A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Glen Ford
Even when the evidence of their eyes and ears says otherwise, the corporate media will continue to insist that Barack Obama is an anti-war candidate. Obama's foreign policy belligerence was on display at the South Carolina Democratic presidential debate, revealed under pressure from candidates Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel. However, the exchange - the most newsworthy moments of the debate - was immediately downplayed by corporate media, who are in the reality-suppression business, not the news business.
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Big Media Censor the Kucinich-Gravel Tag Team
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Glen Ford
"The corporate news media are hostile to real news; they actively cover it up."
The first Democratic primary debate was last week, but future debates will likely follow the same pattern, so the South Carolina episode is still worth discussing.
For those who bother to watch, the debates provide a brief glimpse of reality through an otherwise solid corporate media wall of distortions. The most grotesque distortion is that Senator Barack Obama is an "anti-war" candidate. Corporate media are only able to pull this trick off by pretending that the top two "tiers" of candidates are the only ones that count. Tier One is Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. Tier Two is Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson. For all corporate media intents and purposes, Tier Three does not exist. Until recently, it consisted of just one man: Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the only genuine anti-war candidate - in fact, the only real progressive in the race, period.
Kucinich was joined in Tier Three invisibility by former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, who hasn't held office since 1981. He was an early and fierce opponent of the Vietnam War. Gravel is not really a candidate; he is there to raise hell, on camera, with Tiers One and Two, all of whom are war mongers to one degree or another. As a non-officeholder, Gravel doesn't have to worry about the getting along with fellow party members after the elections. As an elder statesman, he must be accorded a modicum of respect when the cameras are rolling. He is perfectly suited to denounce and berate the phony progressives, the false peace candidates, as he did in South Carolina.
"As an elder statesman, Gravel must be accorded a modicum of respect when the cameras are rolling."
Gravel and Kucinich complemented each other, Kucinich describing the so-called War On Terror as "a pretext for aggressive wars" and Gravel pointing out that the United States spends more on weapons than "all the rest of the world put together." Kucinich directly challenged Obama on his willingness to attack Iran. Gravel jumped in with the ferocity of a man with nothing to lose, describing the United States as "the greatest violator of the non-proliferation treaty" and demanding of Obama: "Who do you want to nuke?"
This was the story, the debate-within-the-debate that should have made headlines.
The corporate media couldn't edit out this righteous exchange, the only real news of the entire evening. The tag-team between Kucinich and Gravel was eminently newsworthy, especially Gravel's performance. But the post-debate coverage mostly downplayed the confrontation, focusing instead on the style and supposed nuances of Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. The corporate news media are hostile to real news; they actively cover it up. They will continue to pretend that Obama is an anti-war candidate, and that he and Clinton are both pushing for something resembling universal health care - when of course, they are not. And Dennis Kucinich - he will disappear from coverage until the rules of the debate game dictate that he take his place onstage alongside the other candidates.
We'll have to wait until the next debate to get a glimpse of campaign reality, again.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford (at) BlackAgendaReport.com.
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