democracy because it is the only institution in this country capable of providing the people with reasonably unbiased and objective information on important matters affecting our democracy.

The Mainstream Media is the only institution in this country capable of watching all of the other institutions in this country, both PUBLIC and PRIVATE, and reporting on their actions.

Therefore the Mainstream Media is the only American institution capable of holding these other institutions ACCOUNTABLE to the will of an informed public.

It must warn the American people of institutional excesses, both PUBLIC and PRIVATE

It must carefully monitor PUBLIC and PRIVATE institutions for signs of activity that do damage to our country or our people

It must continually watch for crimes against our society and our people so as to provide the American people with an adequate warning.

Today there is a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER to the Country.

I believe:

That thanks to greed and a vision of short-term gains, the Mainstream Media no longer provides fair and unbiased information to our people on important matters affecting their daily lives. Just as important, we no longer can obtain fair and objective information on matters havng much to do with the future well-being of this country and its people.

That a subtle indoctrination program introduced by right-wing elites over twenty years ago has caused the Mainstream Media has abrogate its watch dog responsibilities in certain areas and to respond more and more to the new centralized concentrations of power.

Over the past twenty years, certain ultra-right wing southern Republicans have been able place a growing number of ultra-right wing judges into the Federal judiciary of this country. This is a new breed of Republican, a breed who believes powerful corporations, because they are powerful corporations, should be above the law; who believes the public lands and resources of the American people should be converted into private profit and more private power, and who disdain the rights of the common people and the working people of this country. They are not conservative judges, they are the judges of the radical right. With their growing power unchecked by a corrupt Mainstream Media which no longer performs its watchdog function, these radical right wing judges may be the most dangerous threat to democracy in this country today.

That with the assistance of the Mainstream Media, and in particular with the assistance of the Washington Post and the New York Times, the ultra-right have poisoned political relations in this country, so that we now confront the possibility of a president being forced from office because of his personal behavior. I have no brief for Clinton, he lied about a sexual relationship to the people of this country, and he is therefore accountable for his lie. But the Lewinsky affair was simply the last in the series of a well-funded actions by ultra-right wing groups in this country to destroy those who oppose their plans for the control of this country.

They are being aided and abetted in these plans by a Mainstream Media that ignored major criminal activity during the Reagan administration and continues to ignore the corruption of Congress by special interest groups. Instead of CLEAN AIR for our children and grandchildren, we have BIG TOBACCO and 4,000 young people beginning to smoke each day. Instead of a health care system whose primary goal is the health care of the people of the United States, we have a HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY that views health care as a means to make a great deal of money. In the American West, we see BIG TIMBER corporations still trying to clear cut OUR national forests at OUR expense. In Utah and other western states we see large MINING CORPORATIONS angry at being denied access, for pennies, to natural resources worth billions and which belong to the people of the United States.

And from each of these special interest groups we see millions of dollars going to ultra-right wing members of Congress and to the ultra-right hate groups. When the only institution in this country capable of exposing the agendas of extreme groups aimed at the destruction of a democratic society turns its back on fairness and objectivity, then the country is in danger.

Go back and read the news coverage in your newspapers of the so-called Clinton scandals. Was it balanced and fair? Go back and read the news coverage in your newspapers of the Savings and Loan Scam of the Reagan years -- what you can find of it -- and then ask yourself how between $400 billion and $500 billion dollars of your tax money was siphoned into the pockets of certain nameless individuals and institutions. They are unnamed because the Mainstream Media did not cover the story, it cut too close to home!

After the 1992 presidential election, things changed. After sleeping for twelve years, the Mainstream Media was ready for some red meat -- particularly if it increased the market share in the TV, radio, or print media. And the well-funded ultra-right wing was there, ready and willing to help the Mainstream Media understand who was moral and who was not. Sex was in, economics were boring, and fair play was ridiculed!

When analyzed closely, it appears that many of the first four or five Clinton Scandals were choreographed by the ultra-right, and publicized throughout the country by the Mainstream Media. The Clinton White House did not help itself through its stupidity and incompetence! But a detailed examination of the news articles appearing in the Mainstream Media indicate many stories were fabricated to make the Clintons look as bad as possible. The premise for many articles assumed the Clintons were guilty, and all that the media needed to do was to find the evidence of this guilt. Many of the other articles had a sharp prosecutorial tone, contained outright reporter editorializing, and were carefully organized to present certain selected facts and quotes while at the same time they withheld other facts from the American people. And finally, we had the "high tech lynching" of the Lewinsky affair and the Trial by Leak.

In other pages of this Web site, I will present additional material substantiating many of these charges. In addition, however, I need your help to document the failure of the Mainstream Media to counter the forces of intolerance and greed in this country. If we cannot return the Mainstream Media to its fundamental role of informing the people with fairness and accuracy, then we all need to begin thinking of creating a institution to replace it.

For while the Mainstream Media is the only institution in this country capable of holding all of the other institutions in check by making them ACCOUNTABLE . . . .

In the last analysis, the Mainstream Media is ACCOUNTABLE to the sovereign power in this country -- its people.

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