The Patrick Henry Democratic Club 2008 Villains of the Year ABC, NBC, CNN, the Des Moines Register

In 2007, Dennis Kucinich was a strong favorite in polling done by most progressive organizations. His support increased as he held his own in the debaters and won debate audiences into supporting him. Two candidates were caught on video plotting to rig the debates and the primary elections by excluding more honest candidates from the debates. The media, run by Republican corporations that supported war and opposed single-payer health care, agreed with the election riggers. Certain news organizations went further than to agree. They proceeded to rig the primaries and caucuses by excluding Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from the debates in an effort to mislead the public into thinking they had dropped out of the race. Learning they were excluded from 9 debates, the first of which was before the first caucus in Iowa, it was clear to Kucinich and Gravel that the media and not the public would choose the Democratic nominee. This is exactly what happened.

The Des Moines Iowa Register opposed single-payer, universal health care and refused to allow anyone supporting single-payer health care to debate prior to the Iowa Caucuses. This prevented the Caucus-goers from knowing they had the choice of voting for Kucinich or Gravel.

ABC tried to exclude anti-war candidate Ron Paul from the Republican Debate in New Hampshire and the Republican Party Chairman stood up for the right of the public to be informed by demanding that the debate include Paul or not take place. When ABC excluded anti-war candidates Kucinich and Gravel from its New Hampshire Debate, not a word was heard from Howard Dean. ABC was a strong promoter of the war and all candidates on the stage at the ABC Democratic debate in New Hampshire had strongly supported the war and war funding through votes in the U.S. Senate.

NBC owner General Electric, the largest producer of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste in the United States did now want Nevadans to know that the only Democratic candidate for President who had voted against Yucca Mountain and its funding was Dennis Kucinich. Nevadans wanted to vote for someone opposed to nuclear power and NBC didn’t want Nevadans to know the man they wanted was Dennis Kucinich. General Electric was also a war profiteer and Kucinich and Gravel, who were excluded from the stage, were the only two candidates who had opposed the war.

War promoter CNN, with the consent of Art Torres and the California Democratic Party, excluded Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from six planned debates which were to precede primaries.

The exclusion from nine debates which falsely led voters to assume Kucinich and Gravel had dropped out of the Presidential race when they hadn’t was a fraud on the American people and served to intentionally mislead the voters. This appears to have been election fraud and election rigging and may have constituted a series of crimes. It is doubtful the beneficiary will have the upcoming attorney general look into this issue.

The result was that the media sold the Democrats a nominee whose background and positions were at odds with the public perception. Democrats are left to hoping that the next President will live up to the media sales pitch. Thwarting democracy was the most villainous act of the year and these news organizations have earned the title of 2008 Villain of the Year.

Young Dems