Ever since the dawn of 24/7 cable news
networks and the abolishment of the Fairness Doctrine, the media has
been dominated by blowhards whose only interest is pumping up ratings
and stacking the profits at the expense of the American people. Every
story, every narrative is treated as a shockingly controversial topic
that must be explored in segment after segment regardless of its
basis in facts or reality. We have been given an especially
overbearing dose of this profit-driven media template recently, as
“controversies” surrounding the relationship between Barack Obama
and Jereimiah Wright and Hillary Clinton's comments regarding the
assassination of Robert Kennedy received more attention in just one
or two weeks than the 47 million Americans without health care, the
13 million American children living in poverty and the state of our
crumbling national infrastructure could ever hope to receive in a
lifetime. The reasoning is very simple – CNN, MSNBC and Fox News,
among others, know that stories about poverty and education don't
sell advertising minutes.

This disturbing trend has been a long
time in the making. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into
law under President Bill Clinton, gave media conglomerates the
permission they desperately desired to soak up as many newspapers, TV
and radio stations as they could. Now, about ninety percent of
American media outlets are owned by six corporations: News Corp.,
General Electric, Disney, Viacom, Comcast and Clear Channel – all
of which have shown strong conservative biases throughout their
history. Moreover, companies like Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner
have begun lobbying Congress to allow them to charge users for the
content they view on the Internet. In the Bush Era of secretive
government and censorship of dissenting opinions, there is no
battlefront worth fighting more on than preventing the further
consolidation of American media and the subjugation of American
democracy.

In order to understand, though, how we
have gotten to where we are, we must first understand how these
trends started. A documentary, recently re-introduced to the world,
entitled “The Made for TV Election” examines the rise of
corporate influence over the media in the eyes of the 1980
presidential election which pitted Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter
and asks the viewer to look at coverage spanning from the New York
Times to CNN, not as news, but as show-business. Candidates were cast
and tested in such a way, real events handled and timed in such a
way, edited in such a way, dropped or included in such a way that
candidates and real events emerged as television theatre rather than
a serious national discussion on the course of our nation. The Made
for TV Election is hosted by Martin Sheen and the
never-before-broadcast and critically-acclaimed documentary is
receiving attention based on its foresight into the future
destruction of our national dialog. Helen Thomas, the “Dean” of
the White House Press Corps, said about The Made for TV Election,
"Profoundly enlightening... a devastating look at TV's impact on
the presidency."

The Made for TV Election demonstrates,
in a thorough and complete way, how commercial broadcast networks use
polls, gaffes, flip-flops, stereotypes, and show business values to
create winners and losers in a drama of their own making to pump the
ratings--and distract you from what you need to be an informed
citizen and understand what's really happening in America. Norman
Lear, founder of the People for the American Way, says that the Made
for TV Election "should be seen by every American in every city
and town." Howard Rosenberg said that the documentary is
"Pertinent, powerful and persuasive... handsomely produced....
brilliant...”

Thanks to the wonderful power of
grassroots organizers that released the documentary from the grips of
corporate control, for US politics and news junkies everywhere, this
"must see TV" is now available to you on DVD. Order this 93
minute documentary feature and see what The Powers That Be didn't
want you to see, to know what they didn't want you to know:
http://www.themadefortvelection.com.

In order to take back our country, we
must remain vigilant and prepared to fight corporate control of our
media and our democracy. The Made for TV Election was the first
salvo, and remains one of the most potent, in that battle.